Tag Archives: Liverpool

The fear of mediocrity at Arsenal

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With two days behind us since the Bayern defeat and two days stretching out in front of us until Villa visit the Emirates, I’m in a reflective mood today. Reflecting on what we currently have with this Arsenal squad and what might become of the team come the end of the year.

We’re effectively out of all competitions. We have serious question marks over the ability of a number of players. Many of us have issues with the structure of how the club is run and the apparent ignorance of the owner to take any kind of lead in driving the club ‘Forward’. Heh, ‘Forward’ is looking like some kind of twisted irony right now, because we haven’t moved anywhere but sideways at best for some time now. Some blame the manager, but I believe the issues are much more than skin deep at the club, so much so that it’s impossible for me to accept that he is the sole root cause of our current issues.

You must know by now that I have long held a belief that Stan Kroenke is sticking around until the club can renegotiate its commercial deals and he can pull out of the club with a vastly inflated share price in just over a year and a half or so. You must also know by now that I see the ageing ‘board’ as nothing more than an old boys club; content to sit in the directors box and enjoy the trimmings but incapable of driving the club towards where it’s potential truly lies. So to say that this is all the fault of Arsene I think is to miss the point. He is to blame for many misgivings, but he shouldn’t be shouldering the blame for all of the problems.

Yesterday, as I was on my way back from work, I started to try and picture a ‘worse case’ scenario for the end of the season. Perhaps it’s endemic of how our season has declined – hope wise – that I automatically started to think of the worst possible outcome for the club rather than the best. But by doing it, I build a quite low foundation of expectation and so as D-REEM said, things can only get better. Anyway, I was trying to picture what would be the worst thing that could happen to Arsenal this season, and what would that mean for next season and for the club. I came up with this:
- defeat to the Spuds
- an inability to catch them on points by the end of the season and a fifth/sixth place finish
- Arsene announces that it’s the end and he doesn’t feel he can perform at the highest level for Arsenal.

Now, that all sounds a bit depressing, I grant you, but is it the worst thing that can happen to a football club? Have we ever not been in the Champions League? Obviously the answer to both of these questions is ‘no’, so given that we’ve had it worse than our current plight, why is everybody so frustrated? Why is there the in-fighting amongst gooners?

I think for me it is a few things. Firstly, we see examples of other once dominant English teams that are now languishing in the middle of the table. Liverpool are the most obvious example, but Aston Villa were a side that only five or so era ago were challenging us for fourth. So fans like me look at those two teams and worry about what will become of Arsenal should we not qualify for the Champions League and all of the wealth that it brings. I think that is where most of this fear of not being in the Champions League comes from. The fear that I have with this current owner and board are that despite all of the educated guessing in terms of cash reserves from educated people within supporters groups like the AST, the board have effectively padlocked the cash to cover the fact that we may not be in the Champions League. That cash then gets used to ‘top up’ the wages of the existing squad and ensure that we don’t feel the strain of not having the Champions League cash.

There are people that will counter my fear above with the retort that ‘we don’t spend the cash anyway, so what difference does it make?’ and I can certainly see that point, but without the cash and without further investment in the playing staff it looks even more unlikely that we’ll be able to get back to the top table of not just English, but European football. The fear is that a succession of failures will put us in the position Liverpool are in, where their squad is so average apart from one or two ageing players, that they effectively have to start again and again. And I firmly believe that with this board and owner that is a very realistic future. I know the addition Premier League TV money comes in at the end of the season, but it comes in for every team, so it doesn’t give us any kind of additional footballing advantage when it comes to buying the best players. Which is another fear. We may not buy the best players and pay top dollar at the moment, but with no lure of Champions League football I fear that it is yet another excuse as to why we don’t go in for players. The club has enough excuses at the moment, we don’t need them to throw another one on the fire to see how hot it burns.

But what of Arsene? Would it be the worst thing in the world if he left the club? Personally, I’m getting to the stage where I wonder whether it would be best for all involved. Get a fresh perspective in and give Arsene the break he probably needs. But again, my fear is that if we continue to spiral downwards in terms of the squad and our league position, that we have to start looking at managers that are at the Roy Hodgson and Brendan Rodgers level. Somebody even asked me yesterday if I’d consider Roberto Martinez as the next Arsenal manager. ROBERTO MARTINEZ. Let me allow that to sink in for you for a minute…..

Quite often I don’t really know which direction my blogs are going to go when I write them. I just have thoughts about Arsenal and want to get them down on proverbial paper so I can reflect and review later on, and I suspect this blog has sort of moved into that realm, but to try and bring this back into some form of structure I’ll go back over my general thoughts in some form of summation:

I don’t fear Arsenal not being in the Champions League.

I don’t fear Arsenal without Arsene (although as little as three years ago that was certainly not the case – it shows how much we have declined) any more either.

What I do fear is that with this current board and management that we will descend into the bowls of mediocrity in the English game and find it very difficult to recover. I really hope we’re not seeing the start of that.

Until tomorrow people.

You can’t buy a winning mentality

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The manner of the fightback from Arsenal yesterday evening massively belies the way this result is perceived by gooners.

Before Giroud nodded in the first of the two goals that ultimately earned Arsenal a point, I looked around the stadium mournfully and wondered how this great club had fallen apart so spectacularly. Defensively last night was so shocking that at times I simply looked away.

For the first goal there were literally four separate mistakes that led to the goal which was, to be fair to Mertseacker, an unlucky deflection. Sagna fell over and Vermaelen fresh air kicked, leading to a Suarez goal that pretty much set the defensive tone for the evening. It was further hampered by Gibbs’ injury forcing him to limp off (cue the six week injury one day before the deadline) and leave the Brazillian to play out the rest of the game. I am really shocked at how quickly his fall from grace has happened. There was one point in the second half where he was nutmegged by Stewart Downing. Yep, that isn’t even a typo. Stewart Downing left him on his arse.

Santos is indicative of this team I’m afraid. Far too thin when it comes to quality, but in Santos’ case certainly not far too thin, and far too susceptible when it comes to any kind of defensive solidity. All of the back five looked like they’d never played with each other and all of them had varying degrees of ‘heart in the mouth’ moments during the game. How Carl Jenkinson must be feeling after seeing Sagna waltz into the team time after time is beyond me.

I don’t want to keep harping on about our transfer business, but Arsene making comments that we have two players for every position is so ridiculous it’s bordering on insulting. We might have two players for every position, but two players that are of the required quality to heave this team into the upper echelons of English football, we have not.

A few weeks ago I said we’re turning into Liverpool. Well last night was an opportunity to show that we’re not that bad. Actually we are. Defensively at least. This is a Liverpool team that I wouldn’t even call bang average. Jack Wilshire roasted Steven Gerrard – their talisman – on a number of occasions. He really is becoming a champion. A bundle of fury that skips beyond players with consummate ease. Yet he cannot do it alone. Sometimes he must feel like he has to I’d expect.

I titled this blog ‘you can’t buy a winning mentality’ and despite the need for signings, it is becoming clear to me that there is something wrong with the way this team are mentally prepared for football matches. How can we be so poor until we get punished with one or two goals? How is it only then that we react? It is appalling that we are just waiting to go behind before we start to act and it makes you wonder if the new tactic should be to kick off the first half against Stoke and part like the red seas to give them a goal head start so that we have something to chase for a long period of time. I’m afraid this is where the manager comes in and this is where he should be earning his pennies. He has to be responsible for preparing the team and he has to be the one who ensures they are at it from the off. He is clearly failing in that department.

Arsene’s comments about the strength of the squad are laughable. It is because of his lack of faith in the ability of the squad that we couldn’t turn a draw into a win. With fifteen minutes to go, I started watching some of the players off the ball and there were a few of them that looked absolutely dead on their feet. Yet despite some energetic warming up from some of the players on the touch line, no subs were forthcoming. Liverpool were there for the taking and yet again we failed to be bold enough to get the victory needed.

A victory tonight would have put us to within two points of the spuds. yet we slipped up yet again. I’ve lost count of the number of conversations I’ve had with gooners about how we can’t afford not to take our chances. How results like tonight are the glimmers of hope that see us think that Champions League football is a realistic achievement for next season. Yet we slip up time and time again. Tottenham will not fall apart like they did last season. We can’t expect lightning to strike twice. Yet we are hoping not just for that, but also for Everton to slip up as well.

Yet despite the negativity, despite the gloomy facade I present to you this day, there were still positives we can draw. The fight back of the players was admirable and showed a level of spirit in the team. The goals from Giroud and Walcott were well taken and add yet more to the tally of strikers scoring. Walcott now has 12 I believe, whilst Giroud is on 14 and is looking like a haul of 20 for the season is certainly achievable. I’ve been advocating another striker coming in all January and whilst I still want that to happen, you can’t argue that the attackers aren’t chipping in with their fair share of goals.

The problem we have is that the strikers are having to get us out of the mess that the back five are getting us in.

Liverpool: looking for a league double

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Hi-di-ho neighbourhinos!

Game day – mmmm – love it. All the frustrations of transfers lost or board ineptitude are washed away and stowed until at least 10pm tonight, dependent on the result at the Emirates, as all eyes look towards the Highbury area for the hope of an Arsenal victory this evening.

It is Liverpool that make the journey to London on this Wednesday for an evening under the floodlights at Ashburton Grove. A Liverpool side that were humbled by Oldham at the weekend. A Liverpool side that have spluttered at times this season. A Liverpool side that is desperate to recapture the league title and return to the summit which they believe is their rightful place.

I believe it is a dangerous time to play Liverpool. Before the weekend they had started to put together the form you’d expect of a big side in this division. A defeat away to Man United aside, Liverpool had put in a few really good displays, not least against Norwich at home. They smashed Norwich the weekend before last and had they manage to overcome Oldham there is no doubt that they would have come into this game as the form side. So after that defeat I’m really not sure what sort of Liverpool team we’ll play tonight. Will it be the one that capitulated to the most basic tactical strategy in English football – massive target man providing knock downs and problems at set pieces? Of will it be a wounded animal that is ready to prove a point to their fans? It’s fair to say that we won’t cause Agger and Skyrtel the same aerial problems that Oldham did, but we may have more joy with our mobility on the flanks. It will be a different challenge that they face this evening.

For us it’s the chance of a league double over Liverpool. I can’t even remember the last time we did that. We’ve tended to have a lot of draws against them – as your expect with two sides that are relatively even matched over the years – punctuated with the odd win, but the home form has been generally quite good. Unless you take the game last season. It was a poor Asenal performance in what turned out to be Nasri’s last game for the club and a team that was in need of restoration come August 31st. It’s a different type of Arsenal now, but still one not without its faults. Our consistency has been, well, not really there at all. We’ve spluttered almost as much as the scousers, which is why this game is even more difficult to predict.

If Arsenal come out with the mentality of the second halves against Man City, Chelski and West Ham, then we have all the ingredients of a three-point cake. If we see Arsenal of the first halves this season then we could find ourselves out of reach of Liverpool by the time the oranges are divvied out in the dressing room during the interval.

I think Arsene will stick to the side that performed against West Ham. Ramsey will get his third game in a row to show he can play the ball-winning quarter back role and will most likely be accompanied by Jack and the return of Santi. Up top I think we’ll see Walcott recalled for The Ox who, whilst I heard he had a good game against Brighton, the importance and impact that Theo had must surely lead to him regaining a starting berth.

Defensively we still have Vermaelen out – a shame because he had been good in the last couple of games before he picked up that knock against West Ham – which will mean Koscienly will stay in the side. His form this season has probably been reflective of his appearances; sporadic and infrequent. Neither the two centre backs or Szczseny covered themselves in glory against Brighton, but my hope is that back-to-back games will have given them more time to adjust to each others styles and recapture what they had last season.

On the flanks I think we will most certainly see a change from the weekends starting eleven. Andre Santos was turned and flipped more times than a Shrove Tuesday pancake, so I’ll be a monkeys uncle if Gibbs doesn’t start. On the other side the difference between the two right backs is less clear-cut. Jenkinson’s stock has risen almost as rapidly as Sagna’s has fallen, but I would be surprised if Carl stays in the side. I think Arsene has a lot more faith in Bacary than some of the fans right now.

Arsenal need this victory. We have to follow up our win against West Ham with a win against Liverpool. We can’t afford to keep slipping up if we want that we’ll coveted fourth spot. The Spuds are not going to have the same capitulation they had last season and they know it, so we have to make sure that we close the gap on them now.

Come on Arsenal!

Arsenal turning into Liverpool?

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I’ve had a long weekend where I haven’t been able to post any thoughts on The Arsenal and due to family commitments, haven’t even been able to watch the game yet, so in terms of a post match post mortem of the team, I think I’ll leave that to other more established and accomplished bloggers than myself. I’ve read a few this morning and get the gist of the result. Ultimately it doesn’t sound too pretty – Jack Wilshire aside.

Do you know what seems to be an every increasing possibility and also a worry for me? That Arsenal tread the same path that Liverpool have trodden over the past few years. The scousers have had a number of years with not augmenting their existing talent with additional players, I steadying continuing to buy duds to the extent that they are a top eight team now, not a top four team, which then perpetuates their problems in terms of transfers because they can’t really compete with teams that are in the Champions League.

Ha! Champions League qualification. We look so far from a team that will make that fifth ‘trophy’ that it is scary. I’m not specifically talking about yesterday – as I said, I didn’t watch the game – I’m talking about the draws against struggling teams, the defeats against better teams than us and sometimes teams that are clearly limited in their ability but outshine us in their endeavour (Swansea and Norwich anyone?). Right now I cannot see us getting that fourth spot. We are up against more consistent teams like the Spuds (painful to say, but I’m afraid it’s true) and next week we could be even further behind after we have played Chelski.

Does anybody expect us to beat them on Saturday? My expectations of this team are pretty low at the moment. If we don’t beat them, I’m pretty sure we’ll be nine points behind the Spuds by Sunday evening. It’s not an insurmountable lead, but with a team that has made a habit of fluffing its lines against lesser opponents, you wouldn’t really fancy your chances.

And the news that Mikel Arteta is out for three weeks only pours more hot oil on to the fire of despair surrounding the club at the moment. He is the player that keeps us ticking over and has been brilliant ever since he signed. His absence during a fixture congested period effectively means he’s serving more like a six week injury absence with all the games he’ll miss. Who do we have in the squad that can replace him? Who indeed; a semi-fit Diaby, who will need a couple of weeks to find his form, and Coquelin who was not preferred to a half-fit Diaby yesterday.

It is a worrying state of affairs, but not as worrying as the increasing probability that we won’t be making any signings any time soon. When Arsene was asked about players yesterday he made a comment about ‘good luck’ finding players with Mikel’s qualities. I’m sorry Arsene, but that is a manipulation of the situation. We don’t need like-for-like players in some positions, we need other quality options, like a midfield enforcer. There are plenty out there and most are within your grasp, yet you turn your nose for reasons only you can answer for. It’s pathetic that we have hit the halfway point in January and we’re not bothering to address the clear deficiencies in our squad.

That’s all from me today. Catch you tomorrow.

Liverpool preview: unknown quantity makes for nerves

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Good morning,

My weekend match previews must have the shortest shelf life of any blog I do. I’m sitting here at 10.30 on a Sunday morning about to preview the Liverpool game at 1.30pm – a mere three hours away. Part of my wonders why I do it; perhaps it would be better to wait until after the game to report on post match thoughts and musings rather than pre, but that is something that I rarely believe I’ll be able to do. Especially if The Arsenal have lost. I like to try to be as calm and composed in my blogging as possible and the period after the weekend’s action – probably hours one to five – are not good times to be spilling your emotions into the ether.

So although I know this blog will be redundant in six hours time, at least I’ll not feel inclined to double my blogging efforts for this Sunday. If we win, lose or draw, I’ll be able to take stock, reflect, and analyse tomorrow morning.

This is also the first time I’ve blogged since Thursday. Apart from my honeymoon earlier this pre-season, that’s pretty much the longest I’ve gone without blogging, but it simply had to be done I’m afraid. I simply lost all interest from Transfer Deadline Day and all of the carnage that follows. The foaming of the mouth that I saw from some Arsenal fans after what was admittedly a disappointing day for us was a little bit too much for me to take, so I stepped back and decided to let the social media world pass me by for a few days. Yes, i logged in occasionally on to Twitter, but by in large I have managed to save myself from the pulsing vein-throbbing anger of some people. Thankfully, I had a more than able deputy in the form of Oaf12 to spill some of his Arsenal thoughts on to the blog, so thanks to him for his timely intervention.

So with the transfer window slamming firmly shut we can all breathe a sigh of relief and get back to matters that…well…matter. A game is on today believe it or not, and I for one cannot wait. It’s a trip to Merseyside that is in the offing this Sunday lunchtime and we are all hoping that, having gorged themselves on a liverbird or two, the Arsenal players can return to the sanctity of their North London/Hertfordshire homes knowing that they have done their job. But it is quite a job to do and will prove a very stern test I can tell you. There has only ever been once that I have not felt uneasy when playing Liverpool at Anfield - the 4-4 draw which demonstrated the little Russian’s ability to have minimal impact on a game apart from banging in goals. That was the day for me that we saw the first of the now all too familiar Andrei Arshavin ”waddle-walk-waddle-shoot-score-waddle a little more” style. Back then it didn’t matter because he bagged goals in big games. But with the goals drying up, the patience has now all but evaporated and I think we’ll see Andrei leave for Zenit over the next week (the Russian transfer window remains open).

The reason that game has stood out for me is, as I mentioned above, that it was the only game when it didn’t really matter to me as much. Liverpool were fighting Man Utd for the league and we were pretty much guaranteed Champions League football, so the result didn’t really make a lot of difference. It was great to see some of his goals, but I was nonplussed about the final result. Every other game before and since that match has been different however, and in about two hours time I’ll be a nervous wreck with cold feet and hands, as all of the blood in my body is pumped via adrenaline to the main organs.

Yes folks, I am nervous today. Nervous because Liverpool are a completely unknown quantity under Brendan Rodgers. They are still finding their feet with Rodgers as manager and have suffered a couple of disappointing results, whilst putting an impressive performance last weekend against the current champions, unlucky not to come away with a win. It seems par for the course that Liverpool are always up for the big games at home against the top opposition – it is the smaller teams that shut up shop at Anfield that they struggle to break down. so is there a case for hitting Liverpool in a similar style today? To form a solid defensive foundation and hit the scousers on the counter attack? After all, whilst the sharp end of the team has ben notably lacking, the admission by most of the football pundit fraternity that we look more assured at the back could preclude such a performance. However, after two games where the opposition has been happy to settle for a point against us, I don’t think we’ve seen the metal of the Arsenal back four truly tested yet, so I am skeptical that we could perform such a counter attacking smash and grab.

Liverpool will line up against us without the defensive stability that Lucas brings, but with the cultured passing range of a certain Nuri Sahin and, coupled with the most cheatiest player on the planet Luis Suarez, plus ‘He’s English so he’d never dive’ Steven Gerrard, there are plenty of reasons to be nervous for us today.

Our side will probably be without Szczęsny today, which will mean another chance for Mannone to prove his worth and perhaps stake a claim to be number two (he he). Although he dealt with everything that was thrown at him (literally) last weekend at Stoke, he was largely untroubled, so I’d be lying if I told you I’m not nervous about him dropping a clanger. He looks like a good, solid Championship goalie, so the fact he’s in starting for us at Anfield feels me with a bit of trepidation. Let’s hope he values clean sheets more than Stan Kronke values quiet nights in.

Apart from that I expect the team to stay largely the same s the one that faced Stoke. The only exception i think the boss will make will be to bring Theo on in the wide right position. He’s the type of player that always plays better when he has plenty of green grass in front of him to run into and with the fact that we all know Liverpool will be pushing forward in search of goals, there could be space for him. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found that away from home, Theo blows hot or cold. He tends to be a little more consistent in the big games for us at home, but I’m hoping that he replays that great Champions League assist for us where he ran most of the length of the pitch to set up Adebayor a few years ago, and recaptures that performance today.

I’m hoping we can get our scoring boots on today and get off the mark against Liverpool, but to be honest if there was another 0-0 draw it wouldn’t bother me too much. Our start to the season is by far the toughest of all of the teams at the top and, whilst many will look at the fact we’re already playing catch up to Chelski, City and United, we should all be mindful of the fact that those teams have all played ‘winable’ games at home so far. We’ve played a tough Sunderland team and will have played Liverpool and Stoke away already by the end of play today. That’s why a draw will not be the worst result in the world and we can take it and focus on trying to beat Chelski in a fortnight.

Until tomorrow.

Is that the sound of momentum?

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Morning you fabulous people. I’m sure you’re all waking up to a lovely day today, irrespective of the weather. For gooners everywhere, tis a grand Sunday after a great victory yesterday.

We travelled to Anfield off the back of a thrilling victory against our arch rivals last weekend and ploughed head first into another very tough match against a team with aspirations of a top four finish. Liverpool were also coming off the back of a morale boosting cup final victory and so their confidence will have been just as high as ours. As the team sheets were read out on the radio before the match yesterday, we were boosted by the knowledge that the Liverpool side playing against us would have to cope with the absence of Glen Johnson, Stephen Gerrard and the injured Daniel Agger. As we drove from the Management’s family home pre-kick off I couldn’t help but muse that this is a similar situation that we found ourselves in when the Scousers visited the Emirates earlier in the season, albeit theirs was a scaled down equivalent – many of their first team players were still available. But the absence of a few key ones, plus Bellamy on the bench, meant for a happy man pre-kick off.

As the first half wore on the happiness turned to frustration, as Liverpool edged us in pretty much all elements of the match. Apart from a good save by Reina from Theo Walcott within the first ten minutes, the Liverpool goalkeeper was a spectator, which was certainly more than you could say about our young stopper in between the sticks. Wojcech Szcsceny had clearly decided he needed a double helping of his Weetabix before the game started, because he was in fine and commanding form, denying Liverpool on numerous occasions and most certainly keeping us in the game. Of course we are Arsenal, which means there is a cast iron guarantee that one of two things will happen – we get unlucky, or we shoot ourselves in the foot. Of course, both happened in that first half. Even the heroics of the young Pole couldn’t stop that.

After around 18 minutes of sustained pressure, the world’s biggest reprobate Luis Suarez decided he wanted to add ‘diver’ to his list of ongoing unfavorable personality traits. Working hard to get through the Arsenal defence with a neat one-two, he shifted the ball past Sczsceny and decided to swan dive over the youngster to try to get his side in front. The only thing that was worse than his blatant cheating in my mind was the fact that Sky have tried to exonerate him by claiming that there was contact. Even if he was tickled on the shin by Wojcech, there is no way there was enough contact to warrant his movement. It was a dive. Plain and simple. Thankfully however, the Pole was doing his best Gandalf impression and told penalty taker Kuyt “YOU SHALL NOT PASS” saving first from the penalty, and then from the rebound. Brilliant stuff.

Suarez

Suarez attempts a triple pike with a twist

 Liverpool were ahead shortly after however, through that other cast iron Arsenal guarantee: Lady luck being unfaithful. As Gibbs got lost further up the field, Liverpool broke, finding Henderson on the right hand side, who put a low cross into the box for Koscienly to slice into his own net. It was pretty basic stuff and the Frenchman will be disappointed with the end result.

Liverpool pressed for a second and possibly should have had it when Suarez hit the post first, then Kuyt flicked the ball past Scz only for it to trickle against the inside of the far post from a Downing cross. In boxing terms, we were on the ropes. But in keeping with the boxing analogy, we have a sucker punch in us. A real good one too. He’s called Robin Van Persie. On 31 minutes Sagna found the Dutchman with a great cross and in got beyond Carragher to head us level. At half time we were level and as Wenger pointed out afterwards, we probably should have been a couple down.

The second half didn’t see Liverpool put us under as much pressure as the first, but they were still a threat and always had me nervous. So when the added time board came up saying eight minutes I feared a last-minute Liverpool goal to break our hearts. And had they got it I don’t think many would have complained. However, having seen our team dominate games and get sucker punched enough time, perhaps we finally got to see what it looks like on the other side of the fence, as RvP volleyed home an exquisite finish from a ball over the top by Alex Song. He is getting a lovely little habit of popping up with assists at the moment. Lets hope it continues.

Job done. Six points from two games. And with Chelski being beaten at West Brom the day would have been perfect were it not for the two injuries – one from Arteta as Henderson (deliberately in my opinion) clashed with the Spaniard. He was stretched off with suspected concussion. Lets hope he’s back soon and its nothing serious. The other injury was to Abou ’Mr Glass’ Diaby who came on for Arteta only to hobble off with five minutes to go with a suspected hamstring. I have to say, it does look more and more likely that we will never see Diaby establish a regular position in the side and with the wage bill already as sky-high in the side as it is, we have to look at offloading him soon.

Another slightly saddening thing to see is the Theo Walcott conundrum. He was largely anonymous today and after a great second half on Sunday it would have been nice to see him have back-to-back stellar performances. But sadly his form is like his sprinting, in very short bursts deadly, but he just can’t do it enough.

RvP is something special though, isn’t he? At times he’s carried this team on his back single-handedly and once again yesterday he proved his importance. New deal please Arsenal. Come on guys and get it sorted. He has helped to craft out some form for us and dare I say it, perhaps even whisper it, but it looks like we’re finally building some momentum. I’ve said previously that we need to win a couple of ‘big games’ in a row and we’ve done that this last week or so. It’s vitally important we carry our momentum to Newcastle at home in just over a week and then Everton away a few weeks later.

So today we sit three points clear of chelski having played two much tougher games than them, and we’re on the coat tails of the spuds. Good stuff and making for a happy way to start the working week tomorrow.

Until then.

Pressing to achieve Anfield 89 repeat

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Happy Friday fellow worshippers of the Gun. Hope it finds you in fine fettle.

In some form of parallel twist of fate I actually picked up a minor groin/abdominal injury playing five-a-side football on Wednesday, one day before RvP supposedly picked up his knock. The good news for him was that he was able to shake off his slight concern, where as mine is making me shrivel up my face like a prune every time I try to dismount from my bed in the morning. But then again, he is a whole year younger than me so I guess it’s his recovery time that is feeling the benefits (yeah right).

Anyway, Arsenal, that team we all adore. Those boys in red and white that are as good as some form of explosive and don’t even get me started on Harry Redknapp’s mother. Today Le Boss will give his pre-scouser presser and no doubt he’ll give us an update on the returning players from international duty. Having heard that Vermaelen played a full 90 minutes in midweek I’m sure Wenger will not be 100% happy with the Belgium national team manager, but I guess one positive we can look at is that he should be fully fit for tomorrow. Unless Gibbs has literally fallen apart humpty dumpy style, he’ll continue in the team as well and then the only other injury concern will be the fitness of Rosicky. Hopefully we’ll see the spirit and urgency of Sunday’s game repeated tomorrow.

I think that word ‘spirit’ is quite crucial. We have to show the desire and passion to go to Anfield as if we are about to be knocked out of a competition, or dare I say it, it was the last game of the season and we had to win in order to win the league. Evoking those memories of Anfield 89 would be mighty handy come 12.45pm tomorrow. A good old 90 minute tape of the game back in the 80s to remind the players of how much effort it takes to win a league, but also the great rewards you get as a result. That is what we want and that is what we need. All too often we have seen the players just look, well quite frankly, not up for it. Now is the time when they have to show that we can actually win back-to-back big games. We haven’t done it for countless seasons so let’s make a start of some kind of recovery tomorrow.

For me the biggest factor in whether we win the game will be that magic word ‘pressing’. It’s the easiest thing in the world to do providing you have the fitness. You don’t need the ball control of Lionel Messi, you don’t need the range of passing of Fabregas, you just need to have a good pair of lungs and fit enough legs to chase down your opposition and make them fall foul of that tennis phrase ‘unforced errors’. If every player chases down their marker or the nearest player to them, the opposition will make mistakes. We’ve seen it with other teams doing it to us and we’ve seen our team do it to the opposition. Unfortunately though, not often enough. On Sunday, after we went two down against the old rivals, every single player stood up to be counted and said in the most Gandalfy (Lord of the Rings Wizard not to be confused with the former Libyan dictator) way “YOU SHALL NOT PASS”. That is what we need tomorrow. We have the players. They have the fitness. No we just need the application so we can head back home with three points tucked neatly underneath Arsene Wenger’s arm.

Just finally from me today, some news emerging that Niklas Bendtner fancies a bit of Russia in the form of Anzhi or Zenit. To be honest, providing they cough up the roubles I couldn’t care less. Bendtner might be a better option than Chamakh or Park but he’s clearly shown he doesn’t want to be deputy and so we should say thanks and cheerio. We need to get players like that off the wage bill and by sending him far away next season it also reduces the possibility of him to get the same disease every other player gets after leaving the club: the ability to score goals against us on a frequently annoying basis.

More on the match tomorrow. Peace out home boys (and girls).

Midweek dreaming: good time to play top teams

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Morning all.

I am beginning to grow more than a little bit irked with the Urban Fox. Off to the in-laws for a couple of days so had to put the rubbish out early. Apparently this is tantamount to a massive neon sign to foxes that they can come and gouge themselves on a couple of apple cores and some gone off ground beef.

Anyway, enough of the latest four-legged enemy I’ve made this week, let’s talk gooners.

I heard a nasty rumour that there might have been some form of football matches being played last night. Maybe I’m wrong or maybe I’ve dreamt it, but I was too busy having a blinding five-a-side game with some mates to either notice or care. Probably because these ‘so-called’ matches were international friendlies. Unless the clubs all did a lucky dip and different players played for different teams in different colours. Apparently RvP was seen with a black shirt, shorts and socks on. I can picture it, but I don’t really believe it. Not do I think it will suit the guy. He looks much better in red and white. NORTH London red and white.

But I’ll play along with you and assume that there were some games on yesterday. So the remainder of this blog will be a hypothetical one…

The positive news would be that by the sounds of it, no Arsenal players will be coming back wrapped in bandages, hobbling on crutches, or being chauffeur driven back to London Colney in old cardboard boxes with the red lettering ‘FRAGILE’ stamped on the side. A quick scout on Twitter for people who were watching these ‘behind closed doors’ games seems to suggest so. Not that I want to place all of my faith in a wholly unreliable social network, but a quick scout of news now and other online searches seems to bring up no results, which is always a good thing because Arsenal are normally the best team in the land at playing ‘International Injury Bingo’. If we were in a 1980s game show with a bald northerner telling us to through darts to win a speedboat we’d have probably knocked out some of the lighting.

So hopefully we’ll hear good news on the injury front from Arsene tomorrow. Well, apart from Abou Diaby, who I’m told broke his coffee table whilst watching Les Bleus. He’s anticipated being out for another six weeks.

So with players returning to the squads today and tomorrow all attention will be on the Premier League once again this weekend. We face a tough trip to Anfield with a buoyant Liverpool team sure to be up for the game after their Carling Cup victory. Although Steven Gerrard limped off yesterday, he is not an Arsenal player, so expect to see him trotting on to the pitch on Saturday lunchtime. I’ll do a proper preview over the coming games, but one thing I think is positive from this weekends game is that we are playing a team that will have the same issues as us with fatigue. I actually think that playing a team at the top after an international break is preferable to playing one in mid-table. The main reason behind this school of thought is that all of the top teams will have had the majority of players playing midweek. So rather than play a team that has predominantly been sitting around resting, we play a team in a similar situation to us. Of course, I know that in today’s game the smaller teams also have plenty of internationals, but I’d wager that the majority of teams have a larger number of non-international players than the top teams. So I am hopeful that we are all in the same boat and that we don’t get another post match interview where Le Boss bemoans fatigue. Because if we don’t win you can bet Kenny won’t talk about it.

Anyway, one player who hasn’t been affected by the International break is Mikel Arteta. So given that Johan Djourou was off with Switzerland somewhere (allegedly) the PR office decided to recruit a temp in the mean time and Mikel was more than happy to lend his voice to a recent hot topic: the signature of Robin. He thinks he’ll stay and said “I do not see Van Persie leaving Arsenal,”. Well, I’m glad that’s cut and dry then. Sign your contract Robin and we’ll get on planning for next season. All jokes aside, I think it’s interesting that a couple of players have come out with similar statements over the last few days. First Scz, now Mikel. I don’t think it makes much difference in terms of the situation, but it’s good to know that the players are sending these positive vibes out and hopefully it convinces the Dutchman that his future is at Arsenal. However, I think there are a few more factors than player and money that will turn this equation into the scenario we all want. Champions League and signings will make a difference.

And speaking of signings, the noises out of Germany still point to a Podolski exit from Cologne. I don’t want to be seemed to fanning the transfer flames, but Cologne are obviously also starting to make the noises of his exit to soften the blow to their own fans. Interesting stuff but not relevant until June so let’s just make sure any players coming in have Champions League football to ply their trade with next season by doing the business over the next three months.

Have a happy Thursday all.