Giroud and Chelsea: Mixed Emotions

Evening.

Monday hasn't been fantastic as of yet. There's still time though. Perhaps Lionel Messi is sitting in Piebury Corner, munching on 'The Tony Adams' steak and ale pie ready to sign a pre-contract upon completion of his meal.

Perhaps.

On a more real note, there were a few things worth mentioning about our game at the weekend that I didn't get round to. Firstly, the overall performance of Giroud. Arsene spoke of him specifically in the aftermath of the game, noting his improvement in the last year or so and real hunger to do well. Against Palace, it wasn't always the easiest for him. But he stuck at it and took his goal well. He's not the kind of player who you can feed and then sit back and admire, knowing that he has the potential to score from wherever. No. Sergio Aguero and Luis Suarez are two excellent forwards who play in such an unpredictable way and get plaudits for it but our striker isn't like that.

Giroud may not have the ability to make something out of nothing like those two but his overall game is fast making him an invaluable part of our team. The way he can use his strength and technique to hold up the ball with his back to goal is crucial in a side which relies heavily on goals coming from midfield. Delaying the move and keeping possession are key and he's able to do both yet he still has the awareness to dispatch the ball accurately to a Ramsey or an Ozil to keep the attack flowing. In that sense he's as good a forward as any.

It's what distinguishes him from someone like Soldado. The Spaniard hasn't performed to the level expected of him yet and many put this down to a lack of service. But Spurs' lack of goals in the league is no mystery when you consider that he contributes very little to their play. Waiting in the box and finishing when asked is no longer the job of the forward. Giroud knows this and his contribution to attacks as opposed to Soldado's lingering style is one of the reasons why we have scored eleven more goals than Spurs this season in the Premier League.

Another way that Giroud is so helpful is aerially. In the derby against Spurs, he won everything, and I mean everything, in the air. But he's not just some kind of flick-on player. He consistently out-jumped defenders on that day and brought the ball down with his head, chest, face, hair and just about any body part you can think of. And it wasn't a one off. He does it week in, week out and this sort of effort provides another option for a generally average sized side going forward. There are more positives to his game but I don't want to write one big love-in about Olivier so I won't mention them. For the record, we still need a another striker.

At last at the weekend we kept a clean sheet. It was our first in four games in all competitions and first in six in the league. Woj will be particularly happy after his personal contribution to shutting them out. Hopefully it will provide a platform and we'll be a little tighter at the back during our next crucial month.

Sadly that's about where the good news ends. Flamini's groin strain has been tested and he's been given the thumbs down for the Chelsea game. He'll miss three weeks in total and it's no overstatement to say that it couldn't have come at a worse time for the team. As well as Chelsea, we play Liverpool, Dortmund and United before he recovers and his leadership will be sorely missed. His covering presence is a major asset too these days, especially against counter attacking sides like Dortmund so we can only pray that he's back as soon as possible.

Other injury news is bad with several youngsters out of contention for tomorrow. Gedion Zelelam can count himself very unlucky as he may not get another chance to play for the first team this year. It looks like we'll have to play a stronger side than intended. It says a lot about the reputation of this competition that a team such as Arsenal have to be literally forced into playing their best players. I won't say having good players on the pitch is a bad thing but it will be an exercise in management for Arsene. He'll have to judge the situation and weigh up potential injuries to key players with getting a good result.

Mikel Arteta will miss the game after we decided against an appeal for his sending off on Saturday. That's an odd one for me. Knowing Flamini is out, someone of Arteta's experience and temperament could prove crucial at some point on Tuesday. I get that you can receive a fine if the appeal is judged to be opportunistic but it's surely worth a shot bearing in mind how contentious the issue itself was.

I'm not so hopeful of a win tomorrow given that Chelsea's reserves consist of Juan Mata and Samuel Eto'o among others. Even so it's a good chance of getting a rest for some players and a full 90 minutes for others. Thomas Vermaelen more than anyone will want to prove why he deserves a first team spot.

Finally, we heard news today that Serge Gnabry has signed a new 'long term' deal with the club. 'long term' always says five years to me so it's fantastic to have tied down such a promising player for that amount of time. He looks to be the real deal so far and no doubt he'll benefit from the lack of overblown hype that has surrounded Adnan Januzaj in his short career so far.

May do a proper preview of the Chelsea game at some point tomorrow. May not. Haven't decided yet. In case not, here's to a win so good it sinks Abramovic's speed boat. Or something.

For now.

Palace Away: Good Saturday

So we got the win we needed against Palace. I stressed this importance of points over performance yesterday and the message seemingly got through to the team. It wasn't fun at times but nevertheless, the result was satisfactory and I personally found Giroud's goal quite tasty.

John Hartson said on Final Score that it was never going to be an easy game for Arsenal. Coincidentally, this comment came during a period of Palace pressure but even so I disagree. We may have lost in the week and a result may have been important but however disrespectful this sounds, Palace are such a poor team that their dearth of quality makes up for any factors which may otherwise make a fixture against them tricky.

As it was, we started the game with sheer dominance. Our opponents completed seventeen passes inside the first ten minutes which for a home side is terrible. We made 118 in the same period which was a real display of the gulf in quality, Palace simply unable to make any mark on the game. Sadly, Mathieu Flamini missed out on his booking as he was forced off after only eight minutes. He picked up a groin problem and may miss our game with Chelsea in midweek although him being Mathieu Flamini, he won't give his injury permission to rule him out for too long.

Serge Gnabry replaced him with Aaron Ramsey dropping back to accommodate the German. We continued to probe but with no real incisiveness. The fatigue of which Wenger spoke was apparent as we failed to break down the Eagles. Credit to them, they made it difficult, showing a lot more relisiance than in previous games. They came close to scoring too with Damian Delaney (I think) inches away from heading into an open net. Half time came though and it was still 0-0.

I fear for the future of Keith Millen in football. Palace's cartaker manager said this of his half time team talk:

"We said to them we need to make sure we start nice and sharp and play off the front and try and get them on the back foot."

In terms of cliches, he performed like a seasoned pro of the game, reeling them off like a manager with many years of experience. However something must be going wrong if you can give such encouragement to your players only to concede a penalty like they did only 114 seconds into the second half. I hope I'm wrong about Keith Millen because he seemed like a nice guy, even if his name does read a little like an inaccurate anagram of Keith Lemon.

The penalty itself continued the Palace tradition of humourous defending. They went for slapstick this week with Guedioura thundering in on Serge Gnabry and felling him like a cartoon character. Not the dry, witty self mockery of previous weeks but I chortled anyway. Arteta dispatched the spot kick confidently and we had the lead that we just about deserved.

The next incident of note was the sending off of the Spaniard. An Arsenal corner was cleared emphatically leaving Arteta chasing Marouane Chamakh for the ball. Chamakh reached it first and leaned into Arteta causing a clash of legs which left both players on the floor. But despite the fact that the incident occurred just inside our half, Aaron Ramsey had a good chance of getting back to cover and Chamakh himself instigating the contact in full view of the referee, Arteta saw red. It's a card which we may well appeal.

Although the card may have been unjustified, Alan Hansen made a good point on MOTD. Arteta was the last man for the Arsenal corner and he was midway through the opposition half. He noted other occasions when this placement of men has hurt us and I think he did have a good point. You can't play someone offside in their own half so all an opponent has to do is wait on the halfway line and run onto a launched ball to get a free run at goal. Even on Football Manager I leave at least one man back so this is an issue to look at for the coaches.

That knocked us back a bit but Palace were unable to capitalise on their man advantage because... well... they're bad. It still didn't feel like a nervy 1-0 because Palace had scored two goals in their last five. Chamakh had his second shot of the season at some point. I don't agree with Robbie Savage often, but his scathing criticism of the Moroccan's antics and abilities were pretty accurate.

Szczesny made two excellent saves, the one from Mile Jedinak's volley brilliant in particular. But as Palace probed for a late goal, we sucker punched them just as Dortmund did to us in the week. Giroud controlled a long pass well and played it to Ramsey before continuing his run. The Welshman ran towards the box and checked back spotting the arriving Giroud. He then played a delightful dinked ball over the top of the defender in front of him which Giroud gobbled up gladly, heading past Speroni and maintaining his excellent scoring record in London.

That sealed the win and the three points. A good result proved crucial as all our rivals won on Saturday and Spurs may well do the same today.

We can now look towards the League Cup game on Tuesday, safe in the knowledge that we still top the Premier League. It's El Cashico today which means one of our rivals will drop points. I'd 'favour' a City win today but a demoralising 0-0 draw wouldn't go amiss either.

Happy Sunday.

Previewing Palace: Points the Primary Purpose

Hello again.

It's Palace away today and as we know, it's another game that needs winning. I said last week that Norwich at home was a game that should be won at a canter. As it was, we reached full blown gallop at stages but today I'd be happy to just take the points. Bouncing back is key. A good performance with a boost to the goal difference is always nice and seeing as this could be one of our easiest games this year that's a possibility. But no injuries and widespread low heart rates for fans is the primary aim. That and three points of course.

I hate to call any opponent 'easy' to beat but as I said yesterday, Palace are quite literally out of their league. They are Championship quality and a team that comes up as surprise Play Off Champions is always likely to struggle. I look through their squad and see a side with no match winners at this level and lacking the in cavalier spirit that might have made up for this. Their defending, at times, has been quite literally comical. The manner in which they conceded a penalty at Old Trafford is my personal rib-tickler of choice.

We have what it takes to break them down ten time over and while the Cup game at Chelsea midweek will be when most rotation occurs, we're unlikely to field our very strongest side today. Despite this though, our renewed depth means we will put out a team capable of winning the game. Central defense is the only position I worry about with that nasty run of fixtures rearing its head.

With regards to injuries there's nothing new. I cursed the squad last week by noting a refreshing lack of setbacks in recoveries, a statement that directly lead to Theo Walcott further injuring his hamstring and Abou Diaby requiring surgery again. We still have Walcott, Podolski and Ox out but Flamini should return from concussion induced absence. As Arseblog noted, he needs one more booking to rule himself out of the Chelsea game midweek. That would ensure his availability for the frankly more important Liverpool encounter a week today so a yellow for the Frenchman, as if it wasn't already, is a given.

I won't predict our line up but Wenger spoke of fatigue in the week so players who have played a lot (Mertesacker, Ozil, Gibbs, etc.) may expect a rest of some description.

A win is a necessity against the weakest team in the league and without wishing to sound over-confident, I anticipate nothing less.

For now.

Pulis' Potters Philosophy Probable at Palace

Hello again.

I won't go into major depth now because there's not a lot to say. I missed most of our game with Dortmund (damn you Bake Off and your addictive ways) and I'll do a preview to the Palace game tomorrow so in the mean time I'll touch on a couple of stories floating around.

It seems as if Tony Pulis will take over at Palace imminently and I must say I'm sorry. Palace fans were never going to have an easy time this season with a squad as pitifully poor as the one they possess but now it seems that even going out with a bang will be beyond them. I'm not suggesting that Ian Holloway had them playing particularly attractive football but with the appointment of Mr Pulis forthcoming, the only bangs the Eagles fans can expect this year will fit nicely between crashes and wallops. But as a friend of mine suggested, Palace almost deserve a double relegation for being so out of their league.

It's interesting to see the animosity that exists between Pulis and Arsenal. I myself had a grudging respect for him and Stoke when they first entered the league. People who hammered them for playing ugly football didn't understand that for clubs struggling against relegation, any style that got results was beautiful. I think it was the seeming willingness to continue with this Route 1 style and the souring of the relationship between the then Stoke boss and Arsene that turned most Gunners against him. The Aaron Ramsey leg break didn't exactly endear him to us but ultimately it was the two differing philosophies that meant we just never understood each other. Pulis' Stoke were often called a Rugby team and Wenger's Arsenal write poetry on the football field, as displayed by Jack Wilshere's sultry goal last weekend. We're polar opposites.

Palace do seem a club suited to him though. Chamakh is a player capable of playing that most splendid role, the 'Knock-Down' man, that Peter Crouch and Kenwyne Jones fulfilled at Stoke and Jimmy Kebe is a player that typically would fit into his system. They're still going down though. It would take a miracle of messianic proportions to keep them in the league and Tony Pulis ain't no Jesus.

In other news, there's another race row erupting in football. I don't wish to trivialise the situation involving Yaya Toure, but it does seem like the same old story. Player tells of racial abuse suffered, UEFA state how opposed they are to racism and discrimination, club in question receive paltry fine. If UEFA genuinely cared, there would be hard-line measures in place by now to kick out this sort of disgusting behaviour. These incidents occur primarily in European football so the five or low six figure fines that teams get when their fans dish out racial abuse is offset by the money earned by competing in Europe in the first place. An incredible incident that sticks in my mind is Manchester City returning one minute late after half time in a Europa League fixture and still receiving a bigger fine than the team they were playing who's fans hurled racist abuse at the City players. I must say that Michel Platini is really sullying his reputation in the game in his role as European Football's chief big-wig.

There are so many steps that could be taken to stop this sort of thing happening, as it does, on an all too regular basis. If fans of a club are heard chanting offensive songs at a game, why not force the club to double their ticket prices for European games in the next year, with the additional money going to a racial equality charity. If racist bigots were faced with a choice of keeping quiet at games, or being priced out of them altogether then surely they'd choose the later. Proper bans for the teams could equally work. A three year European ban for a club with repeated incidents of this ilk would force them to get their fans in check.

However, it seems that UEFA, for one reason or another, will not take decisive action. And while this remains the case, we can never suppress this ugly side of the game.

Anyway, back tomorrow with that Palace game preview. More light hearted, I promise. Till then my friends.

Friday Summary

Really a quick post this evening because there is not a whole lot to say. I'll do a short preview of the Norwich game later on.

First, the week in Gunnerland, which is not a pun on Wonderland because I try to maintain certain standards. International breaks always are, but on this occasion it seems to have been especially quiet. Even when someone whispers something of questionable importance, people turn their heads in wary shock as if somebody had tried to engage in conversation with them on the tube or bus. They're not sure whether to believe the person as it's been so long since they heard real human voices but they can't help listening to what's being said.

Anyway, the major story was the AGM which took place yesterday. Even that was, dare I say mundane. Which is of course good news when you consider the spiky atmosphere at last year's event. With the charismatic Peter Hill-Wood departed and new Chairman Sir Chips Keswick still finding his feet, the whole event screamed of the corporate varnish of Ivan Gazidis. Not that I'm complaining. After all, an AGM is perhaps the perfect stage for a man such as him. He does seem to be winning the fans over little by little and the 'What the f*** do you do?' brigade were no doubt appeased by his role in the signing of Mesut Ozil.

I'm not a share-holder and the club must have forgotten to personally invite me meaning I wasn't at the event itself. I can say though that the general mood was positive for pretty clear reasons and instead leave you to find reports or tweets or whatever from people who know what they're talking about if you have a real interest in what went on.

In other news, the week went by without incident. A number of players competed for their respective countries again. Notably, Laurent Koscielny completed 90 minutes so may still play this weekend. Mesut Ozil (who is in serious need of a nickname) scored again for Germany as they completed an eight goal umlaut-fest of an away win against Sweden and celebrated his 25th birthday on Wednesday. England qualified for the World Cup with a tidy victory over Poland. Jack Wilshere, who I fear may be forced into a bit-part role for next summer's tournament for one unjustified reason or another, made a short appearance. Other than that, there's not much to report.

So on to the Norwich preview. Injury news is all good with Cazagna (or maybe Sagnorla) declared fit although both are likely to appear from the bench if at all. We still have at least three wide men out which is a tad worrying with a run that reads Chelsea, Liverpool, Dortmund, United on the horizon but I haven't heard of any setbacks which is a rare and welcome relief. With regards to the game tomorrow, it's really one we should win. Every fixture seems to be a 'must win' according to someone or other these days and while I'd hesitate when referring to this match in such a way, it is the sort of game that Champions win at a canter. It'll also be interesting to see how the team come back from the disappointment of failing to beat West Brom.

It's silly to be talking about it in October but there is transfer speculation at the moment. Karim Benzema is a name popping up all over the place and I'm cautiously accepting. It does seem almost plausible: a player of proven quality going through a rough patch and being sold by a top club to fund the Chairman's crippling Galactico addiction. The prices suggested seem more than reasonable too but when all you can think of is paying for the next hit (possibly Luis Suarez) getting value for your belongings is the last thing you would consider. Pray for Perez.

Not much else to say. A comfortable win after a long break would be nice. So here's to it.

Farewell.

Wanted: English Team. Englishmen need not apply.

Evening.

We are of course in the midst of an international break and while it's nice to spend two full weeks atop the table with no chance of moving from there, it's also really, really dull. I'm spending hours upon hours refreshing Arsenal themed news feeds in the hope that a story from a reputable source will pop up and I can spend a few minutes legitimately not doing the other things I'm meant to be doing. But no. All I get are pieces about a fake Dennis Bergkamp twitter account and GMS claiming that letting Gervinho go was a major error. Sigh.

The fuss of the week again centres around Jack Wilshere. Last time it was smoking and now people are crying to their mums because Jack said that the only people playing for England...wait for it...should be English. And I seem to be alone in agreeing with the comments he made.

Now before anyone comes out and proclaims that both myself and Wilshere are racists of the highest order, let's just look at what he actually said

"The only people who should play for England are English people. If I went to Spain and lived there for five years, I'm not going to play for Spain."

I'm sorry to have to state the obvious, but all he has done here is state the obvious. To play for England, you have to be English. That's a given. The only issue that can possibly be discussed is what makes someone English, or any other nationality for that matter. Technically, you could play for a nation if you had lived there for five years after your eighteenth birthday. All Jack was saying is that he didn't really agree with the rule that states that. It's not like he's come out and said 'The only people who should play for England are white people'. Although you wouldn't know it from the hoo-hah this week.

And to be fair, I think he's got a point (about the five years rule, not white people). He never said that players like the already capped pair Wilfried Zaha and Raheem Sterling, who emigrated to this country at ages four and five respectively, shouldn't be allowed to play for the state they grew up in. In fact he endorsed Zaha and athletes with similar stories such as Mo Farah (who is, for the record, my favourite guy out of all guys). Zaha and Sterling both came here with no choice at young ages, learned their trade from our coaches, played for the England youth teams and have made the step up. Jack clearly has no problem with these blokes and neither should anyone.

The issue clearly surrounds that guy from United, Januzaj. I'll skip over the ridiculous levels of hype surrounding him and the fact that by the time he's eligible, he may have become another player whose development is stunted by unnecessary pressure from a young age. In five years this chap could turn out for England. This is clearly different from a Zaha or a Sterling. This is someone who moved to England at the age of 16 not because his family were fleeing a warzone or wanted a better life for their next generation but because he was a skinny kid who could kick a ball well. Much of his development was behind him too and now he's at an age when he might want to be playing international football, he's still not an English citizen. 

This to me is clearly a loophole. The Belgian FA would have a right to feel miffed if a player they had put time and effort in to improving were to jump ship and represent England. But they wouldn't get a penny for their sorrow. Manchester United wanted him to play for their first team in future, so they had to pay. Yet England, a nation to which he has no affiliation, blood relatives or otherwise, want the same thing but for free. It's ludicrous. 

It seems there are two options:

1. FIFA introduce legislation so nations pay each other in compensation for time spent training players. For example, England would pay Belgium a fee agreed by a tribunal in order for Januzaj to play for them.

1. FIFA abolish the 'five year after eighteen rule'. They decide an age by which you must be eligible for a nation by. For example if a player was not nationalised by age 21, they could not play for any other countries than those they were eligible for at that time.

For me, it has to be the second option. Arsene made a similar point when he said that we could not allow international football to become like club football with nations buying passports.

Besides that nonsense, this week has been another uneventful one. Gunners on international duty mainly had a good time. Bendtner, Ozil and Giroud scored five goals in three games between them, the highlight being a sumptuous lob from the Frenchman. There are a few more games to come and if we avoid adding to our injury list we can start to look forward to our game with Norwich next weekend. Those who have seen Breaking Bad will understand me when I say that our treatment room must look like the waiting area outside Saul Goodman's office; an uncomfortable medley of men in neck braces and casts, cramped like a tin of sardines and waiting to see the guy who will make it better.

Anyway. I hope something happens soon so I don't have to write about non-stories like this time.

For now.

I do like Mondays

Evening All.

I wasn't going to write this evening because, well, I couldn't really be bothered. We drew 1-1 yesterday at West Brom. An acceptable, if unspectacular result. Nothing to set the heart racing and not a good enough performance to force me into writing a bespoke piece. But this evening we received a piece of good news, depending on how you view it. I'll touch upon that later and, for the record, I see it as most excellent news.

While I'm here, I'll give a quick summary of our game yesterday. I haven't yet seen highlights of the encounter. The BBC wait until Tuesday to put MOTD2 on iPlayer. Who's still talking about the weekend's games on Tuesday? Ridiculous. I'll watch when I get round to it and in the mean time, keep this report brief.

When the teams were announced, I must admit that West Brom looked a surprisingly good side. Their midfield and attack in particular looked very strong. Mulumbu and Sessegnon are players I have always rated. The former is an especially underrated talent and seems the type of player we could have made a move for in the last 12 months, had he been a couple of years younger. Along with the promising talent that is Saido Berahino and of course Le Sulk, it was clear from the off that the Baggies could earn something from the game.

As I said, I haven't seen even a minute of play so I'm going on the opinion of others when I summarise. It seems like we dominated the early stages before our opponents got into it a bit more. Not much to comment on the first 45 aside from the torrid performance of Jack Wilshere. Playing out of position is not ideal and being thwacked by every team in the land cannot help but he's been a little under par recently. I would have started a more natural winger like Gnabry to really get at West Brom's defence but I'm no expert. Perhaps the boss wanted a more experienced figure playing in a potentially tough game. Nevertheless I disagree with his proclamation that out wide is one of Jack's best positions. He's known for his direct runs but they really do not work on the flanks.

Frustratingly, we conceded on the brink of half time. I hear the marking was suspect and this gets to me because despite our supposed solidness, our defensive record is in fact quite poor this year, most of all in the league. It’s unfair on Woj that we insist on conceding goals he can do nothing about, particularly in light of his fantastic form this season and OCD about clean sheets. In fairness though, Claudio Yacob will not have been the man pointed out as an obvious goal threat in the pre-match preparation.

As much as I'm loath to use the cliché, we started the second half much like we ended the first. Wilshere still seemed to be uncomfortable as a wide man although he showed good spirit to try and rally the team as we emerged to take the field following the break. It's been said time and again, but that is exactly the sort of captain's behaviour that has made the lad a shoe-in for the arm-band when it next changes hands/arms.

When the inevitable change came, it was a surprise to see Aaron Ramsey removed despite his quiet nature on the day. Wilshere would have been the obvious candidate to replace, but major credit to Wenger; it paid off big time. Minutes later, the substitute, Thomas Rosicky, laid off Jack who shot from 30 yards. The ball ended up in the net although it took a nick of Olsson I think on the way. I've heard it described as both a 'small deflection' and 'basically an own goal' but regardless the strike went down next to the name of our man. He called his goal scoring record embarrassing in the week. He should say things like that more often.

In all seriousness, fair play to the guy for bouncing back from his first half performance and indeed the media storm that engulfed him this week. He also implied today that he had in fact been smoking but apologised. I think that's a nice response after that shambolic press release from his cousin or his dog or whoever represents him.

Not much else to report from the match aside from us holding out nicely. It looked like West Brom spurned a few chances but we were comfortable otherwise. Bendtner came on for Giroud just a little too early for it to count as time wasting which kind of harked back to the bad old days of introducing Marouane Chamakh to try and chase a game. That wasn't pretty but Spurs capitulating at home to West Ham made up for it big time. I don't use text speak often when writing, but seeing as I really did LOL on this occasion, it merits a one off inclusion. 

The big news tonight is that Keiran Gibbs has been called up to the England squad to replace Cheryl Tweedy's ex. As much as I've tried to, I just can't dislike the England national team and when one of our players gets a call up, I think it's kind of great. I get that this makes me a bit of a football hipster in a time when it's cool to play hard to get when supporting your own country. (‘I’ve given up watching England. Just can’t keep the ball’ etc.) But Gibbo has been playing so well for such a long time that it makes me happy to know that the big guys at the FA are watching. In all likelihood he won't get on the pitch for these crucial qualifiers but even though he made his debut for the Three Lions a few years ago, it kind of feels like a breakthrough. I really do love the guy. He’s so polite and friendly off the pitch but he leads well on it as well as being a superb defender.

So here's to a bruised rib forcing Cashley (Sorry. It still hurts.) into international retirement and Gibbo going to the World Cup. I'll try and write again soon.

G'Nigh.

Saturday Review

Evening. Sorry about the delay in publishing this first actual post. I've been as busy as the proverbial bee this week and haven't got round to writing anything. But now that's it's Saturday, the undisputed King of the Days, I can kick back, relax, and write about Arsenal. It's also set up quite nicely for a sort of Review of the Week so that's what I think I'll do.

The only way to start is with the game we played this week. We faced the much hyped Napoli and with Thomas Rosicky returning, we were able to field a strong team indeed. Our opponents strangely left out that man Gonzalo Higuain, weakening them significantly on paper, although it later turned out that he was suffering from a minor injury. I maintain that we could have had something special, him and us. I'd pre-nicknamed him, so sure was I that he was destined to become a Gunner. It would have just been so perfect. But hey, not much point dwelling on the past now and even though I wasn't one of those who, quite ridiculously, planned to boo him on Tuesday, I can still take pleasure from this picture found by 7amkickoff. 

I went to the game with my Dad and, despite the general air of confidence around the club right now, he was a little worried going into the contest. I seem to have inherited the recessive optimists gene from him so I, like most other fans, was more assured. Even before kick off, the atmosphere was warm in and around the Emirates. It was a balmy evening, the singing was raucous and we all looked forward to seeing how Mesut Ozil would perform against serious opposition. 

And it was this last fact which made it such an enjoyable evening. You got the sense going into the ground that whatever the result turned out to be, it is ties like this one that make qualification for the Champions League so worthwhile. I think 9/10 Gooners would rather have played this game than face the Champions of Liechtenstein or Lapland or wherever like we have in previous years at this stage of the competition.

This match itself was of course a delight. Many have said that our first half performance was the best Arsenal have played in many a year. I wouldn't quite go that far but no doubt it was a fantastic display. Our Barcelona-esque ball retention early on was outstanding and, to use a cliché, our opponents really were chasing shadows (For those of you adverse to stereotypical turns of phrase, insert 'huffing and puffing like Jack Wilshere' in place of that last remark.)

Ozil was the star of the show with his goal and assist. He made a turn at one point which didn't get any coverage post match but left me physically screaming with amazement at the level of skill involved at the time. Other players performed to a high level as well, with the returning Rosicky perhaps the only player I would rate at below 8/10. Even though away goals count for nothing at this stage, it was good to keep a clean sheet. We just need to make a habit of it now. My praise for Kieran Gibbs will become a feature here because he keeps playing to such a wonderful level. I agree with Arseblog in that I think his sustained omission from the England squad is baffling, despite the high standard set by Baines and Cole.

Overall, it was a near flawless display, the only downside perhaps being Mathieu Flamini remaining un-booked for the entirety of the 90 minutes.

It's been fairly quiet otherwise this week, which is brilliant. No moaning, no groaning and very little to complain about. Voyeuristic it may be, but I'm particularly enjoying this slow Manchester United start to the season while it lasts. It feels like they are a car that broke down when S'rAlex departed. They replaced the engine with a newer, less skilfully crafted model, the kind you might buy from a guy who knows a guy. Anyway the car is trying to start for the first time but it's spluttering away like a rusty old banger. No doubt it will get going in time and drive around in an equally annoying and road-ragey manner as the last incarnation, but while the key is still in the ignition and it remains stationary, we, Arsenal, have rolled up in our Mercedes with our shiny new German hubcaps putting the 'Anderson' model hubcaps on the other car to shame.

Anyhow, there was that whole Jack Wilshere cigarette thing that I alluded to earlier. Some have overreacted, some have under reacted but I felt that Arsene Goldilocks-ed it. He got the tone just right. It is completely unacceptable for a leading Premier League footballer to be pictured with a lit cigarette between his lips. I don't smoke but you don't have to be a genius to work out that if someone has a face like Jack did and the cigarette is glowing orange, the said person is probably inhaling, whatever their PR team has to say about it. I just hope he steers clear of incidents like this in future because any more misdemeanours coupled with his at times...prickly, let's go with prickly, on field attitude and he risks being portrayed a certain way by certain people, which could lose the fella a lot of money in sponsorship deals.

There is not a lot more to discuss. I haven't previewed the West Brom encounter but the injury to Sagna aside, no pressing issues spring to mind. It'll be interesting I suppose to see who of Gnabry and Rosicky plays. The performances of others mean that they are competing for the same spot at the moment and with a rest and good form on his side, I'd favour the German to start tomorrow.

Let's hope for a tidy win at the Hawthorns then. Clean sheet if possible. Until next time.