Stupid Swans and the Solution

I don't know what it is about Swansea City, but they have an unnerving ability to bring Arsenal to our knees.

Be it the 1-1 draw at home last season, in which the Swans were gifted a point thanks to a last minute Gunners OG; or the 0-2 defeat, also at home, which, as I've written previously, represented a personal nadir in the bleary 2012-13 season; or even the 3-2 loss at their place the season before which was just crap.

I disagree with those who say that faith in the manager is at 'an all time low'. Think of Villa last year and the toxic abuse launched at Wenger like puss out of a freshly popped pimple. Think of the 8-2. In spite of this, there is a palpable sense listlessness around the club, with the prospects for this season having been reduced from a genuine and sustained effort to win all four major competitions, to watching Alexis Sanchez in wonder and accepting a set of disappointingly mixed results. The disenchantment, never far from the surface at Arsenal, is present also.

I write, of course, in the aftermath of one of our most demoralising losses of recent times, definitely the worst of this draw-heavy season. This loss was a seemingly perfect storm, managing to highlight with impressive efficiency just about every flaw present at the club right now. You don't really need me to list them, but, for the sake of putting it all on the table, the reasons for the loss were, in no particular order:

1. A complete lack of form throughout the spine of the team. Think Santi, Rambo, Per, MatFlam. And yes, I've resorted to using nicknames (some of them made up) to soften the blow as I point out that half of our team are playing like Eboues.
2. Players playing out of position. That's three of the back four don'tcha know.
3. Injuries to key players at key times. 
4. Inconceivable collective naivety from a team who should know better coached by England's longest serving manager.
5. A lack of quality in certain areas compounded by not sourcing players of adequate quality when they were available.
6. Baffling substitutions from the boss in lieu of his alienation of the fringe players. Poldi. Rosicky. Campbell.
7. A tactical system which, since it's introduction at the start of the season, has brought three, perhaps four, genuinely dominant and successful displays.
8. Hugh Jackman (One for all you Scrubs fans out there. Anyone?)

In about September, I theorised that there were two potential reasons for our lukewarm start to the season. The first was that the manager genuinely didn't know what he was doing, that he was blinded by stubbornness to such an extent that he wasn't making the necessary changes to get the best out of the team (changes that, for the record, we could all point out to him e.g. Ozil wide.). 

The second reason was that some sort of master plan existed. There had to be some solid reasoning behind the change of tact from last season. We didn't see the match preparation, the video analysis, the gym work, the recovery sessions or any of the factors which actually effect team performance on match day. The idea was that Wenger had changed something significant here and, despite the early bumps, had confidence enough to persist with the system, safe in the knowledge that the work behind the scenes would ensure it's eventual success. Results would pick up, discipline would improve, injuries would become less frequent.

Being an optimist, I was inclined to believe in option two. But results have continued to be uninspiring and whether I was right in the first place has kind of lost all significance. When a ship is sinking, you don't keep heading towards the rocks. You do what is required to put things right. It's the same with Arsenal. What were doing is not working. That's clear to see. So why would we continue with the same system and players who put things wrong in the first place? There comes a point where swallowing pride and acting to correct a worrying trend should take preference over proving that a currently detrimental system can work.

And it's not as if this is overly reactionary. Our results this season read WWDDWDDLWLDWLDWWWDL. Never more than three wins in a row. Never more than four games between draws. That's not poor form. That's a sustained run highlighting something that isn't working, something that needs changing.

The good we know Wenger can and will change a system at the drop of a hat. Losing at Spurs was the catalyst for a change in system that took effect in the very next game and lasted the best part of a year. Although I struggle to see him dropping players he trusts, however bad their form is, the hope is that the boss will do something similar again and correct our system of play.

Because in fairness, we're not underachieving in a massive way, a la Dortmund. With our strongest side available and everyone acting at maximum capacity, I think we could beat any team on a given day (count the exceptions on one hand). The current apathy stems not from how far away we are from meeting our goals, but how near. In Alexis we have an elite player. Around him there is a mixture of established talent and potential just waiting to be realised. We won't touch Chelsea for the League from the position we are in but I think it quite realistic that, with sensible management and execution, we could establish ourselves as their closest rivals.

Arsene is a smart guy and if he put his mind to it, he could formulate a way to organise our side more effectively than he currently is. So while he has been telling Ramsey to go back to basics in recent weeks, perhaps he should consider taking some of his own advice.

AGM - Big fish talking small

I have returned. No explanation, just got quite lazy. I will try and make a sustained effort to write on a regular basis now. Could do me good.

Thursday was the AGM which is always sound-byte-central. While less strained than in previous years, there were still a number of issues to be discussed. Crippling injuries, an indifferent start to the season and a substantial payment to Shady Stan's Company That Does Real Stuff and That were all on the agenda.

The later was perhaps the most worrying being that in this day and age, a solid financial platform is pretty much a necessity to be able to compete at the top level. The £3m that the club shelled out to Stan in return for 'advisory services' seemed to confirm the as yet unsubstantiated fears that many Arsenal fans held; that despite Ivan Gazidis' assurances of his 'great ambition' for the club, Mr Kroenke really intended to use Arsenal as a balloon from which he could suck out lots of lovely, heliumy money until we were all deflated and he was having a high pitched giggle, quite literally our expense. Although the payment was small, equivalent to around one percent of the clubs revenue in the last financial year, it set a precedent which some fans felt needed to be questioned.

I can't find the quote right now but I thought the answers given by Sir Chips the Chairman were thoroughly unconvincing. There was still no explanation as to what 'advisory services' actually entailed and the admission that no tender was put out does nothing to assuage my previously stated fears.

Anyway. While it's a situation that will continue to be monitored, there was actually another quote which caught my eye. It came from Ivan Gazidis who said:

'We’ve seen with clubs like Borussia Dortmund or Atletico Madrid that you can compete at the very top of the game and I wouldn’t be doing this job if I didn’t believe we could compete at the very top level.'

I found it interesting because, well, it's only a half quote in reality. It's an incomplete story. Sure the man's right when he says that Dortmund and Atleti (I have Spanish friends) proved that the 'very top of the game' is not an inaccessible destination. But leaving aside the fact that both appear to have been one season wonders with regards to hitting the highest heights in Europe, there is a further caveat to the statement.

They both did it without spending. Yes I know that's hyperbole. Diego Simeone didn't keep his team onside by offering free wax and polishes at his brother-in-law's car wash just as Jurgen Klopp brought players to Dortmund with more than an offer of complimentary lawn mowing. But I think I read somewhere that Atleti reached last season's Champions League final with a budget comparable to QPR. Contrast that with financial power of recent winners and you see that what those two sides did was remarkable.

But why didn't Ivan mention Malaga, Quarter finalists in Dortmund's year or PSG, a club who five years ago finished thirteenth in a weak league of twenty playing in front of as little as 14,000 fans, and yet to whom a failure to reach this season's Champions League semi-finals would likely represent failure?

In a word: money. Now, I know we've ditched our thrifty image in recent times but nevertheless what Gazidis said and the implications of it stand out to me. Perhaps I'm reading to much into it, but by using examples of clubs that have crossed the Rubicon in canoes rather than super-yachts, it creates the impression that there is still a reluctance to go big, to spend what is necessary in addressing the squad's deficiencies.

Look, I'm no advocate of PSGing it. I like the way in which the club is sustainable in its spending. It gives a genuine reason for pride as opposed to blind loyalty (which I engage in sometimes too). But in a week when the imbalance of the first team was laid bare, I find it kind of frustrating to see the big shots promote the small fish in a big pond mentality.

I get that this is just one quote, which in fairness goes against previous statements he has made but hey; I've written a post now and I stand by the stuff I've said. I can't even be Hulled right now so that post will come later. I was there though and in case you didn't know, It was pretty annoying to say the least.

Bye for now.

World Cup and Cesc *sigh*

Hello all.

The World Cup is upon us which means Arsenal news is sparse. But no matter because it's the World Cup. Ecuador may have just lost me some sweepstake money by conceding a last minute winner to a drab Switzerland, but it's been thoroughly enjoyable this time around. If I had to describe the tournament so far, I would paraphrase Mötley Crüe: goals goals goals.

But as I write the France team has been announced and there is some Arsenal relevance. Well sort of. None of Arsenal's three French squad members have been included in the starting line up for the Honduras game. Bit of a weird one. Giroud has started all the warm up games and scored in most of them, Koscielny is behind Varane and Sakho in the pecking order for some reason and Deschamps rates Debuchy more than Sagna. I'd obviously start all three but, as a little disclaimer, I can't claim to have paid any real attention to their competitors for places. I may be a fan of football, but specifically noting the contribution of Mathieu Debuchy in Newcastle games is beyond me.

But there's no getting away from it. The biggest news of the week is Cesc. Some things have happened and they have caused Cesc Fabregas to become a Chelsea player. Personally, I still find that hard to write. Sometimes, football fans act melodramatically, perhaps forcing tears after a pretty irrelevant goal to portray themselves as die hard fans, who 'bleed' [insert club name] and care more about football than, say, their jobs or food or something. That's pretty silly and most of the time they fool no-one. But in this situation, the non signing of a player has provoked genuine emotion from many Arsenal fans, myself included. It rankles, on an emotional level, that Cesc now plays for them.

The whole fiasco played out like a nightmare. We all know that feeling in a dream where you try and act but nothing happens, a horrible event takes place in agonising slow motion and there is nothing you can do to stop it, no matter how you try. As Cesc became available, it seemed like a fairytale reunion was on the cards (I don't bear as much ill will as some others over his departure). Then bad things happened. Other clubs were linked. Rumours we would turn him down surfaced, and were subsequently confirmed. Chelsea made their interest clear and moved into pole position. Then this. It's the last bit that gets me.You can tell from his tone of voice and the little tilt of the head that his enthusiasm is entirely scripted, that it was not a move he particularly wanted. He had a will to return to N5, which makes it even worse.

And as a friend of mine said, blue doesn't suit him. He may have been talking literally (I agree, it just looks wrong) but, metaphorically, he couldn't have been more correct. Chelsea is a club we oppose on so many levels. I know it's only football, but we don't like their arrogant, childish manager, we don't like their racist captain, we don't like their sugar daddy owner and his tanks on our lawn. Personally, I think the way they stockpile young players in order to weave around FFP is wrong but that's perhaps an issue with the rules themselves. The bottom line is we have a reason to dislike this club. It's not a blind, postcode rivalry (not to take anything away from the tug-of-war for North London top spot). And now a player who owes, well, pretty much everything to us, will turn out for them. And to make it worse, he counts as a home grown player thanks to the work we put in to his development!

To clarify, I don' think this is a disloyal move from Cesc. He would have come back if he could. And although I said that he owes us everything, I don't think that applies to his future career choices. Once we rejected him, there was no obligation to harm his reputation (or his coffers. grrr.) by signing for a lesser club than Chelsea. Nevertheless, I still felt an urge to boo him during the Spain game. I suppressed it on this occasion but I suspect his reception will not be particularly warm when he returns to the Emirates in the coming season. Insert joke about 'warm' and the burning of shirts and Panini stickers here.

Right lets move on. Joel Campbell. Wow! If it comes to pass that his future will not be with Arsenal, then he is a puppy and this World Cup is his shop window. His pass for the third Costa Rican goal was just sublime. One of the assists of the tournament. Joel Iniestampbell. It occurs to me that he could play the Carlos Vela role in our squad next season though. He may not have scored 20 goals in one of Europe top league's last year* but in the two big games that most of us have watched him in, he's delivered, big time. And he's a lot that Giroud isn't.

I want Griezmann. The more I watch, the more I want.

Anyway. It's reached that stage where I'm bored again so I'll sign off. Expect more frequent posts now that summer is here.

I bid you adieu.

*I'm not using this to say we should have purchased Vela. I was never behind the signing and those who say that Wenger has made a massive mistake are just plain wrong.

Post Cup Round Up

Well hello.

I can only apologise because once again I have left weeks between posts. What can I say. I'm sorry about that but I've been quite lazy busy in recent times. It's safe to say that a fair bit has happened since last time so I'll just dip in and out of stories when I think of them. Might make for a bit of a strange piece but hey. When life gives you lemons. Or something.

There's only one place to start. We won the FA Cup. WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! It's hard to express meaningfully just how good it feels when your team wins a trophy. And after nine years in which every passing day built further pressure on the manager, players, staff, board and most importantly the fans, it tastes especially sweet. And for me, personally, it ranks pretty highly on the list of Arsene Wenger successes in N5. Having had to basically gut his own teams over the years just to break even, there's more than a touch of phoenixicity about this particular triumph.

And that was reflected quite perfectly within the game its self. Going 2-0 down is always unpleasant but to do so in a game that meant as much as this one did and to concede two goals to a team full of Steven Quinns and Matty Fryatts is like finding an eyelid in a bag of chips; simply gut wrenching. So when we did come through that exceptionally testing period, it served to prove what great character we have within this side.

And character further added to the sense of enjoyment that came from the win. I said at some point earlier this year that I felt something special was building in this team. Wenger had recruited a bunch of generally likeable blokes to whom it really mattered whether we won or lost. What's more they could play a bit too. Now that was before our customary collapse, which this season proved to be beyond our control in some aspects, but assessing the situation with that most helpful benefit of hindsight, I stand by what I said.

We may not have won either of the big ones in the Premier or Champions Leagues but standing at the top of Highbury Hill and watching a bus full of Arsenal players bask in the bright May sunshine and cup-winning glory that they had really earned, it did feel, like I had predicted, quite special.

Now from Party Time to Silly Season. It's well and truly under way and as you would expect, we've been linked with pretty much every human male with two functional feet. If we want to build on the success of this season we must do more than replace outgoing players (sound familiar?). You don't need me to tell you that a goal keeper, a right back and a forward are absolute necessities. I mean, not buying in those positions is simply inconceivable, with Wenger himself stating a need to add 'two or three' before even assessing the shape of the squad. Right back is perhaps the only exception to that list.You get the feeling that if the boss can't have the man at the very top of his list, he may favour an 'internal promotion' to fill the gap.

In terms of names, it's hard to tell what's true and what is pure speculation designed to instigate clicks from the mice of tech-savvy Gooners in trendy North London (to those who got Olivier Giroud into the Premier League team of the season: touché). Serge Aurier is the most oft mentioned for the right back spot and the player himself is pining for a move, remarking that to stay at Toulouse after his successful season would be 'a disappointment'. Up front Benzema is talked of but you suspect that we may need another one of those Wenger chain reactions to force that one. The other one is Carlos Vela. He's another player who seems open to move. His stance on a return has significantly softened in recent months but I really doubt he'll be back in the red and white of the Arsenal next year. His colleague at Sociadad, the speedy winger Antoine Griezmann, or Griez Lightning as I will demand he is referred to, seems a likelier acquisition.

That brings us on to the non essential buys. Well non essential if we don't want to progress. Vermaelen will very likely leave meaning that we need at least one central defender. This is a position neglected by the goblins who invent the stories at Squawka and HITC (by the way how can we expect to believe anything written on Here Is The City? It's a finance and trade website with a finance and trade name so why they think they know about sport is beyond me. I wouldn't just call a site Here is the Pitch and then talk about business deals and stuff. Actually I would that's a great name but this is a tangent). The 'targets' I can recall are Rio Ferdinand (pffft) and today Ashley Williams. I wished we could have moved for Kurt Zouma but Chelsea got him with some change that a magician pulled from behind the ear of Roman Abramovich's daughter at her fifth birthday party. She wasn't impressed but that may have been sour grapes over the pin the tail on the unicorn debacle. Anyway I expect we'll buy a player of the ilk of Williams and a younger face as Ignasi Miquel will be released. On the Zouma point I think the hoarding and reselling of players by teams like Chelsea is one of the biggest issues facing modern football but that's for another day.

The player that everyone wants, a physical defensive midfielder who must, repeat must, be the new Patrick Viera may not be out there at this time so it would not surprise me at all if the ageing legs of Mikel Arteta were supplemented next season with the younger ones of a player like Isaac Hayden, the youth team captain. But anyway I'm bored of this section now. You can scroll NewsNow if you want uninformed speculation (That wasn't meant to be disparaging. It's a great way to pass time when you should be doing something else.).

Now just the bits and pieces. It would be remiss of me to ignore the World Cup and I have to say I'm quite excited. No, England won't win and I have a sneak feeling we won't get out of our group, but it's the World Cup. Whatever you think about Sepp 'I'm Still Here' Blatter and his posse, it's still a great spectacle. I have to say I'm annoyed though. Another point I made earlier this season was that Kieran Gibbs would probably not get the international recognition he deserves. And lo and behold, he finds himself out of the World Cup squad, shunted out of the reserves list by Jon Flanagan, a right back who played at left back in a side whose poor defence cost them the Premier League title, and what's more, Gibbo was never really in contention for selection. That just annoys me.

It's a point made by Arseblog last week but who out of Baines, Gibbs, and Shaw has experience in Champions League knock out games? Who has played for a top 4 team for his whole career? Who has won a ruddy trophy? I'm not saying that Gibbs should have started or that either Baines or Shaw are bad players because neither is true. But for a player who is as established as Kieran to be completely out of contention is just ridiculous. Realistically his career will be limited to serving as back up to Luke Shaw when he reaches 28, 29. Grrrr.

Will an Arsenal player win the World Cup? Potentially. I won't go into it now because we have the whole summer and I'm going to call it a day. It's been nice though. I'l be back again soon.

For now.

The Bigger Picture

Morning all. We play Everton tomorrow which I will come on to later but, in the absence of hard and fast news, I've decided to think big today.

After we lost at Chelsea, a major response was demanded when we played Swansea a few days later. It was up to the team to prove that they weren't a bunch of chokers and bottlers who didn't care about the team or the fans. As it turned out, we choked and bottled it, conceding an excruciating last minute equaliser to drop two points.

Although we should have won the game, I think there was a sense of inevitability about the result. Following our two previous implosions this season, we recorded draws at home and on both occasions you could sense that the inclination was not to lose rather than to go out and make a statement. There was more to lose, on those nights, than there was to gain and that was the case again against Swansea.

Perhaps it was with that in mind that I felt a strange sense of acceptance in the aftermath. Don't get me wrong, conceding a goal that late in the game is infuriating whatever the circumstances, but unlike other poor results (one thinks of the corresponding fixture last season when we sleepwalked through the game and actually lost it at the death) it didn't induce major rage.

It did of course help that the ineptitude of Man United was highlighted on the same evening. Nothing like a nice bit of schadenfreude.

However, I think the Swansea game marked a moment of realisation. It was the point at which we were well and truly shunted out of the title race and basically, our season's aims became very clear.

We must now cement at least fourth place in the League and win the FA Cup.

And personally, I feel like we can to glide through the rest of the year, achieve the said aims, and then be able to look back on a (largely) successful season. Of course it would have been nice to win the title, but as we went forward, our deficiencies - not all of them self inflicted - became clear and it has become apparent that we were punching above our weight for a long stretch of the campaign.*

But despite this, I strongly believe that this season has seen Arsenal succeed in the one aim that every fan has a right to demand: progress.

Let me refer to last season's game with Swansea once more. While there were many low points last season (the March defeat to Spurs being perhaps the most well documented) Swansea at home was my personal nadir. I was there that day and it felt significant in its disappointment. To me it was the crux of the stagnation of Arsenal. That might sound illogical but I would qualify it by saying this; it was a result that consigned us to another scrap for fourth place and it was on that day more than any other that I failed to see progress.

Now you may feel we have underachieved this time around but you can not argue that we are not in an improved situation to the one we faced last year. Even at the very start of this season, some were predicting that we would struggle to make Europe. One game in, and a few backed us for relegation. That may have been a little sensationalist but it's fair to say that after the summer we'd had, hopes were not high.

So look at where we are now. Our team, although ravaged by injuries, is much more competitive than before, Champions League qualification is in our own hands and we have a better chance of winning a trophy than you could possibly dream of. That, my friends, is progress.

Now on to Everton. They are of course playing well and will push us hard in this game and in the race for a Champions League spot. I think we can come out victorious on both fronts though and I'm sure the players will share this belief.

In terms of teams news, Aaron Ramsey is back. YAY! This is great news. He won't start but having him in training, in the squad and, hopefully, on the field at some point will represent a major boost for a slightly dilapidated squad. We've had a nice long rest now so players should feel refreshed and ready to put an end to a three match win-less streak. I won't predict the team because I'll get it wrong.

For them I think Ross Barkley is a doubt. That would help us out a bit because he'd been getting some form back recently. His goal against Newcastle was reminiscent of Gareth Bale last year. Also Lukaku has found his shooting boots in the last couple of games. I saw him linked with Spurs today. I might be clutching at straws here, but in a time when agents linking players with clubs has very little to do with actual player movement, there may be some relevance in the fact that Lukaku faces Arsenal this weekend. Maybe not.

In fact I see him as someone we may look at in the summer. Our need for a striker is so blindingly obvious, that I've allowed myself to become excited thinking about who we may bring in. On a related note, the criticism levelled at Olivier Giroud recently is unfair. He's more than a 'decent' option and far from 'the worst player ever to play for Arsenal'. He does what he does very well he just doesn't do what others do. If you get what I mean. He's still a key part of this Arsenal generation and quite a likeable figure.

That's your lot for today. Come on Gunners for tomorrow. Over and out.

*This doesn't mean that the Kevin Kilbanes and the Danny Mills of this world, with zero Premier League titles between them, were right all along. They were just, erm, wrong in a different way.

I'm Still Here

If we say, for the purposes of a good opening sentence, that a week begins on a Saturday, then this has been quite a good one, so far. The natural starting point is Saturday's fine win over Everton. Yes the scoreline may have been a tad flattering, as everyone has reminded us, but the best team on the day won the game. The fact that they did so comfortably iced the cake nicely for us Gooners.

There was only one real surprise in Arsene's selection. Yaya Sanogo did a job against Bayern Munich and put himself about well versus Liverpool but, if we're being honest with ourselves, he has shown absolutely nothing to suggest that he should start ahead of his fellow Frenchman Olivier Giroud when the big boys roll into town. So when he did on Saturday, you worried that maybe we wouldn't take the game as seriously a we should have.

As it went, we needn't have worried. Pretty much from the start, everyone played to their maximum. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was most impressive for me. If he played like he did against Everton in every game for the rest of his career, we'd be talking about an Arsenal legend in future years. What struck me most was how he never gave up on anything. Twice atoning for sloppy (and potentially costly) misplaced passes with excellent challenges was a joy to see. Instead of standing around feeling sorry for himself, he did what was necessary to make up for the error. You can't really ask for more.

Another strong performer was of course Ozil. The early goal went some way toward setting the tone for his performance. He expended energy (I know!*) shadowing Cazorla on the left and, upon receiving the pass simply put the ball where the keeper couldn't save it, with his first touch may I add. Class. It was a really Ozily goal and one which I would love to see replicated on two or three other occasions as the fixtures get sticky.

Another feature of his play was running. A lot. In recent games he had looked a little like a squid out of water; throbbing a lot but not really, you know, going anywhere. But on Saturday he was, as Arsene stated, revitalised. The moment when he tracked an Everton runner right to the goal line to cover for Kieran Gibbs drew universal approval inside the ground. His willingness to recycle the ball quickly, as shown by his role in the penalty winning move, was also refreshing. Going forward too he would surge, adding real impetus to attacks. I might suggest that this is the best he has played since Napoli at home, and that's a fantastic sign.

So we won that game 4-1. Giroud, whose form has improved since the shenanigans were revealed, hit two late on and check out this gif for an example of astounding team work. The team looked to be fully over the Stoke display and, if we ignore that particular game, some people are peaking wonderfully as the season end draws closer.

Then there was Sunday. Ah Wigan. You did us proud. Yes I can acknowledge the glaring hypocrisy of supporting a team to the hilt, just so you can beat them in the next round but it doesn't mean it wasn't a wonderful result. City could and should have won the game and you may as well have added would to that list, were it not for Wigan captain Emmerson Boyce. What a block Boycey.

Anyway it's all pretty funny and Man City now face the task of winning the Premier League to constitute a successful season. They have some silverware in the bag but for a billion pound team, that alone is not really good enough.

Other good news is coming in too. Per Mertesacker and Tomas Rosicky signed new deals last week which is fantastic, any way you look at it. Merty released some pictures of a small(er) version of himself in an Arsenal shirt to accompany the announcement. He looks about ten in the pictures. I have no doubt in my mind that he was keeping them in reserve and waiting for the perfect moment to show them off, in order to foster maximum fan popularity but you know what? That doesn't bother me at all. A player as a kid wearing the shirt is a sign of loyalty that ranks pretty highly among positive gestures yet it needed to get its good name back at Arsenal after a smear campaign from some Dutch bloke.

As a point of interest, I'd like to see some other players in the squad try and trump Per's pics. An Arsenal themed tattoo or, more creatively, haircut might be nice to see on the pitch.

Speaking of which, I'm pleased because, as I alluded to earlier in the season, I really like our players. An outsider looking in might scoff and say that I've never once met a single Arsenal player, let alone formed a friendship with one so what am I talking about. I'd answer by saying that they all seem reasonable guys. They get on well off the pitch, play FIFA with eachother and all that. They celebrate together after goals and no-one seems cut off from the group. It just looks like a great environment, one I'd love to be a part of if I was a player.

On a final note, Bacary Sagna looks no closer to signing a new deal. I read today that he wants 120k per week, a £6m signing on fee and a testimonial. Although I think that is pretty much utter rubbish, there looks to be very little progress and no budging from Sagna. Like a lot of people, I don't blame him with P$G and others waiting in the wings but if your reading this Bac: please stay. We love you here more than they ever will.

Anyway we go to Bavaria with nothing to lose. Defeating the 'gutless' Spurs at the weekend is a much bigger deal.

Until we speak again, farewell.

*I joke, I joke.

Disclaimer: I love Arseblog. Everything he does is fantastic. But I'm listening to the Arsecast extra now and there are a lot of similarities with this piece. I want to say that I hadn't heard it before I wrote this. Not a second of it. So I'm not plagiarising at all. I have too much respect to do that to Arseblog.

Southampton and Prices: A Tuesday Round Up

We play Southampton and their Jester between the sticks later so I'll come on to that. Firstly though there was a story today which I found pretty important.

The drawing of Liverpool in the FA Cup opened several cans full of even more worms. I'm no expert on the inner workings of the club or even ticket pricing structures so the simplified way that I saw it, is as follows:

Arsenal recently announced that next season would see a 3 percent rise in season ticket prices, I think. This was supposed to be in line with inflation but the inflation of what was far from clear. Previously, having reached the knock-out rounds of the Champions League, the home tie with European Champions Bayern Munich was penciled in as one of seven designated Cup games included in the price of a season ticket. After that occurred, we beat Spurs in the FA Cup, earning a tie with League One Coventry and pushing back the game with European Champions Bayern Munich in the fixture order, leaving it as the seventh, and last, of these designated games.

That's when things got interesting. Unsurprisingly, we beat League One Coventry almost as comfortably as we'd beaten Spurs in the previous round. So, when we drew Liverpool and that fixture was added to the list, the bout against European Champions Bayern Munich was pushed back even further chronologically, to the extent that it now fell outside of the seven designated games. If season ticket holders wish to watch their club play the German side, they will have to pay for it with the cost of their ticket renewal next season.

That's caused a little bit of controversy. With respect to League One Coventry, it would be truthful to say that every single Gooner would prefer to watch European Champions Bayern Munich play at the Emirates than the Sky Blues. But because of the order of the games, many will not be able to and those who can will have to stump up for it, after watching the predictably uncompetitive FA Cup game for free.

The one bit of good to come from this centres around the aforementioned Liverpool game in the Cup. In response to pressure from some fans groups who were upset for various reasons, the match has been changed to a Category B fixture, reducing prices for everyone.

Yes they were forced into it a little but it's still nice to see a gesture like this from the club. I've had a feeling in the past that the fans loved the Arsenal but the Arsenal didn't really love the fans. This isn't exactly a unique opinion so many people will be pleased that the club have acted to assuage it.

Southampton. We beat them last time thanks to a penalty and and a howler from a gloved buffoon. It wasn't exactly a tricky fixture but it was hardly a nail-biter either, as far as I remember. This time round I expect a challenge but one we're perfectly capable of conquering, should we choose to accept it.

All the Southampton talk in the past few days has been about Luke Shaw and whether or not he'll be leaving. A United friend of mine was talking him up as if he had signed for them already, burbling about how he was far superior to Kieran Gibbs.

Let me set something straight. I like Luke Shaw. I think he will go to United or Chelsea and have a long and successful career. I have a minor 'I knew him before he was famous claim' which means I always route for him a little bit too and to be performing week in week out the way he does, at the age of eighteen, is very impressive.

But at the moment, Kieran Gibbs has a far, far greater claim to inherit the England Left Back role than his Southampton counterpart. He is one of the most underrated players on the books of a top four club and we have a right to really show him off. Not in the way we might have made statements like 'Denilson's one of the best midfielders in the League' in the past to hide the deficiencies of the player, but in a genuine way. He's quality and I fear he won't get as many England caps as he deserves because of the hysterical clamour that will inevitably surround Shaw's bid to replace Cole/Baines when the time comes. And £25m, one reported fee for Shaw in this window, is a joke.

The team for the game has just been announced and the only surprise for me is the continued inclusion of Gnabry on the right hand side. With players coming back to fitness we could feasibly have rejigged that three to include at least one of four players who aren't starting tonight. I love the depth. While I like Gnabry, I would have maybe routed for a Rosicky tonight in a very fluid three. But the boss knows best. I hope no-one gets the hump though. I'm thinking of Podolski especially, who I expect to feature at some point tonight.

Three more routine points please. For now.

Post Fulham and the Yoots

The Fulham game didn't throw up too many surprises. They were a bit meh, we weren't at our best and the score ended up at a professional 2-0. Granted in the first half it looked like we might be heading towards having 'one of those days' but a couple of moments of quality from a a quality player sealed the deal and we relaxed from then onwards.

I was at the game and I have to say it was pretty low on atmosphere. Fulham are quite a nice club but lack ambition like you wouldn't believe. It was always relatively comfortable. Some people counted it as a derby win but even geographically that's pushing it a bit.

Anyway there's very little to discuss so I'll move on to the more interesting story of the day, the CIES Football Observatory study. I'll hold my hands up: I'd never heard of it before today. Does that I mean I can't exploit its data to prove how great Arsenal are? Absolutely not.

As a bit of a statto, this survey is a delight for me. It provides even the most trivial statistics (Who knew that the Bundesliga was Europe's tallest top league with an average height of 183.8cm?) along with the really interesting ones. From an Arsenal perspective, it's gratifying to hear that our senior squad contains the highest proportion of so called 'home grown' players of any team in the League. We all know that statistics can be misleading and in this case the results are somewhat skewed by player like Frimpong who, despite qualifying as squad member, have no input whatsoever into the games we actually play. Nevertheless, I think it's a reason to be proud considering some of our rivals are so hell bent on killing football, that they give little or no consideration to the production of genuine talent in their respective academies.

This League high proportion (a figure of 32.2%) is a good thing for more than one reason. Firstly, it really highlights how we truely believe in youth development. Throughout all of Ivan Gazidis' chest thumping about financial strength, ability to compete, ambition, etc. the message has still remained clear; Arsenal football club is committed to producing our own players with the ability to become valued squad members at some point in the future. The figure published today proves that those are more than just words.

There is also a link to another Arsenal nugget from this week. After Liam Brady announced last year that he was to step down as chief of the Arsenal Academy, the search began to find his replacement. Many names have been mooted in the time that has since passed, including a highly rated Croatian, but this week it was finally announced that the position would be filled by Dutchman Andries Jonker. Once again, I'll hold my hands up and say I've never heard of him. But those who are in the know seem to think that it is a very canny appointment indeed.

All I know is that he was schooled by Louis van Gaal. Based on that, I wonder if, and this is purely conjecture, we may see a less personal approach to youth development. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, in his recently published autobiography, expressed his distaste for van Gaal and his machine like style of coaching. Ibrahimovic says that van Gaal referred to players not by name but by numbers which corresponded to their roles within the team. I fear that if Jonker follows a similar approach, he could alienate mavericks like Ibrahimovic within the youth sides. But that is pure speculation and his role is not that of a coach. Honestly I'm just trying to put a spin on a story I know very little of.

But the link to today. It is known that our Academy is not running perfectly. Our under 18's for example sit miserably at the bottom of their youth League. However, the League high proportion shows we can't be doing too badly. Players are successfully making the jump. That gives the new man Jonker plenty to work with which can only be a good thing.

Anyway. That's it for tonight. We play Coventry in the Cup on Saturday afternoon at three o'clock Friday night at quarter to eight so I should be back before then. Expect a Zelalem debut. For now.

Fulham Preview and the Death of Football

So I broke my wrist. Which is pretty unfortunate seeing as I now cannot write for a month. But on the upside it's not too painful.

Ok now you know what's going on in my world, let's move to football. Since last time we beat Spurs oh so convincingly, Theo Walcott received some devastating injury news and we then won against Aston Villa, picking up some further injuries along the way. We play Fulham at the Emirates today so I'll get onto that later.

The Spurs game, by nature, was a nervous affair. I was physically shivering until we got the second goal which is I think perfectly ok when bragging rights are up for grabs. But as it turned out we were in control from the moment Christian Eriksen fluffed his lines in the fourth minute. We excelled Spurs in just about every position (notably left back) and in return they gave us a few extra reasons to dislike them.* There was the obvious coin throwing, the chants of 'we hope you die' or words to that effect as Theo lay on the turf with what later turned out to be a season ending ACL injury and the attempted stamp from Nabil Bentaleb. The later is my personal favourite because, as the word 'attempted' implies, the Spurs academy graduate missed his target, stamping on the ground next to Nacho Monreal. It's nice to see they really drill in the club ethos of not being able to hit a cow's rear end with a banjo from an early age. Good of the senior players like Soldado to respect the tradition too.

Now I'm not a doctor but when I had a quick look at a diagram of the knee and found the part that Theo had ruptured, it occurred to me that his leg must kind of be in two pieces. I can understand why it would take so long to heal and why rushing him back for the World Cup is not only a ridiculous idea, but a dangerous one too. On a lighter note this picture is really indicative of the fantastic team spirit we seem to have at the moment and it's another reason for me to love Kieran Gibbs. If anyone can tell me why Theo is wearing some kind of Burkha that would be much appreciated by the way.

And team spirit seems to be pretty key at the moment. I'm cautious with my optimism so I'll whisper it but it feels like we've got something really good going on here. The squad is like a delicious omlette with no bad eggs to spoil the flavour. Even players like Nicklas Bendtner, who could at best be described as the seasoning to the omlette itself, are towing the line, putting shifts in, that sort of thing. Although I think Man City will win the League, we can be proud of having an excellent team made up of generally good people.

On the subject of Man City something was said this week that hit a nerve for me. Both Vincent Kompany and Manuel Pellegrini alluded to a Man City quadruple, that is to say total and complete dominance, being an inevitable outcome in future seasons, if not the current one. Kompany himself described it as being only 'a matter of time' before the World's richest club achieved it. I find those kind of statements staggering. Simply staggering.

Firstly I'll say that I don't hold any prejudices against either of them. Both Pellegrini and Kompany are likable and respectable guys and moreover they are fantastic at what they do. In fact it is for that reason that these brashly arrogant statements annoy me so much. Confidence is fine but this is disrespectful to the whole of the football community.What Kompany really means is that it's only a matter of time until the oil money injected into the club by wealthy Arabs dirties any notion of a level playing field to the extent that each and every competition is reduced to a mere procession with the inescapable outcome of complete Mancunian supremacy. And that's not ok.

Unfortunately, I think this notion gets to me because there is some truth to it. And I hate to admit that. There will come a point when a team is so saturated with money that they can afford to employ perhaps the world's eleven best players. With the best coaches, and physios and performance analysts and the best professionals in all other capacities, you have manufactured a team of incomparable quality and we come back to the notion of inevitable victory.

It's said that we enjoy the beautiful game because it's so unpredictable and cliche it may be but it's true. What City are trying to create will be the death of football, the point at which people stop watching because the results are pre-determined. A quadruple is meant to be the holy grail of of the game. Until around five years ago, it was thought impossible. Football being as irrational as it is, something, somewhere would stop a team from winning everything on offer. And that's why managing to win all four competitions was viewed with such awe.

So describe the attainment of this honour as only 'a matter of time' is obscene.

Anyway, Fulham. Injuries have been a feature over the last couple of months but it's the same for all clubs really. By my reckoning we have seventeen fit and selectable players which is fine. I don't think we'll need to leave second gear to beat Fulham today. Nevertheless, I'd like us too. Even with Brede Hangelaand, a poor man's Per Mertesacker, back in the side, Fulham will not offer much resistance and goal difference is becoming key. The primary flaw of Arsenal this year seems to be the tendency to not score as many goals as they could. Think Aston Villa this week or Marseille at home. So when facing a side with a historically poor away record and no player who could get into our team as I see it (yes, including Berbatov), the aim today should be to dish out a real tonking.

I have no idea who will play where, which, as I've previously mentioned, is a good sign of competition in the side. If I was Arsene I'd avoid risking Monreal and Rosicky but maybe there are unknown reasons why he can't do so. One thing is for sure; with Chelsea and City breathing down our necks, this is a game we must win.

Anyway, here's to a great big win that justifies my arrogance, a City defeat so horrific that the owners lose faith in the project and withdraw all financial backing and, on a serious note, the full recovery of Theo Walcott. For now.

*I am aware of the shocking comments made by some of an Arsenal persuasion on Twitter. They were unforgivable and I would encourage criminal proceedings to rid Arsenal, and football as a whole, of this minority of fools.

'Tis the Season to Be Jolly

It's been too long since I wrote and due to the nature of this period, I've missed a lot of games. Some were good, other not so good but every single one of them crucial and overall I think we've done ok. We've played five games in the last couple of weeks (two of which I saw in person) and there's a big one coming up tomorrow so I'll just round up a bit and preview a little.

There are too many games for me to write about individually but a good starting point would be the 0-0 draw with Chelsea. That was one of the two that I attended but to be honest, I almost wish I hadn't. Of course it's always treat to go and see the Arsenal and a big London derby like this is no exception. However, the spectacle is not always fantastic and our encounter with Chelsea was a turgid game. I was more fascinated by the spectacular weather at the Emirates than the game being played which might have been true of some of the players as well (I'm looking at you Aaron Ramsey) (but in a playful way that acknowledges your achievements so far this season so as not to offend you). It was a really rotten night in North London, with heavy rain joining forces with howling wind to produce conditions that even the world's best may have struggled in. I got soaked high up in the stands so I can't imagine how the players might have felt.

Tactically, Mourinho set Chelsea up not to lose. Which is kind of fair enough but it did make for a dull 90 minutes. We were nowhere near our best and despite the denial of a clear penalty, a draw was just about fair. Nevertheless, it did feel like an opportunity missed. This Chelsea side may be the expensively assembled play thing of a Russian Sugar Daddy but I don't think that they are an excellent side at all. They get built up thanks to Mourinho's character and yes they may win the League but we're just as good a side and at home, we should have seized the opportunity to win.

Something I'm finding very annoying now is the Love-In between the so 'Happy One' and the Press. I think we all indulged in a little admiration first time round when he arrived with the continental swagger, accented one-liners and silvery hair but the effect wore off a long time ago for most people. Now he's damn right obnoxious. He's so boring and most of the things he says are blatant falsities. He can't open his mouth without uttering some ludicrously innacurate statement to defend his team. Penalty? 'It was a dive.' Red card? 'They cry too much.' Racism? Actually I'll avoid putting words into his mouth but you get the message.

I should add that our own manager is not adverse to protecting his players. The famous Wenger 'I didn't see the incident' is one such example. Yet despite this, I appreciate how Arsene tries to maintain a degree of honesty. Mourinho these days spouts such rubbish that he's almost inviting a response in the knowledge that he is the darling of the Press and they will never truly challenge him. It's easy to see where AVB got his odious personal traits from.

Rant over. We beat West Ham after coming from behind which I think was a notable result due to the identity of our saviour. Theo Walcott rarely scores goal that win games. Ok maybe not rarely but it's somewhat uncommon. So for him to pull the cat out of the bag, even against a poor West Ham, was nice to see and indicative of a bit of mental strength.

Anyway, we beat Newcastle then I went to the Cardiff game on Wednesday. It was another foul evening, with a little less wind than the previous Monday. Despite injuries to four automatic starters, the feeling was that we should capitalise on the Cardiff situation and record a victory. However the first half was an inert performance. Nothing really clicked (despite the best efforts of messers Cazorla and Wilshere) and Cardiff were already wasting time. It was clear that they were playing for a point and they were doing so quite effectively. In the second half we were a different team, a bit more zip added going forward. Jack Wilshere, playing in the No. 10 role that surely beckons for the future given the number on his shirt, stepped it up a gear. He was really running the show and pushing the whole team forward. The introduction of  Rosicky and Bendtner for the ineffective Podolski lead to another level of improvement and we pepered Cardiff with shots.

Some people said that it was going to be one of those days but I was personally kind of confident. It's something about this side at the moment that radiates assurance. Even so, it was getting desperate in the end so when Bendtner finally broke the deadlock, the relief was tangible. The delightful chip from the unusually involved Walcott was the icing on the cake. Aside from Podolski, the whole team performed very well. It was a confidence building victory and it rounded off a generally jolly festive period. It also sets us up well for the Spurs game tomorrow.

Once again it's got late so I may have tailed off towards the end. I've a lot to do so there won't be a preview for the FA Cup game tomorrow. I'd expect a strong side though. Anyway. I'll see you later.