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.