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.