Arsenal v Manchester United: FA Cup Preview

Arsenal couldn’t have asked for a much tougher FA Cup fourth round draw than against a United team who have won their last seven games in all competitions. Their run coincided with the removal of Jose Mourinho and there isn’t a team in the Premier League on a better run at the moment. Of course this isn’t a league game and there’s every chance one or both managers will decide to rotate their squad at least a little.

Unai Emery led Arsenal to a very encouraging 2-0 win at home to Chelsea last week after some more than challenging performances and results recently. In fact Arsenal have done quite well at home to the rest of the top six this season with the exception of Emery’s very first game in charge when they lost 2-0 at home to City. They beat Spurs and Chelsea as well as drawing with Liverpool and those games were three of their best performances of the season so far.

Their away results may have slipped badly recently, but they continue to win games and score goals at home. Only City and Liverpool have taken more home points and scored more home goals while only those two teams and Chelsea have conceded less goals at home. Despite conceding far too many goals away from home it seems Arsenal are in fact showing a little bit of defensive solidity at home.

The manager switched to a diamond formation last week with a back four and three central midfielders in front of them while Aaron Ramsey played behind a front two of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette. That formation worked very well against Chelsea with the players running further than they had ever done before as a team and closing Chelsea down all over the pitch. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the same formation against United, but there will have to be at least one change in personnel. 

The long term injury sustained by Hector Bellerin last week means we’re not going to see him until somewhere after the start of next season and the manager has a tough task on his hands trying to replace him. We struggled at right back when he was out over the festive season and it’s quite possible we will do so again. The choices are Stephan Lichsteiner, Carl Jenkinson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and maybe even Shkodran Mustafi and none of them fill me with a lot of confidence.

At a push I think young Maitland-Niles might be our best long term bet with Bellerin out for up to nine months, but it’s not his natural position. If the manager can persist with him and coach him in the art of defending as well as getting him to concentrate during the game just a little more I think he could have the most to offer. If he’s up against Marcus Rashford at times against United he could find life difficult, but it will definitely teach him a thing or two as well.

I would be surprised if the manager makes too many changes from the team that beat Chelsea and if the tactics differ too much either. As good as United have been they have had a fairly reasonable run of games with the exception of their win at Spurs and an Arsenal team at their best would be their toughest test so far under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. They are just as bad in defence as us and they can struggle in all areas when the opposition press them.

Ramsey played an important part in the win last week and I suppose he sort of played in the Mesut Ozil role. Ozil is watching from the sidelines at the moment and while an FA Cup game would surely be the perfect time to reintroduce him I don’t think he will start. It seems his unwillingness to tackle back is what’s keeping him out of the side if those “in the know” are to be believed and the players are going to have to put in an awful lot of work to beat United.

We do have both Aubameyang and Lacazette up front and Lacazette in particular is very fond of scoring against the top teams. Aubameyang has missed his fair share of chances recently, but surely he’s due a goal or two and against United would be the ideal time for him to put a few chances away. He’s still the second highest scorer in the league and on course for a very good return this season.

The FA Cup might not be the most glamorous competition any more, but it’s certainly still worth winning. We have won it four times since 2004 and they’re the only trophies we lifted in that time with three of those victories in the last five seasons. We’re the only team to have lifted the FA Cup more times than United and beating them would insure that record stands for at least another season. There’s very little as special as a May appearance at Wembley in an FA Cup Final and beating United along the way would make it all the sweeter.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Dawning Of A New Era For Arsenal

Arsenal play their first competitive match under the stewardship of Unai Emery today when the reigning Premier League chanpions come to visit the Emirates. After almost 22 years under Arsene Wenger it’s going to be strange to see a different man patrolling the sideline and he couldn’t have got a tougher task in his first game. He comes to Arsenal with a pretty good pedigree having won eight trophies in his last five seasons as a manager.

It’s a time of change at the club though and the latest goings on from our majority shareholder don’t make the future easy to predict. As a manager there’s nothing he can do to impact what happens among the power brokers at the club and he can only hope Stan Kroeneke gives him the financial backing he needs when he takes complete control of the club. His actual plans are unknown and it’s disappointing to see Emery start his reign with the off field side of the club in so much turmoil yet again.

As for today he has an awful lot of decisions to make about his starting line up. I was surprised to see so many players who returned from the World Cup lining up for their clubs yesterday and on Friday night too and the manager has to decide whether to risk those players in his squad. I’m sure he will have thought long and hard about it and will judge each player on whether he is ready to play from the start against such a strong opponent.

Normally we would expect to see Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka in the team while Aaron Ramsey is just back from a slight knock which kept him out of the last two pre season games. I suspect we might see up to two of them playing, but I would be very surprised if all three started. I would also suspect the ones who do start to come off on or around the hour mark and their replacements will have a crucial role to play too.

He has other choices to make too with the central defensive duo hardly set in stone yet and the absence of a left back due to injuries to Sead Kolasinac and Nacho Monreal. It means Ainsley Maitland-Niles is the only real option at left back and our defence is going to have to be very strong against a City side who score goals for fun. In the last few seasons we seem to have gotten progressively worse in defence and it’s something the boss has being working on, but it will take time to rectify. Torreira could be the missing link in our midfield to help that defence, but he hasn’t exactly had an awful lot of time to work with them yet.

I suppose the other big choice is who starts up front and it has to be Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for me ahead of Alexandre Lacazette. Who would have thought a year ago when we finally landed Lacazette that we would be happy to see him on the bench, but Aubameyang is one of the very best finishers in the game and we just have to play him. Maybe the boss can find a formation to accommodate them both, but for the moment I expect to see Aubameyang ahead of Lacazette in the pecking order.

I’m not sure whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing to play City so early, but there’s nothing we can do to change it. Maybe we’ll catch them on the hop early on or maybe they’ll be at their best and give us a footballing lesson like they have done all too often for my liking recently. I think anything other than a defeat will be a good result for us today, but of course I’d love all three points.

In a season where regaining our top four place and the Champions League football that comes with is our top priority this game will not define our chances. We do need to take more points off the rest of the top six sides though and any points we get today would be very welcome in that cause. If we can continue our home form of last season that is a possibility, but the crucial change for us could be in how the new man improves our dismal away record of last season.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To AC Milan Previewed

The last few weeks have been even tougher than usual in what has been a very tough season for Arsenal. We’ve lost the Carabao Cup Final to City, lost our last three league games and even lost at home to Ostersund in the second leg of the last round of the Europa League. We did progress despite that defeat though and that leaves us with a last 16 tie with AC Milan which starts with the first leg in Milan tonight.

We go into the game devoid of any form after four defeats in a row and with performances that seem to get progressively worse with each game. Our only remaining route to success this season is the Europa League and winning it is the only way we will qualify for the Champions League next season too. That might seem like an incredibly unlikely scenario at the moment, but it’s one we have to hope can occur.

To make matters worse Alexandre Lacazette is injured for tonight and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is ineligible so our striking options are severely limited. Danny Welbeck is the most likely candidate for the role, but to say he has been poor since his latest return from injury is a massive understatement and I just don’t think he’s up to the task. There is a train of thought that young Eddie Nketiah might get the nod and it’s a choice I think might just be bold enough to pay off, but I would be very surprised if Arsene Wenger chose anyone other than Welbeck to play up front.

Both Hector Bellerin and Aaron Ramsey were rested for the debacle at Brighton on Sunday although Bellerin did come on late on and I would imagine we will see both of them in from the start tonight. With Nacho Monreal injured it means Sead Kolasinac will probably play on the left unless Ainsley Maitland-Niles plays, but he seems to have fallen out of favour since he got 45 minutes in his favoured central midfield role against Ostersund a couple of weeks ago. David Ospina will be back in his usual goalkeeping role for cup games and he surely can’t do much worse than Petr Cech did against Brighton. 

I would like to see us set out to keep things tight like we did away to Chelsea in the league and the Carabao Cup. That tactic worked well in both games when we came out with two respectable 0-0 draws and that would be a perfectly acceptable result tonight. If we’re going to do that tonight the players will have to work their socks off and that’s something that we haven’t seen far too often this season.

We have it in us though and we have to hope the players realise this is their only hope of any glory this season and can raise their game accordingly. If they can work hard and give their all from first minute to last the result will be a lot more acceptable no matter what it is. Even a one goal defeat would leave us still in the tie ahead of the second leg next week and we have a pretty good record at home this season despite our recent results.

It’s an awful lot to expect from players who have let us down time after time, but as a fan you need that hope and you never want your team to lose no matter what. The manager has seemed utterly incapable of getting his players up for games or of changing things in game when it’s not working, but he has to try to influence their performance tonight somehow. We have had some fantastic away wins in Europe under Wenger over the years and tonight would be the perfect time for another one. I have little to no expectation of a good result, but I will always live in hope until the players prove me wrong at least.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Half Way There After 3-0 Win At Ostersund

Arsenal played the first leg of their Europa League round of 32 tie away to Ostersund in Sweden yesterday evening. It looked like it could be a tricky game on the face of it on an artificial surface and in the freezing cold, but it turned out to be a fairly routine affair. Before Ostersund realised we aren’t actually very good away from home we were already 2-0 up and the task was too much for them.

Arsene Wenger went pretty much with the expected team as he chose David Ospina in goal, Ainsley Maitland-Niles in midfield and Danny Welbeck in attack. It was a bit of a surprise to see Calum Chambers in the centre of the defence, but maybe he took the opportunity to give Laurent Koscielny a much needed two week break. I would have liked to have seen Sead Kolasinac play at left back too, but it’s going to take an awful lot to shift Nacho Monreal on current form.

It was good to see Maitland-Niles get a shot in his preferred central midfield role and I thought he did reasonably well all things considered. He still has plenty to learn, but I definitely think he shows real promise. He was accompanied by Mohamed Elneny in midfield and maybe it might have been better for him if Jack Wilshere or Aaron Ramsey played with him, but neither of them were in the squad.

With Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan pulling the strings for Arsenal it was always going to be an uphill battle for the home team. They didn’t help themselves by more or less handing us the first two goals through a goalkeeping error and an own goal and we utterly dominated them for the first 25 minutes or so. They came back into the game after that second goal and made a couple of semi decent chances before the break as they tried to make Ospina earn his pay.

The second half was a more even affair, but that man Ozil increased our lead and Ostersund tired as the game petered out which is hardly surprising for a team who’s season has not yet begun. Maybe we could have added to our lead, but at least we managed to keep a clean sheet thanks mainly to Ospina. Hector Bellerin gave a penalty away right at the death, but to the shock and amazement of all Arsenal fans an Arsenal goalkeeper saved a penalty. 

It had been almost four years since the last penalty save by an Arsenal keeper and even longer since Petr Cech saved a penalty. Maybe Ospina could take him aside in training and show what it takes to save a penalty because he has never even looked like saving one. That save gives us a little bit of extra breathing space in the second leg which could come in very handy.

We don’t play again until that second leg, but we do have a Carabao Cup Final against City only three days later. With a three goal lead we can probably leave one or two players out of the team in the second leg so they can be fully ready for that cup final. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Monreal and Ozil on the bench, but Mkhitaryan will certainly play as he is cup tied in the Carabao cup.

Elsewhere I don’t think there will be too many changes with Welbeck more than likely to play up front with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang set to play in the cup final. I think the likes of Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi, Chambers, Mohamed Elneny, Alex Iwobi and Maitland-Niles are all capable of playing on the Thursday night and on the following Sunday too if required. It might not be our strongest team for the second leg, but with a three goal lead to protect it should be more than good enough to see us progress.

All in all last night had plenty of positives even if the performance was far from spectacular. We won and kept a clean sheet away from home and we even had the audacity to save a penalty to boot. Ostersund have done very well at home to some good teams in the Europa League this season, but we were never in any real danger of succumbing to them and adding to their list of famous victories and draws.

It’s still going to be a huge task to win the Europa League this season with a much better line up in the last 32 of the competition this season compared to last season. It’s not totally beyond us though because we have become very much a cup side in the last four or five seasons with Sunday week’s game our fourth final in five seasons. At the moment we have won all of them, but City are a much more difficult prospect and winning the Europa League probably is too.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Ostersund Previewed

With our hopes of a top four finish this season almost finished it’s time for Arsenal to get back to Europa League action with a trip to Sweden in the first leg of their last 32 tie. The Europa League has become an awful lot more important now with the top four almost gone as the winner gains qualification for next season’s Champions League. As it stands it’s definitely our best route to Europe’s premier club competition for next season despite some very good teams standing in our way.

On the face of it we are huge favourites to progress over two legs and even to win this evening. The trouble comes when you look at our away form this season and our inability to overcome any sort of meaningful challenge on the road. When a game starts to go agsinst us away from home we seem unable to find any answers and change the game.

Arsene Wenger seems to realise the importance of the Europa League at this stage in our season and we won’t see a team of reserves and fringe players as we did in the group games. We should see our strongest team today with no game this weekend and it would be ideal if we could put the tie to bed today considering what next week holds. We have the return leg this day week and a Carabao Cup Final date with City only three days later. It would be great to be able to rest some players ahead of that game, but the Europa League is a more important competition.

New boy Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang isn’t eligible today and Alexandre Lacazette has undergone knee surgery which will keep him out for up to six weeks. It looks like the only real option up front is Danny Welbeck with Eddie Nketiah a possibility from the bench too. I’ve never been overly impressed by Welbeck, but he has the chance in these two games to show what he can do after his most recent return from injury. 

If the manager is going to play a strong team he will still be tempted to play David Ospina in goal. As over the hill as Petr Cech might be I still think he is far superior to Ospina, but I would be tempted to sub Ospina in if any tie goes to penalties considering it is going on seven years since Cech saved one I believe. I think we will see Ospina in goal tonight though and I just hope he remembers to stand in front of his line rather than behind it as he so often does. 

I think we might have the ideal opportunity today to reintroduce Sead Kolasinac to the team and maybe even play Ainsley Maitland-Niles in his preferred midfield role too. Ostersund have had a meteoric rise through the leagues in Sweden, but they will have to do something very special to live with us as long as we keep our heads and play the right way. We have only two European trophies to our name and it would be far from bad to give ourselves a chance of adding to that tally.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Crystal Palace Preview

It’s been a rough couple of months for Arsenal both on and off the field as the club seem unable to stop their decline. We have only won twice in nine league games and have dropped points to far too many teams from the lower reaches of the Premier League in those games as well as exiting the FA Cup To Nottingham Forest. Added to that our transfer policy has become a laughing stock as we continue to lose players and add money to a bank balance which was already very healthy after making a profit in the summer window.

With all of that in mind I couldn’t have picked a better time to make a trip to England to see my beloved Arsenal play. Circumstances insisted that I make the trip for this game though as we lost one of our regular crew in a tragic accident late last year and a gang of us are meeting up to raise a glass or two in his memory and watch the team he loved too. As usual our watering hole of choice will be the Tollington as we meet up for a fair few beers before and after the game and the chance to reminisce about Darren.

Who knows what we will be treated to on the pitch by Arsenal, but surely it has to be better than the debacle at Bournemouth last week. The team had no shape or drive and it came as no surprise when Bournemouth turned around our lead to take the three points. What was most annoying for me was that they had to do very little to beat us and we had virtually nothing to offer after going behind.

Sure we were missing some very good players, but what’s the point of having players in the squad if they can’t come in and do a job when they get the chance. Since that defeat Theo Walcott has gone on his merry way to Everton and we look bound to lose Alexis Sanchez to United before the window closes too. Who comes in is anybody’s guess, but knowing Arsenal the player or players won’t be signed until the eleventh hour.

I can’t even bring myself to discuss the Sanchez situation and it’s reached the stage where I just want him the hell out of my club. We need a replacement in at once and the longer he stays without playing the worse it is for a team that desperately lacks quality. We are being linked with players who have that quality and I really hope we can get at least two of them, but experience has taught me not to get my hopes up too high.

At least we will have a few players back in the squad for today with Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal fit to play and Mesut Ozil possibly available too. There are doubts over Ainsley Maitland-Niles who has been sick and that seems to be it in terms of changes from the team that played so badly last week. It would seem our only additional attacking option is Ozil if he can play, but he is the player who can really make a difference. I would be very surprised to see Sanchez in the team, but maybe his inclusion might just help to speed his departure and the arrivals we so desperately need.

I would be very surprised if both Koscielny and Monreal didn’t come back into the team despite the second leg of our Carabao Cup semi final coming up at home to Chelsea on Wednesday night. We need to get some sort of result today to try to regain some confidence ahead of that game against Chelsea and that means playing the strongest team we have. I’m not exactly impressed by the Carabao Cup as a competition, but it’s probably our only hope of a trophy this season.

We just about managed a 3-2 win at Palace over the festive period and that was their only defeat in their last 12 league games. They have been transformed in that time and have recovered from the awful start to the season they had with relegation now looking less likely for them with each passing week. Our home record isn’t bettered by many teams this season and it has been a very long time since we failed to score at home in the league.

Palace have players who can do us a lot of damage on the break or when they turn the ball over in front of our defence and we all know they are Arsenal’s current biggest weaknesses. They have struggled away from home since the start of the season, but they have turned that around and are unbeaten on the road in five games with clean sheets in three of those games. Only Brighton have scored less away goals though and we have to feel we can outscore them if it turns into a shooting match.

I have little or no confidence in Arsene Wenger’s ability to get the best out of these players any more, but I hope to be pleasantly surprised. Whatever the performance I’ll be there cheering them on from first minute to last and I hope to see a performance that would have made Darren a happy man. I’m looking forward to a great day even if I’m nervous that the football will be the only let down on the day.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Find The Parking Brake On Their Bus At Chelsea

In my preview yesterday I didn't hold out much hope of Arsenal repeating their 0-0 Premier League result at Chelsea in the Carabao Cup last night. With a host of injuries to deal with which included three first choice defenders as well as Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil I just couldn't see how we could contain a team we were unable to contain in the league last week with a much stronger team. Arsene Wenger also chose to leave star man Alexis Sanchez on the bench which left us with very little creativity in the team as he opted for a containment policy.

Thankfully I was completely wrong as we rarely looked under too much pressure and coped with anything they had to throw at us with relative ease compared to last week. There were a few scary moments of course, but there was never a time when they completely opened us up and I thought a goal was inevitable. The team played and defended as a team and the mistakes in defence and in front of the defence were kept to an absolute minimum.

The one time I can remember us losing the ball in front of the defence was from a poor Jack Wilshere pass and Granit Xhaka stepped up to take a yellow card for the team to stop the Chelsea attack. I have my issues with Xhaka and I don't think he has performed as well as he should have, but I'm not sure we play a game which suits his particular skill set either. Wilshere was impressive again, but the injury he picked up will rule him out of Sunday's trip to Bournemouth and our injury problems are really mounting at the moment.

Wilshere has gradually improved with each game since his enforced inclusion in the team due to Ramsey's injury. I was worried with the amount of games he had to play over the festive period because of his injury record, but his injury last night was not fatigue related as he sprained his ankle blocking a pass. It will probably mean he's only out in the short term, but I don't expect him to be rushed back considering his problems in the past.

His injury could well open a door for Ainsley Maitland-Niles to play in his preferred position with Francis Coquelin on his way out of the club unless Ramsey can recover by Sunday. If AMN does switch to the centre of midfield we will have to come up with a left back which would mean either Nacho Monreal or Sead Kolasinac would have to recover from injury. AMN might well be the answer to our central midfield issues in the long term, but he still has a lot to learn and he could probably do with a loan spell in that position for another club.

Alexis did come on with 25 minutes to go for Alexandre Lacazette who it appears was ill before the game and nearly didn't make the team at all. Hopefully he will recover in time for Sunday too because again our attacking options are limited with Olivier Giroud still injured. Lacazette needs a goal from somewhere and his current lack of confidence in front of goal was highlighted when a blazed a first time shot high and wide from a good position last night.

If last night taught us anything it's maybe that Per Mertesacker has possibly played for the last time and both Calum Chambers and Rob Holding need to play ahead of him when they are fit. They are better suited to playing as part of a three man central defence for the moment at least and fitted well with Shkodran Mustafi last night for the most part. I don't think we exactly parked the bus, but we made things hard for Chelsea and their star players were kept almost entirely out of the game. The performances of both Eden Hazard and Alvora Morata certainly helped our cause last night and I can only imagine the criticism that would have been levelled at Ozil if he had played as badly as either of them.

Ozil missed out last night again with what seems like a recurring knee injury and it looks to me like the manager might well be picking and choosing his games. He has missed out on some tough away trips recently and been fit to play at home a few days later and maybe he didn't play last night because the game plan wasn't suited to him. If that's the case it's not a bad thing to pick a team with a specific purpose and the manager can take the plaudits today, but would have come in for severe criticism if it had gone the other way.

The injured players will at least have an opportunity to recover a little now with a week between games after we play at Bournemouth on Sunday. We follow that with a home game against Palace a week later before the return game against Chelsea. If the time scales we have been given for most of the injured players are to be believed we should hopefully see most of them back in the squad in the six days between those two league games.

I'm not sure what sort of team we will be able to put out on Sunday though and considering our away form we need to be very concerned about that game. Nothing short of a win will do as we have already lost too much ground on the top four, but we have the chance to close the gap with Liverpool playing at home to City after our game. From our point of view we want a City win, but somebody has to beat City and the sooner the better as they close in our the record of our "Invincibles" so I'm not really sure what I want from the game.

Finally for today we were treated to our first taste of VAR last night and when it was used it backed up the referees decisions both times. The penalty claim by Chelsea in the second half was definitely not a penalty, but I'm not so sure about the penalty claim by AMN in the first half. He stumbled after vaulting a challenge from Victor Moses and by the letter of the law I think that constitutes a penalty as the challenge caused him to fall regardless of contact. It was certainly as much of a penalty as the one Hazard got against us last week, but I don't think there was any contact with AMN and I'm sure that's why it wasn't given. I may be wrong about the rules, but I don't think so, but if I'm not then those viewing the footage were a little confused by them. The only explanation I can think of is that they thought AMN could keep his feet and that's why they didn't give it or they just don't have a clue which is quite possibly a far better explanation.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Nottingham Forest Previewed

It’s FA Cup third round action for Arsenal this afternoon when they travel to Nottingham to face managerless Forest. Arsenal are the cup holders and have won it three times in the last four seasons as well as winning it more times than any other team. Add to that Arsene Wenger’s record as the manager with the most FA Cups to his name and it’s obviously a competition which means an awful lot to us.

We face into the game in the middle of a very busy two month schedule which sees us playing almost twice a week from the start of December to the end of January. Our squad is fairly stretched as it is and we have the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi final at Chelsea coming up on Wednesday night too. Chelsea’s schedule is just as busy as our’s and I’m should they could have done without drawing their third round game at Norwich yesterday and adding a replay to that schedule.

With the league already beyond us the cup yet again takes on added significance although we still have the Europa League and the chase for a top four spot to contend with. Of them all I see the Carabao Cup as being the least important, but we cannot take a two legged semi final against Chelsea too lightly with a Cup Final so near and also because of what defeat could do to our already brittle confidence.

I think we could see a fair deal of squad rotation today and I wouldn’t be surprised to see up to eight changes from the team which drew 2-2 at home to Chelsea in the league on Wednesday night. David Ospina will surely start while I would expect Per Mertesacker and Mathieu Debuchy come into the defence too. In midfield there could be starts for Francis Coquelin and Mohamed Elneny with Theo Walcott, Danny Welbeck and Alex Iwobi all likely to play too. That would probably mean Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Rob Holding and Calum Chambers staying in the team unless the manager switches to a back four instead of the usual three central defenders.

Playing that team would certainly risk our continuation in the competition, but it’s a risk we probably need to take. Forest are sitting in mid-table in the Championship after a fairly unimpressive season so far, but I have no doubt they will relish a home game against on the “big teams” and FA Cup holders. It’s a chance for some of their players to shine and maybe make an impression on whoever their new manager might be.

Despite the Carabao Cup being of secondary importance up to now I think it will take more prominence at this stage of the competition and that’s another reason why so many players will possibly be rested today. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a strong bench though just in case we need to add some firepower late on to get back in the game or go on to win it. It’s certainly a chance for those who start to make an impression, but Maitland-Niles is the only one who has really grabbed that chance when it has presented itself so far this season.

I would love to see AMN in his natural position in the centre of the midfield today and it could happen if we play a back four. The problem would be finding a left back, but I would suggest Debuchy is capable of playing there while Chambers can certainly play at right back if required. With so many changes in the team already I don’t think we will see a back four with those full backs though and there central defenders is the most likely formation.

No matter what personnel have been in our defence this season we haven’t defended well against the bigger and better teams in particular. Forest may not fit into those categories, but one of the reasons we are doing even worse than last season is our comparative lack of goals. We scored so many goals last season that it quite often got our defence out of trouble, but we’re just not scoring as many this season. I just hope we can find our shooting boots from here on in because I cannot see our defending improving judging by what we have seen this season and for far too many seasons to want to remember. I think the chances are we will progress in a tight game today, but we might have to empty some quality from the bench to do so.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Chelsea Preview

The Festive Programme hasn’t gone too well for Arsenal so far as they have lost a little ground on the other teams chasing a top four spot this season. They have only won two of their seven league games since the start of December, but alternatively you could say they are unbeaten in six league games. It depends on how you look at it I suppose, but personally I think the current spate of draws does not auger well for us.

We drew away to Southampton, West Ham and West Brom and all three of them are struggling at the wrong end of the table. While the point at Southampton was welcome as we hardly deserved it we should have taken full points against West Ham and West Brom. We can point at the referee all we want for the ridiculous last minute penalty he gave West Brom, but we didn’t create enough good chances in either game for my liking.

The draw with Liverpool was a trifle fortunate too as we were awful that day except for the five minute spell where we got our three goals. A return of 10 points from seven games isn’t going to keep pace with those chasing a top four finish and we need to turn some of those draws into wins. I commented earlier this season on how the amount of defeats we had suffered was being offset by not drawing other games, but now it seems we have lost the knack of winning tight games.

Speaking of tight games the game with Chelsea should be just that and we really need to come out on top. Our home record so far this season has been very good with eight wins  in our 10 games, but the two games we didn’t win were against teams above us. We conceded three goals against both United and Liverpool at home and we cannot concede that many agsinst Chelsea or we will lose.

We have big problems with injuries going into the game with Nacho Monreal, Sead Kolasinac, Aaron Ramsey, Olivier Giroud and of course Santi Cazorla definitely out and Laurent Koscielny almost definitely out too. Mesut Ozil is still a doubt too and it leaves us with what could best be described as a depleted team. Arsene Wenger has some big decisions to make before the game and those decisions could have a big impact on our display and the result.

I’d take a draw if you offered it to me right now even though we badly need the three points. Chelsea won’t be far from full strength and they had the luxury of leaving Eden Hazard out of their 5-0 stroll against Stoke on Saturday. They have had a day longer to recover and that can make a difference at such a busy time in the season. So many factors point to Chelsea getting the upper hand in this game and we will have to be at our very best to get anything from it.

Speaking of which it’s been a very long time since we were at our best against anybody and doing so with so many players out is a huge ask of those who will play. I hope Ozil is fit because we lacked so much creativity against West Brom without him and Alexis Sanchez tried to drop back and fill that role, but we need Alexis in a more advanced role getting on to passes from Ozil. Whatever our issues might be with two players who will not sign contracts they are still the best players we have.

I would assume the manager will go with three at the back and that would mean Ainsley Maitland-Niles coming in on the left and either Per Mertesacker or Rob Holding as one of the three central defenders if Koscielny doesn’t play. We coped with similar problems defensively against Chelsea when we beat them in the Cup Final in May, but we had more attacking options in that game. We need to get our midfield spot on tonight and that’s a difficult task with the personnel we have available. A win is not beyond us though, but it will take one of those once or twice in a season barnstorming performances we used get so regularly in the past to get the three points. 

On a side note the manager looks like he will probably get a stadium ban for his comments about and to the referee after the West Brom game. I know there are many who would like to see him permanently banned from the stadium, but I can’t see it being of much benefit. I can understand his reaction, but did he really think his comments to the media and the referee would go unpunished and you have to think he is feeling the pressure of expectation. 

When he extended his contract in May or June there were promises of taking the club forward and building for the future, but it’s surely clear to one and all that we’re heading in the opposite direction. For me the only solution is changing the manager because the ownership won’t change and even if it did I can’t see how that would improve what the manager does now. He was a great manager in his day, but for me that day has well and truly passed and if he loves the club as much as he professes to he should open his eyes and do what is best for the club.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Clueless Arsenal Somehow Draw 3-3 With Liverpool

If ever one single game summed up where a team or a club are then it was last night’s 3-3 draw for Arsenal with Liverpool. The team’s confidence was shot going into the game after losing 3-1 at home to United a few weeks ago and they hadn’t played well since then. Last night was something different though because it wasn’t just a case of playing badly they were an awful lot worse than that.

The display in the first half was absolutely awful and I’m struggling to remember the last time I saw Arsenal play so badly. We didn’t create a chance of note in that first half and it was only a mixture of luck and poor Liverpool finishing that kept the score to only 1-0 to them at the break. I hoped for better in the second half, but I had very little confidence of seeing it.

Arsene Wenger went with the same team that struggled to beat Newcastle 1-0 last Saturday which meant Young Ainsley Maitland-Niles continued at right back in a back four as we seem to have finally discarded the experiment with three central defenders. To be honest we never really played three central defenders as Nacho Monreal is a left back. Maybe that’s part of our defensive issues as too many players are being asked to play positions that are alien to them far too often.

Liverpool targeted AMN in that first half in particular and it was his positioning which let him down. It was too easy for players to find space behind him, but you would have to ask what help he was getting from the senior players in the side. They missed a couple of chances on that side before he was finally caught out and Phillippe Coutinho scored with a header to put them 1-0 up.

Mohamed Salah might be the top scorer in the Premier League, but it was his wayward finishing which kept us in the game as he missed two good chances to increase the lead. The ease at which Liverpool opened us was frightening and their ability to terrorise our defence on the break was scary. We offered virtually nothing at the other end in return despite playing against a team who have constantly shown they have no idea how to defend either.

I thought the second half started a little better, but that soon changed when a deflected Salah shot found it’s way past Petr Cech and I genuinely feared the worst at that stage. In a bizarre turn of events we found ourselves ahead within five minutes though as we finally realised the way to beat Liverpool was to attack them. Alexis Sanchez started it with a close range header and he was quickly followed by a pile driver from Granit Xhaka which Simon Mignolet should have saved. Just before those five minutes were up the turnaround was complete when a neat Mesut Ozil finish put us ahead to my surprise and I would imagine Liverpool’s too.

At that stage anything could have happened and Liverpool looked more than a little shocked, but they gradually played their way back into the game. We continued to push forward and they continued to catch us on the break with an equaliser becoming inevitable as the minutes passed. It was Roberto Firmino who delivered the equaliser, but Cech should have done an awful lot better after he got a strong hand to the shot.

The better chances after that fell to Liverpool, but at least we offered some threat and we were a lot better than we were in the first half. I can’t say I was unhappy with the result because I still can’t work out how we managed to get a point from a game where we were completely outplayed for all but five minutes. It leaves us only one point behind Liverpool and them in fourth place, but in truth any team who defends like we did last night won’t finish in the top four.

It’s not very fair to pick individual players out, but both Xhaka and Alex Iwobi were awful in that first half in particular. Added to that we had Laurent Koscielny yet again doing his best to hand goals to the opposition and it’s become a very regular occurrence for him this season. If it wasn’t for the recovery speed of Hector Bellerin in particular at times we would have conceded an awful lot more goals.

I can’t believe a team who practices defending could have defended as badly as we did last night which leads me to conclude we don’t actually practice our defending. The players don’t seem to know what positions to take up, how to track a runner or how to pass to their team mates for that matter. I’d love to be told how wrong I am, but if someone is responsible for that defensive coaching they should be looking for another job by now.

We’ve two tricky away games coming up at Palace and West Brom given our away form this season we should be very concerned about those games. We lost away to both of those teams last season in two of our worst performances of the whole season and there’s a sense of deja vu going into these games. If we can’t improve on how we’re playing at the moment our chances in those games are anyone’s guess and we play at hone to third placed Chelsea after those two games.

Last night’s point was better than we did at home to Liverpool last season, but I thought the performance was even worse. Jurgen Klopp seems to be able to get his team to score goals against us for fun and we don’t seem to have an answer for it. We can blame the players as much as we like, but so much of the blame has to lie with the man who bought those players and who coaches them and picks the team.

It looks to me like the manager is no longer capable of improving players and players quickly become worse than when we sign them. Sead Kolasinac was the best left back in the Bundesliga last season and he can’t get in ahead of AMN now while Xhaka looked like the midfielder we were missing when we signed him, but he most certainly isn’t that now. You have to ask what is going so badly wrong at the club that not one single player is playing to their full abilities or living up to their potential.

The only conclusion for me is the manager and the decision to extend his contract last summer was a mistake. It gave him a chance to leave on a relative high and I don’t know if he will get a chance like that again. We’re stuck with him until at least the end of next season though and I can only see things getting even worse between now and then. 

Defend him as some might it’s impossible to look past the fact that they are his players playing the way he has told them to play and it is going horribly wrong far too often. His team selections and transfer activity are baffling at times and it’s hard to see how there is any plan for progression or improvement. A new man might send us in the wrong direction, but I think that’s a chance we just have to take at this stage because it just is not working under Arsene Wenger.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Liverpool Preview

Arsenal at least managed to get a win under their belts last week when they beat Newcastle to put an end to a run of three league games without a win. They followed that win up with the reserves putting West Ham out of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night and lining up a two-legged semi final with Chelsea next month. On the plus side they didn’t concede a goal in any of those games or the league game previous to the Newcastle game when they drew 0-0 away to West Ham.

As it stands we’re fifth in the league and only a point behind Liverpool going into this game against them and any place up as far as second is there to play for. If we’re going to have a chance of catching the teams above us our away form is going to have to drastically improve and our home form has to hold too. That home form is what is keeping us in touch with the top four with eight wins from nine games and the defeat to United as the only blotch on our copybook.

We have already won at home to Spurs and both Chelsea and City have to visit us too. The results in those games will go a long way to deciding our fate this season and we need to get the three points in the first of them tonight. The defeat at City a few weeks ago didn’t seem to do any damage to our confidence, but the hone defeat to United seems to have had an effect on the players. They need to put that behind them tonight and put in a performance that shows that not only can they finish in the top four, but also that they believe they can do it.

As good as our results have been at home the performances haven’t always matched them and Liverpool are a team who can and will take advantage of any slips tonight. They have won their last four away games and scored 16 goals in those victories, but none of them were against teams as good as Arsenal. They have conceded a lot of goals away from home this season and that has to give us plenty of hope for tonight.

In the reverse fixture back in August we were absolutely awful and probably more than a little lucky to only lose 4-0. The team was all wrong that day and so was the attitude from far too many players, but we won’t see the same team tonight for a few reasons. Having said that I would expect only four changes from that team despite having most of our squad to pick from.

The notable absentees are Shkodran Mustafi and Aaron Ramsey with Olivier Giroud injured too and of course Santi Cazorla has been out for more than a year now. Arsene Wenger picked his team to accommodate Alec Oxlade-Chamberlain that day and he repaid him with an awful performance and by joining Liverpool almost immediately after the match. His inclusion at right wing back meant Hector Bellerin played on the left while Alexandre Lacazette was left on the bench with other new boy Sead Kolasinac.

Things seem to have gone full circle for Kolasinac already as he now appears to be out of favour again as Ainsley Maitland-Niles looks to be the most likely choice at right back. If the team picked in the Carabao Cup is anything to go by then AMN will get the nod and Kolasinac will sit on the bench. If he’s not carrying an injury it’s a slap in the face for a player who was voted the best left back in the Bundeslige last season.

It would be a great opportunity for AMN, but also a risky move from the manager and I hope it doesn’t backfire if he does play. Ultimately he looks like he could be the player we need to bolster the centre of the midfield, but he’s been broken into the team in a position that isn’t his best one. He has done well there in the lower level games he has played there this season, but marking the top scoring player in the Premier League so far this season will be a very tough task for him.

At least we will get to see Lacazette from the start and again if Tuesday’s game is anything to go by we will see Alex Iwobi too. The absence of Ramsey should see Jack Wilshere in from the start too and it would be great to see him have a real influence in such a big game. With his contract up at the end of the season he is playing for his Arsenal future and making an impact tonight would go a long way to convincing the club he has something to offer.

A win tonight would be a huge boost and I think we are more than capable of it, but we really cannot afford to lose either. Besides the three points on offer a defeat could be another huge dent in our confidence with three games coming up in quick succession. A bad run in those games would be detrimental to our top four hopes and we need to start them in a positive fashion.

Mesut Ozil is the player most likely to open Liverpool up on current form and we need another star performance from him tonight. It would be great if Alexis Sanchez could step up to the plate too, but his form has been patchy at best this season. I have no doubt he will be plying his trade elsewhere next season and I only hope he can give us something in his last few months at the club starting tonight.

Liverpool are a little like Arsenal in so far as they have the ability to fall apart just when everything seems to be going their way. If we can put them to the sword tonight we can maybe cause them a few troubles over the next few games and move well ahead of them in the league. We will move up to fourth if we win tonight and Christmas will look just a little better if we are in the top four.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.