49, 49 Undefeated

It was a very good weekend for Arsenal considering they didn’t play and they went out in the last 32 of the Europa League on Thursday night. Firstly only one of the teams ahead of us in the fight for fifth (or maybe even fourth) place managed to win and we have to consider ourselves in with a shout if we can put a decent run together. Secondly what seemed inevitable for Liverpool this season suddenly ended as they fell short of matching the “Invincibles” unbeaten Premier League season.

Liverpool might have the league as good as won already and the pressure was mounting on them to beat all sorts of records on the way to lifting the title. Three of those records went by the wayside when they lost 3-0 away to the team in second last place in the league on Saturday evening. Not only did they fail to match our unbeaten season of 2003/4, but they failed to better our record of 49 unbeaten games and 55 continuous games in which we scored.

The detractors will say there is nothing special about going a season unbeaten and Liverpool have already won as many games as Arsenal won that season. Their points haul so far is certainly incredibly impressive, but the level of consistency we showed to go unbeaten for the whole season was an incredible feat too and Liverpool learned how you cannot let your standards slip for even one game if you want to match it. I have no doubt they will go on to win the league, but you can’t deny their form has dipped since their two week mid season break.

There have been a few times since that incredible 2004 season when I thought others were in with a chance of matching Arsenal as Chelsea and Manchester City in particular seemed almost certain to do so. Each of them failed in their attempts just like Liverpool did and our incredible achievement remains ours alone with the exception of a 19th century team doing so well over 100 years before us. In a season full of disappointments so far that has to be one that we can at least celebrate.

It’s FA Cup action for Arsenal tonight when a place in the last eight is up for grabs at Portsmouth. They’re two leagues below us and on the face of it we couldn’t have asked for a better draw unless it was at home, but Fratton Park is never an easy place to get a result. The result from Thursday night will still be fresh in the memories of the players and they have to show a reaction to that result by advancing in the FA Cup tonight.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mikel Arteta make wholesale changes to the team, but he has to be sure he has enough strength and quality in the starting 11 to get the job done. If he does make a lot of changes I hope he has a very strong bench to call on in case it is needed to get us over the line or back into the game. The FA Cup might not be the most glamorous trophy any more, but it’s still a route to the Europa League and we’re struggling on that front at the moment.

Champions League qualification might be our goal for this season, but the FA Cup is our only back up plan if our hopes of making it or the Europa League through our final league position fail. I hope to see the likes of Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah, Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock, Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi and Rob Holding staking a claim for more game time tonight and given what happened last Thursday they should all believe they have a chance of getting it. I’ll be happy to progress to the next round however we do it and then let the players concentrate on putting some league points on the board over the next few weeks.

That’s it for today.

Arsenal v Southampton Preview

It’s been two weeks since we had to go through the torture of watching Arsenal player, but they’re back in all their glory tomorrow when Southampton come a calling. Since the players went off on their international break quite a lot has happened and not all of it in our corner of North London. That other lot up the road did what quite a lot of us fans think Arsenal should do when they decided to part ways with their manager.

Of course they managed to replace him the very next day when everybody’s favourite manager Jose Mourinho got the job. At least his appointment at Spurs means the rumours of him taking the reins at Arsenal if Unai Emery were to leave can be put to bed. On the face of it Spurs will hope he can bring them that elusive trophy, but I remain to be convinced that it’s a good appointment for them. They have bitten the bullet though while Arsenal seem determined to keep faith in their man despite results and performances indicating his time could and probably should be up.

I could take the results if the performances were at least showing some promise and of course just about any fan will take good results without the performances. We have only won twice in our last 10 league games though and haven’t won at all in our last four. We’ve dropped back to sixth in the table which isn’t the worst position to be in, but the eight point gap to fourth place is already looking difficult for us to make up.

In those last four games we have led in our two home games only to be pegged back by Palace and Wolves and we have lost our two away games to Sheffield United and Leicester. In those two defeats we were in with a real chance until the opposition scored first on both occasions and we were totally incapable of coming back. The exact opposite happened in both home games when the opposition managed to come back against us and Palace even pulled back a two goal deficit.

The combination of not being able to hold a lead when we have one or peg one back when we go behind is a very worrying one and it will cost the manager his job if he can’t change it. The rumours of player unrest persist with Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang among those who could be on their way out if things don’t change. They all have different reasons for wanting to go if you believe the rumours and I’m sure it can’t be doing much good for the squad morale.

As bad as things are we have a chance to make up some ground and maybe even turn things around a little in our next four league games. We play Southampton and Brighton at home while we travel to both Norwich and West Ham and to be honest we quite simply have to take 12 points from those four games. Anything less and the pressure on the manager will be almost unbearable as we play three of the rest of the big six in our following five games.

Southampton are on a very bad run at the moment with only one point in their last seven games, but they have taken seven of their eight points away from home. They have conceded more goals than any other team, but 21 of those 29 goals were conceded at home. They are there to be beaten no matter how poorly we’re playing at the moment and anything other than a win would be a disaster.

The manager needs to pick his strongest team and end his ridiculous trend of picking seven defensive outfield players in every game. We’re at home against a team who concede loads of goals and the way to beat them is to play attacking football and put our best attacking players out from the start. Mesut Ozil has been back in favour in the last two games, but for some bizarre reason Nicolas Pepe was left out of the team in those games.

We can’t defend to save our lives no matter who we’re playing against, but at least we should be able to dominate teams like Southampton enough to make sure our defensive inadequacies are relatively unimportant. If we’re going to make any progress we need players other than Aubameyang to step up and get their fair share of goals. He has half of all of our league goals so far and that’s just not good enough from the rest of the team.

I’m not saying it’s going to be a walkover against Southampton and I fully expect them to give us some problems, but the manager and the players must know things cannot continue as they are. If we’re going to turn things around under the current manager it has to start now and we won’t get a better chance than against Southampton. Three points won’t exactly herald a new beginning, but it’s an awful lot better than any other alternative.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Premier League Fixtures Make For An Interesting Start For Arsenal

The Premier League fixtures for next season were released on Thursday and they present Arsenal with a few challenges. We had a very difficult start to our campaign last season with a home game against City and a trip to Chelsea, but this season seems a touch easier with a trip to Newcastle followed by a home game against Burnley. On the face of it those are easier games, but given our away form for the last two seasons it’s hardly surprising the game against Newcastle will be live on TV with the chance of an upset particularly high.

There were no real expectations of getting anything from those two opening games last season and it wasn’t too much of a surprise when we lost both of them. However, we will be expected to take a minimum of four points from the opening two games next season and we should really be aiming for six points. With a trip to Liverpool and a home game against Spurs to follow before the first international break it makes six points almost a necessity from our first two games.

After that game against Spurs we have a run where we have 12 games in a row against teams who finished below us last season before a busy and difficult festive schedule. During that 12 game run we will also have our Europa League group games to contend with, but four of those six games will be followed by home game in the league. With squad rotation we will hopefully be able to keep the players relatively fresh during that period and possibly get a good return from those games.

Our primary target for next season has to be a top four finish after missing out for the last three seasons and anything that can help us achieve that target is a good thing. We might have finished the season in a bit of a mess, but it can be argued that both United and Chelsea are in an even worse state. If Chelsea can’t overturn their transfer embargo they are in a whole heap of trouble with Eden Hazard already departed while United ended their season in disarray and it will take an awful lot to improve them.

Our actions in the transfer market will give us an indication of what to expect next season with players needed in so many positions. For a start we need to replace Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck, Petr Cech and Stephan Lichsteiner after all of their contracts ended and they either left on free transfers or hung up their boots. Only Ramsey had any real impact on the first team last season and it will take an awful lot to replace one of the few players to come out of last season with any credit.

We didn’t see too much of Welbeck due to injuries and I think we can replace him with one or two of the younger players coming through while saving a lot on his wages. If he could have avoided missing so many games due to injuries in his time at the club I think we would have missed him more, but his injury record makes him a worry for any team considering signing him. Both Cech and Lichsteiner will probably be replaced from what we have already too as neither of them had too much impact on the first team last season too.

There are rumours of just about all of our defenders leaving, but I think we need to try to keep Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding while I think both Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis Papastathopoulos should be kept too. Like so many other Arsenal fans I think Shkodran Mustafi needs to be moved on while Sead Kolasinac and Callum Chambers are both rumoured to be surplus to requirements too. We definitely need to sign some defenders who can help to cut out the individual errors that lead to so many of the goals we concede.

In midfield there are rumours of Granit Xhaka being surplus to requirements or maybe even wanting to go to play in the Champions League while Lucas Torreira has made it known that he’s not too fond of life in London. I think we really need to hold on to Torreira while I’m not so sure on Xhaka. When he’s good he can have a real influence on our control of a game, but he just does not seem to learn from his mistakes as his lack of positional awareness and perpensity to give the ball away cost us dearly time after time.

I can’t say I’m looking forward to next season too much, but the troubles of some of our rivals could open the door for us. I can’t see us challenging for the title and I would be very surprised if it isn’t a two horse race between City and Liverpool like it was last season. I’m far from convinced Spurs can do any better than they did this season and I think they’re another team who could and probably should be in our sights.

While I’m still far from convinced Unai Emery is the manager to lead us forward I’m also pretty sure he’ll still be here come the new season. While our final position was marginally better than the previous season and we collected a few more points too as well as reaching the Europa League final it was still a failure because of our inability to make the Champions League. If we can break into the top four next season it will have to be judged as some form of success and it might well be enough for Emery to continue in the job.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Wolves Previewed

It looks like the fight for a top four finish is going to go right to the wire this season with Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea and United all still holding out hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League. As it stands Spurs are in the best position of the three and their run in is probably the easiest too. Arsenal are still in a pretty good position too despite losing at home to Palace on Sunday, but that defeat ended the room they had for an error with four games still to play.

They’re a point behind Chelsea with a game in hand and superior goal difference going into tomorrow night’s game at Wolves. United are a further two points behind Arsenal before they play at home to City tomorrow night and their goal difference is in a real mess. With United playing at home to Chelsea on Sunday one or both of them will drop more points and I will be very surprised if City don’t beat United too.

While the ball is still in our court we really need to get something from Wolves to move ahead of Chelsea and move further away from United. We still have three more games to go after Wolves and having three of our last four games away from home doesn’t help when you consider our away record this season. Those away results have improved a little recently with victories at Huddersfield and Watford and a draw at Spurs in their last four away games.

We also lost at Everton in that run and to be honest the only good performance was at Spurs. We were very lucky to beat 10 man Watford while the win against bottom club Huddersfield was far from convincing. The defeat at Everton was possibly our worst performance of the season and another performance like that will not be good enough to get anything from Wolves.

Our biggest problem at the moment is our fixture congestion added to a small squad and Unai Emery is struggling to put out a team that can get a result from game to game. Our midfield on Sunday just wasn’t up to the task while individual errors at the back handed Palace their goals. While the manager might have got his original team selection wrong he changed it enough at half time to get the win we so badly needed, but those errors proved so crucial.

If he can bring both Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka back into the team against Wolves I think we might exert enough control in midfield to give ourselves a real chance. At least we can recall Sokratis Papastathopoulos from suspension, but I would be very surprised if Laurent Koscielny starts again considering how much game time he has had in the last two weeks as well as his age and the fact he’s not too long back after a long term injury.

The manager has to balance his team selection enough to leave something for Sunday’s trip to Leicester while giving ourselves every chance of beating Wolves too. It’s not going to be an easy task and it’s made tougher by our upcoming Europa League semi final first leg at home to Valencia on Thursday of next week. After Wolves it’s Sundays and Thursdays for us until the end of the season unless of course we beat Valencia to make it to the final which is two and a half weeks after our last league game.

Our other two league games are at home to Brighton and away to Burnley and I think we will probably have to win them both to finish in the top four. We could lose to either Wolves or Leicester as long as we beat both Brighton and Burnley and more than likely still finish in the top four. If United lose to City it should take only seven points in our last four games to finish ahead of them while the same amount of points should be enough too if Chelsea were to lose to United next weekend. It’s all getting very tight and complicated, but at least it’s in our own hands.

I digress just a little from my Wolves preview and to be honest there isn’t too much I can say. They have a very good record against the top six teams in the Premier League and we were probably a little lucky to get a point at home to them in November. They will look to hit us on the break and that’s where we are probably at our weakest. Palace might have scored their three goals from set pieces, but until that game we had a very good record defending set pieces this season.

I can’t say I’m overly confident of Arsenal getting something from Wolves, but then again Wolves haven’t looked good since they lost their FA Cup semi final to Watford. They might raise their game against one of the big boys, but then again with little to play for they might not quite be at the races. It’s a game where the result is all important and performances aren’t overly important at this stage of the season with so many games, such a thin squad and so much at stake.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Napoli Nobbled While Watford Await Arsenal

Before our Europa League quarter final first leg at home to Napoli I said it was vital for us to keep a clean sheet and hoped that we could possibly take a 2-0 lead into the second leg next week. I hoped the team could come up with a performance similar to the ones which helped us to win at home to Spurs, Chelsea and United this season to try to offset our incredibly poor away form for the past few months. The team delivered all of those last night and despite the feeling that it could have been more we have to be happy with taking that 2-0 lead into the second leg.

It’s still not going to be easy over there and we might well have to score an away goal to insure our qualification for the last four. I am very hopeful that we will make the semi finals though and there’s a very real prospect of meeting Chelsea in the final in Baku next month. I’m not counting any chickens though and our away form is probably the main reason for that.

The intensity of our performance was the key for me last night and the ability of our two wing backs to get behind their defence was a crucial factor too. Sead Kolasinac in particular might not have always picked out the right pass last night, but if he can continue to get into those positions we will score from them. Ainsley Maitland-Niles was like a different player from the one we saw at Everton last Sunday, but to be fair to him he was far from the only player who underperformed in that game.

We need to find that intensity in our remaining away league games if we’re going to get the points we need to finish in the top four. I’m not sure if it’s anxiety on the part of the players or if Unai Emery is getting them to play more conservatively away from home, but whatever it is it needs to change. We clearly cannot keep a clean sheet on our travels and the only way to counter that is to make sure we score at least twice for which we will have to offer an awful lot more in attack.

Of course part of our problem at Everton was the lack of control in midfield and the return of Lucas Torreira from suspension is a huge boost. He showed how much we missed him last night and he has to be in from the start in every game from here on in once he’s fit to play. Hopefully missing three games through suspension will have given him a little rest to recharge his batteries ahead of the business end of the season.

If we are going to make it to the Europa League Final I think it would be a huge advantage to us if we had already booked a Champions League spot for next season before the game. If that final was our only route to the top tier of European football it might increase the pressure on the players and we could do without that ahead of a final. Of course I would gladly sacrifice our place in the final if it meant we finished in the top four, but let’s be greedy for the moment and hope for both.

I think the return of Laurent Koscielny was another added bonus last night and we always look stronger defensively with him in the team. He was on hand to cover Nacho Monreal time after time last night when Napoli got in behind him on our left. I think Nacho still has a little to learn about the positioning of the left sided central defender in a back three/five despite the amount of time he has played the game.

Hopefully we can welcome Granit Xhaka back soon to add to the alternatives in midfield. I thought Torreira and Aaron Ramsey worked really well together last night, but Xhaka has a lot to offer in the middle too. I won’t say too much about Ramsey as the thought of his departure at the end of the season for free is quite hard to get my head around. He does look like he’s determined to leave on a high though and he has a penchant for scoring goals in Cup finals too.

Anyway it’s onwards to Watford on Monday night and it’s going to be far from easy for us. Our away form added to their achievement of reaching the FA Cup Final could make life tough for us, but I’m hoping they might just take their eye off the ball after reaching that cup final. If we can catch them still in party mood it might be enough to give us three more crucial points in our fight to finish in the top four.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Napoli Preview

Arsenal face one of their toughest home games of the season tomorrow night when Napoli come to London for the first leg of their Europa League quarter final. Napoli are currently second in their domestic league, but they have absolutely no chance of catching Juventus and they will have to settle for the runners-up spot. They’re a very good team though and more than capable of causing Arsenal some very real problems on the night without even considering what might happen in the second leg.

Given Arsenal’s abysmal away form I think a win in the home leg is absolutely crucial and we really need to keep a clean sheet too. The game at Everton on Sunday showed just how disfunctional we are away from home and it left our hopes of finishing in the top four in real doubt. With four of our last six Premier League games away from home we might have to depend on the Europa League as our route into next season’s Champions League and progression to the semi-finals would certainly be a great boost for the team.

If we’re going to progress I think we will need to get a few of the players who missed the Everton game back and hopefully both Laurent Koscielny and Granit Xhaka will have recovered from their respective injuries in time to play against Napoli. Lucas Torreira will of course be available as he was only suspended on Sunday and that domestic ban has finished so he can hopefully have an influence in the final six league games too. Aaron Ramsey didn’t start on Sunday either as he was carrying a knock, but he didn’t appear to show any ill effects when he came on.

Unai Emery surely has to go with his strongest possible line up and we are at least helped by not having our next league game until next Monday when we pay a visit to Watford. Petr Cech is our cup goalkeeper so he will start, but after that I hope to see a Koscielny and Sokratis Papastathopoulos combination in the centre of the defence with Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles either side of them. If he opts for three central defenders I would prefer to see Nacho Monreal get the nod over Shkodran Mustafi, but I imagine Mustafi would benefit from that decision.

I think he will go with three central defenders which will put an onus on the full-backs to do an awful lot of our attacking and try to get behind the Napoli defence in wide areas. If there’s a midfield axis of Torreira and Xhaka I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ramsey and Mesut Ozil in front of them with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as the lone striker. The other option is to leave probably Torreira out and put Ramsey beside Xhaka with Alexandre Lacazette playing up front with Aubameyang.

All of those options would leave no place in the team for Alex Iwobi or Henrikh Mkhitaryan which would be tough on Iwobi who was one of the few players not to fail miserably on Sunday, but he only played for the final 15 minutes. Mkhitaryan hasn’t looked sharp since returning from his injury and he was in great form before it. Hopefully he can regain that form soon because there is no doubt we need his class before the end of the season.

We’re well and truly into the business end of the season now and Arsenal are still right up there in the fight for a top four finish as well as in the last eight of the Europa League. I still can’t say I’m overly confident of them achieving either goal due mainly to our awful away form and the amount of goals we concede. Before the last round we were second favourites behind Chelsea, but Napoli have moved ahead of us which gives you an idea of how serious a threat they are to us. The betting is very close though and anyone who has seen Chelsea in recent months would be equally apprehensive about their chances as I am of Arsenal’s.

What we need in the first leg is the sort of performance we saw at home to Spurs, Chelsea and United this season and those games proved the players have it in them. If we can keep that elusive clean sheet and get at least a couple of goals I think we have a real chance of making it to the semi-finals, but it’s going to take a monumental effort from every player from the first minute to the last. It would be great to make it that far though and maybe even welcome Santi Cazorla back to the Emirates if his Villarreal team can overcome Valencia in their quarter-final match up.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Brighton Previewed

The 3-1 win at home to Burnley on Saturday was very welcome for Arsenal and I was a lot happier with it after the results of the other games later that day. City lost at home to Palace and Chelsea lost at home to Leicester which left Arsenal level on points with Chelsea, but behind them on goal difference. With the season almost halfway over it leaves us in a good position to push on and challenge for a top four spot and the Champions League football that comes with it.

With so many games coming so quickly at this time of year it can be a strain on any squad and the injuries are building up for Arsenal. With Hector Bellerin, Danny Welbeck, Rob Holding, Dinos Mavropanos and Emile Smith-Rowe already ruled out we have learned that Henrikh Mkhitaryan will be our for six weeks with an injury he picked up in the Carabao Cup defeat to Spurs and Nacho Monreal will probably miss the Brighton game with the knock he picked up on Saturday. Hopefully Shkodran Mustafi will be fit to play in that game as our defensive options are severely limited at the moment.

I’m not the greatest fan of Mustafi, but we need to get him back to the centre of our defence so that Granit Xhaka can play in midfield. All the statistics point to Xhaka’s contribution in midfield being crucial to how we play and our attacking output has suffered in recent weeks with him being called upon to fill in for injured players in the defence. We can put out a strong back four or five if Mustafi returns while still leaving Xhaka to fulfill his duties in midfield.  

Mesut Ozil returned on Saturday against Burnley and played a large part in our attacking output in that game without convincing anyone he can or will do the defensive work he needs to do to keep his place. With Mkhitaryan injured there will be an emphasis on Ozil to stay fit and put in the performances we know is capable of putting in. The rumours persist of Unai Emery’s unhappiness with him for various reasons, but he is the player most likely to open the defence of any team we come up against.

Both Pierre-Emireck Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette started against Burnley, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least one of them held back with Saturday’s trip to Liverpool in mind. I have no doubt the manager would like to rotate the team more ahead of that game, but needs must and three points at Brighton are urgently required. With Chelsea facing a tricky trip to Watford this weekend it opens up the chance for us to move into the top four if we can beat Brighton.

We lost this fixture 2-1 last season under Arsene Wenger and Brighton have only lost two home games so far this season in the Premier League. Our away results are far superior this season compared to last season and we have a very good chance of bettering that result from last season. With our defence struggling week in and week out we need our attacking players to be at their best to get the drop on Burnley.

I have no doubt Brighton will go for a similar approach to the one Burnley employed on Saturday as they try to pressurise us any way they can. They have three red cards in their last seven games and Burnley certainly had some success in the second half against us on Saturday when they stepped up the physical aspect of their game. The Arsenal players seem more adept at handing that approach since Emery took the reins, but referees seem to have little interest in protecting our players from that “physical “ approach to the game.

If we can take the three points it will leave us on 40 points at the midway point ahead of one of our toughest games of the season on Saturday. We certainly won’t have it all our own way, but we’re more than capable of getting our fifth away win of the season.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Manchester United Previewed

After Sunday’s fantastic performance against Spurs it’s straight into the Lion’s Den tomorrow night when Arsenal play away to Manchester United. Unai Emery got his first win against one of the other top six teams in that game and he has the chance to make it back to back wins against other top six teams in this game. It’s never easy to go to Old Trafford, but United are a team in crisis at the moment and we have to think we can make things even worse for them.

The passion and commitment we showed against Spurs was commendable and we need more of the same tomorrow night. The manager yet again changed things around when he needed to and those changes proved crucial on the day. I said in my preview that he had to find a way to beat Spurs and his in game problem solving is looking very good at the moment.

That win put us into fourth place above Spurs and we’re eight points ahead of United going into this game. A top four finish won’t be easy for us this season with five teams opening a gap over the rest of the table, but we’re in a much better position than United. Not only have their results been poor, but they have played badly and they cannot stop conceding goals either. Added to that the turmoil in their dressing room and with the manager is casting a huge cloud over the club and it seems only a matter of time before Jose Mourinho is on his way.

Despite all of their problems we still have the perpensity to struggle away to United as we have done all too often in the past. If we allow them to play their game and dominate us we will find it hard and we have to attack them and put them under pressure from the start like we did against Spurs. They are there for the taking though and I genuinely think we can take them.

We are now unbeaten in 12 league games and have won four of our six away games with our only away defeat coming in our first away game at Chelsea. Only Spurs have scored more away goals and they have only got one more away goal despite playing three more away games than us. We have scored in all of our away games and haven’t failed to score since our opening game against City.

The boss is unlikely to make too many changes to the team that beat Spurs, but he will be forced to make at least one with Granit Xhaka suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season on Sunday. Matteo Guendouzi is the most likely replacement for him, but they are very different players. As much as I like Guendouzi I think Xhaka is very important to the way we play, despite his errors, and we will miss him against United.

Thankfully we have Lucas Torreira in the team and he seems to get better and better with each game. We picked him up for an absolute bargain price in today’s market and somebody, somewhere in the club deserves a lot of credit for scouting him and signing him. If we’re going to beat United we have to control the midfield and Torreira’s role will be even more important with Xhaka out.

United’s defence has been poor this season and they have an awful lot of injury problems in that defence at the moment too. In Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang we have the top scorer in the Premier League and he is the man to take advantage of that dodgy United defence. Whether he plays up front with or without Alexandre Lacazette he is the player who can win us any game at the moment.

I haven’t mentioned Mesut Ozil so far and it seems he might have fallen foul of the manager. He’s by far our highest paid player and we really pushed the boat out to get him to sign a new contract earlier this year, but if the reports are to be believed he’s out of the team because the manager doesn’t think he can play the way he wants all of his players to play. He’s an incredibly talented player and it’s hard to believe he won’t find his way back into the team, but on the manager’s terms. Of course he might have an actual injury and that could be why he’s out of the team at the moment, but I doubt it.

It would be great if we could go to United and take the three points which might just be the final straw for Mourinho’s reign. Not much would make me happier than seeing an Arsenal victory at United getting him the bullet, but I’ll be more than happy if we just take the three points. I think we can most definitely do just that if we approach the game in the same manner that we approached Sunday’s game.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Spurs: NLD Preview

Arsenal are unbeaten in 11 league games and in 18 in all competitions going into the first North London derby of the season today. They haven’t exactly been impressive in all of those games, but Unai Emery has found a way for his players to get results in each of those games. Today is going to be a really big test of his progress so far and he needs to find a way for his players to get a result from this game too.

So far he hasn’t done too well against the rest of the top six after losing the opening two games of the season at home to City and away to Chelsea. We did better at home to Liverpool with a well deserved draw, but a win against one of those top six today would be the boost the team needs ahead of a very busy December. Of course his first win against one of the other top six teams coming against Spurs would ingratiate him further with the Arsenal fans.

He has a few decisions to make ahead of the game, but the players should be well rested at least after a team made up mostly of the youngsters and fringe players won 3-0 away to Vorskla on Thursday evening. It was a long trip to a game which had to be moved to Kiev and a very good result and performance too. That win meant we will top our group and we can look forward to a favourable draw in the last 32 despite having one group game left to play.

We played three central defenders against Bournemouth last week and the manager may be tempted to do so again today. If he goes with two it has to be Rob Holding plus one other despite Holding playing on Thursday night. I know we have been more than a bit dodgy in defence at times this season, but Holding has been our best central defender for me.

In midfield the axis of Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka is sure to continue and I can’t wait to see Torreira get stuck into Spurs. The boss has to decide what other players he will play in the advanced roles ahead of those two and those choices could make or break the game for us. I’d be very surprised if Mesut Ozil wasn’t back in the team and I’d like to see Alex Iwobi play too.

If Iwobi plays it has to be on the left and the inclusion of both Pierre-Emireck Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette would prevent that. Lacazette missed out through injury last week and the chances are he will play if he’s fit today. It wouldn’t surprise me Aubameyang started today though with Lacazette maybe getting the nod at United on Wednesday night.

If we play Aubameyang centrally today and leave Lacazette on the bench it would mean Ozil could play his preferred and best role behind him, but the question is who plays on the right then. Henrikh Mkhitaryan has played there at times this season, but with little success and it’s a position we don’t really have a player to fit at the moment. Mkhitaryan has the ability to take any team apart, but I don’t think he’s best suited to playing wide on the right.

That still leaves Aaron Ramsey on the fringes and it looks like it could increasingly become his role as the season progresses. His contract negotiations seem to have finished and it looks like he will be on his way at the end of the season. Maybe that’s why the manager is keeping him in the fringes at the moment or maybe he thinks others have more to offer to the team.

With Aubameyang up front we have the ability to hit Spurs on the break, but we have to be very aware of their ability to do the same to us. Heung-Min Son is very quick and we have proved to be far more vulnerable on the break than I would like this season. We have to be aware of that threat and do all we can to cut it out wherever and however we can.

We’re 13 games into the season and we still haven’t led a game at half time, but thankfully our second half performances have been a lot better. It would be great to get that first half statistic out of the way today of all days and to do it in some style too. If the first half doesn’t go our way it’s good to know we can and have done so well in the second half of so many games.

I won’t say three points are a must have today, but they would be a huge boost to a team starting to find it’s feet under the manager. We have the ultimate goal poacher in Aubameyang and given the chances he can be the player to beat Spurs today. We need the right tempo and commitment from first minute to last and the players need to understand how much this game means to the fans. If the players can do just that then they will have those fans right behind them and it could be the catalyst we need ahead of a month with so many games.

Iwobi, Ozil, Miki, Ramsey

Aubameyang, Lacazette 

Them on the break

Set pieces

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Go For Their Elevenses

Arsenal went to Sporting Lisbon last night looking for their eleventh win in a row in all competitions. This was the third game in their Europa League group and the other two games came during that run which meant we had a 100% record. Sporting had won their opening two games too which gave an added edge to the game with the winners becoming favourites to win the group.

The Europa League might be European football’s secondary competition, but Porto had only lost once at home in almost two years and the team that beat them was Barcelona. They were more than capable of giving a rotated Arsenal team a tough ride if we weren’t up to the task in hand. While winning wasn’t ultra important in the group the chance to keep our winning streak going was one we didn’t want to give up on.

Unai Emery made six changes to the starting 11 that came from behind to win 3-1 at home to Everton on Monday night. Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Mohamed Elneny, Aaron Ramsey, Matteo Guendouzi, Danny Welbeck and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang came into the team with Hector Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi, Lucas Torreira, Mesut Ozil, Alex Iwobi and Alexandre Lacazette making way. Granit Xhaka continued in the left back role that he played in for the last 20 minutes on Monday night while Stephan Lichsteiner switched to right back as Rob Holding kept his place yet again. Xhaka switching to left back meant we saw a combination of Guendouzi and Elneny in midfield and it’s still a combination which fails to convince me.

Guendouzi is making so much progress since joining us in the summer that it’s a joy to watch him, but it’s hard to see where Elneny is going at the club. He’s not the most spectacular player and he looks a fair way short of the level of Guendouzi never mind Torreira. It can’t be easy for him and our squad needs the depth he offers, but I can’t see us controlling a game with him in the team.

The first half wasn’t much to write home about with very little happening at either end, but Arsenal picked up the pace after the break. They dominated that second half and that domination only increased when Torreira came on for Elneny around the hour mark. His ability to control a game and drive the team forward is a joy to watch and he looks more and more like the player we have needed for years with each passing game.

In that second half Aubameyang had a couple of one on ones with the keeper after we found good passes in behind them, but he couldn’t make either chance pay. The first was wide on the right of the goal and he probably should have gone for the far post, but went on the near side. He got in on the left the next time and had to go with his left foot which meant he couldn’t do an “Henry” into the far corner and the keeper made a good save from an attempted clip over him. Maybe he wasn’t as spectacular as he was when he came off the bench on Monday night, but then again he didn’t have Ozil to pull the strings.

When the goal came it was Welbeck who got it after he took advantage of a slip from the Sporting central defender to finish crisply through the keeper’s legs. He had an earlier effort disallowed after he was rather harshly adjudged to have push a defender before an excellent header back across the keeper in the top corner. He has only had a bit part to play with Aubameyang and Lacazette ahead of him, but he has done very well and has five goals already from his limited chances.

All in all it wasn’t exactly a game to write home about, but it was a job well done in a stadium where away teams simply don’t win. It’s kept our incredible winning streak going and can only help to strengthen the belief and confidence in the team as well as letting the first choice players know they need to keep looking over their shoulders with others looking to take their places in the team. As I said in my preview the game away to Palace on Sunday is far more important, but it’s nice to be going into that game on the back of 11 consecutive wins and a clean sheet too.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Newcastle United Previewed

The pesky international break is over at last and it’s back to real football for Arsenal with a trip to Newcastle United in the Premier League. Last season we got pretty used to Sunday games due to our Europa League commitments and this could be our last 3pm kick off on a Saturday afternoon for quite a while. The Europa League returns on Thursday night when FC Vorskla come to the Emirates Stadium to play us and the Newcastle game will be our last away game in the Premier League on a Saturday at 3pm until at least December.

We go into the game on the back of consecutive victories over West Ham and Cardiff after we had lost our opening two games against City and Chelsea. West Ham and Cardiff might not exactly be the strongest teams in the Premier League, but those two wins were very important for us. They have given Unai Emery some crucial breathing space as he attempts to turn our players into a functioning team.

So far he has gone with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang up front in every game, but Alexandre Lacazette keeps coming off the bench and making a telling contribution. We look like a better attacking outfit when they are playing together and he has to decide whether Lacazette has done enough to play from the start. Of course to play them both together would mean someone else has to miss out and he certainly has a few decisions to make.

With what’s mostly a double pivot in midfield it only leaves two other attacking places in the team and at least five players fighting for those places. For me Mesut Ozil has to play and it would leave a straight choice between Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Aaron Ramsey for the other place. With so many games to play there will be chances for everyone to make an impression and it’s important that the manager has some genuine choices when he’s picking his team.

Since his arrival Lucas Torreira hasn’t started a game either, but he’s another player who has made a genuine impact from the bench. He will become a mainstay of the team fairly soon and it’s only a matter of time before he becomes one of the first names on the teamsheet. It’s a question of who will play alongside him and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Granit Xhaka get a chance to show his ability to do so.

Matteo Guendouzi has made a huge impression since joining us in the summer and his progress has been far ahead of schedule so far. I don’t think giving Torreira and Xhaka a chance to play together would harm Guendouzi and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as the midfield rock for our Europa League campaign. The manager is very fond of making early substitutions too which should mean Guendouzi has plenty of chances to continue his progression.

The defence more or less picks itself at the moment although I would like to see Bernd Leno get a chance to show if he can play out from the back any better than Petr Cech has being doing so far. Cech is struggling with the ball at his feet, but his shot stopping has been better so far this season. Again I think Leno will get his chance in the Europa League on Thursday night and it might take a fairly spectacular fail from Cech to give Leno a chance in the league. That disaster has been coming for a while and I just hope it doesn’t cost us too dearly when it happens.

The other question in defence I suppose is Hector Bellerin managing to keep Stephan Lichsteiner out of the team. I have no doubt Lichsteiner is a better defender, but our two fullbacks are being asked to do an awful lot of attacking at the moment and Bellerin is certainly offering a lot in the final third. Bellerin has his detractors, but I think he still has an awful lot of potential and I hope Lichsteiner can help him to fulfill that potential.

We have made plenty of chances in our last three games and we scored eight goals in those games. The problem has been at the other end where the manager must realise he has a huge job to do to make us defend better. It doesn’t seem to matter who plays or what formation we use the players just seem incapable of doing the basics far too often. As bad as we were defensively under Arsene Wenger for the last few seasons we seem to be almost worse at the moment if that’s possible. I don’t know if we’re capable of shutting up shop and playing a defensive game and I think attack is most definitely the best form of defence for us.

Newcastle have only taken one point so far and that was in a scoreless draw at Cardiff. We put three goals past Cardiff in our last game and probably should have scored more, but Cardiff hadn’t got a goal to their name in their opening three games before that game. If we’re going to beat Newcastle we will have to open up what has been a pretty good defence so far while making sure we aren’t too vulnerable at the back.

Newcastle have lost three of their four games, but the fixture list has been very unkind to them so far. They have lost 2-1 at home to both Spurs and Chelsea as well as losing 2-1 at City and they can’t be looking forward to playing another one of the top six teams. We are the most beatable of the top six though and Newcastle might just decide to have a go at us unlike what they did against Chelsea and City in particular.

I’m not so sure how it would go if they decided to have a go at us, but I think our superior firepower would give us the edge. When supposedly lesser teams did it to us away from home last season we couldn’t cope and our away record was abysmal. Our two away games this season have had 10 goals in them and it looks like a shootout could be the best way for us to improve on last season’s away record.

I hope to see Aubameyang and Lacazette start together and I think they could be the players to give us an edge. With the pkayers we have behind them the chances should come and hopefully they can put enough of them away to take the three points. The manager has a huge job to do and he has to keep trying to win games as he slowly gets the players used to the way he wants them to play. No team in the Premier League is easy to beat, but I think we can definitely take the three points home to London.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Cardiff City Previewed

Arsenal managed their first win of the season last week when they came from behind to win 3-1 at home to West Ham. While the performance might not have been the greatest the first competitive win under Unai Emery was important and it’s us something to build on. After losing the first two games against City and Chelsea a win was a most and now we need more wins to go with it.

It’s going to take a long time for the new manager to change everything he has to change, but in the meantime we have to stay competitive and keep winning as many games as possible. Our defensive weakness is the real concern in the team and it looks like it could take a long time and maybe a few new faces for it to change. We’re still not defending as a team and we’re far too prone to individual errors, but hopefully time and hard work will cure those ills.

The biggest problem last week, besides our defending, was our inability to control the game and we made a poor West Ham team look good far too often. The manager is still trying and testing his players and he hasn’t yet found a balanced midfield who can control the game while protecting the defence. Lucas Torreira arrived at a fairly high cost in the summer and the time for him to play from the start must surely be upon us. He looks like he could be the disciplined defensive midfielder we need and it’s important for him to become an intrical part of the team as soon as possible.

Mesut Ozil missed out on that win over West Ham through illness, but he should be fit to play against Cardiff. He has his doubters, but when he’s at his best he has few who can match him and the manager has to find a way to get the best out of him. Ozil has had his much publicised problems, but he is the player who can make that team tick and create the chances for our strikers to score.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang arrived in January and immediately started scoring goals like the striker we had been hoping for. I was very confident he would keep scoring those goals this season, but it hasn’t happened for him just yet. He has missed his fair share of chances in the first three games, but surely it’s just a matter of time before the goals start coming quick and fast. He is one of the best strikers in the game and I think he just needs that first goal to get the ball rolling.

With Aubameyang as first choice striker it has meant Alexandre Lacazette has had to take a back seat and it can’t be easy for him. He’s only been at the club just over a year and he arrived with a great scoring record too. He has looked good when he has come on in each of our games so far, but it doesn’t look like the manager is prepared to play both him and Aubameyang together from the start.

We know what to expect from Cardiff tomorrow and it certainly won’t be pretty, but Neil Warnock teams never are. They’ll be as physical as possible and try to harry us and intimidate us on and off the ball. The one crucial factor they are missing is genuine quality and that’s where we have a huge advantage and we have to make that advantage count.

They have kept clean sheets in two of their three games so far, but crucially they have failed to score in all of those games. If we can defend properly we can make sure they continue that scoreless streak and then it’s a matter of opening up their defence enough to get the goals we need. We showed plenty of attacking intent in our only away game against Chelsea and we need to continue with that attacking intent while keeping our defence intact.

We seem to be making real inroads on the right side of our attack at the moment with Hector Bellerin almost playing as a winger rather than a defender. In a four man defence that’s a big risk unless someone can cover for him and that’s where Torreira comes in. If Bellerin and Henrikh Mkhitaryan can continue to cut balls back towards the penalty spot we should make the chances we need to win the game.

Our away form was pretty dismal last season and it was the main reason we finished so far outside the top four. That away form needs to improve drastically and it needs to start improving tomorrow against Cardiff. We have the players to get the win and we just need those players to get it right on that day to continue our improvement.

Elsewhere the draws for the Europa League group stages and the third round of the Carabao Cup have been made and we know our opponents in each of them. It’s a home game against Brentford in the Carabao Cup later this month while we’re joined by Sporting Lisbon, Qarabag and Vorskla in our Europa League group. All of those fixtures will certainly stretch our squad and give plenty of opportunities to those players who are looking for game time. 

Before any of that can happen we have a dreaded international break and we have to hope all of our players come back intact and injury free. One player who we don’t have to worry about is Reiss Nelson who has gone out on a season long loan to Hoffenheim after signing a new contract at Arsenal. He really looks like one for the future and hopefully he can get plenty of first team football in Germany to help him progress as a player.

International breaks can be long and tedious, but they’re always a lot better when you go into them on the back of a win. Here’s hoping we can do just that tomorrow and then spend two weeks talking about the progress we’re making rather than having to listen to the recriminations that would inevitably follow a defeat. 

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

The Pressure Mounts On Arsenal Today

I suppose as things go for a new manager Unai Emery has had a free pass on his first two games considering who the opposition were. Expectations weren’t particularly high for the games at home to City and away to Chelsea and the results went the way we probably expected, but we had hoped they would be different. That free pass ends today though when we play at home to West Ham.

We’re just outside the relegation zone on goal difference with no points and five goals conceded from our first two games. The manager has seen the scale of his task in those two games and he must realise the job has to do on our defence is a massive one. While we looked good in attack in the first half against Chelsea in particular last week, our defence looked as vulnerable as ever and maybe even more so.

We play a West Ham team who have lost their first two games too and in worse fashion than us. They lost their opening game 4-0 away to Liverpool and they lost 2-1 at home to Bournemouth last week after taking the lead in that game. There seems to be huge unrest already despite massive investment in the summer and they have a fair degree of injury worries too.

Over the years of the Premier League they have been a bit of a thorn in our side in home ganes in particular, but they cannot be allowed to get anything from this game. We have to show that the new manager is having an effect on the players and put away a West Ham team that look devoid of confidence.

When it comes to the team today I don’t expect to see too many changes from the one that lost at Chelsea last week. The manager seems happy to use his bench early in the game and he’s very open to changing things as the game progresses. He does have a few decisions to make though and those decisions could have a huge bearing on our performance.

In defence there are calls for Stephan Lichsteiner to be given the nod ahead of Hector Bellerin, but I would be very surprised to see Bellerin on the bench. As good as Lichsteiner is it would be a real slap in the face to Bellerin to leave him out and he’s definitely not the only defender struggling at the moment. There has been a fair deal of criticism of his efforts going forward too, but he had a large part to play in much of our good play on the right side last week.

Elsewhere in defence there aren’t too many choices unless he decides to leave Shkodran Mustafi out, but it would be a huge risk to throw someone else in at the deep end with a team that still seem incapable of defending. Nacho Monreal has to play at left back with no other options available and hopefully he can regain his form of last season. He was by far our best defender last season and he offered quite a lot going forward too.

The biggest choice of the day could be who plays in midfield with Matteo Guendouzi surely a dead cert to keep his place. It’s probably a straight choice between Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira to play alongside him and Torreira looks like the favourite to get the nod at the moment. I suppose Aaron Ramsey could play that deeper role too, but I would expect to see him deployed further forward if he does get the nod.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was signed in January to score goals for us and he certainly did so for the rest of last season. Last week he had one really good chance to score and another fairly good chance too, but he failed to put both of them away. He needs to put a few away as soon as possible, but like any striker he will miss his fair share of chances too. I still think he is the man to score those goals for us and he is going to make it hard for Alexandre Lacazette to get a lot of game time.

I would be very surprised if both Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan didn’t keep their places even if Ozil didn’t have the best game last week. He is a top class player and hopefully he will overcome the problems he’s having as soon as possible, but the best place for him to do so is in the team. Like Aubameyang last week Mkhitaryan missed a sitter, but he did make up for it by scoring one goal and making another and he must be a certainty to play.

The last choice is probably between Alex Iwobi and Ramsey and I think Iwobi might just keep his place. He scored one goal last week and he is more adept than Ramsey in a wide role which should probably see him picked despite the misgivings many fans have about him. As I said previously Ramsey could play a deeper role too, but I have s feeling he might be on the bench.

We need to get our first win and points of the season after those two defeats and that win has to come today. West Ham are there for the taking and we should be able to do just that if we go about it the right way. Anything other than a win would be a huge blow and it would put real pressure on the manager only three games into his reign. I think we will get the three points and we should see a few goals too.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Second Time Around For Arsenal At Chelsea

Arsenal’s first competitive game under Unai Emery didn’t go too well last week when they lost 2-0 at home to Manchester City. It was a result that was to be expected I suppose against a City team who broke so many records in running away with the Premier League last season and it was certainly no worse than Arsenal did against them in the three games they played last season. There were encouraging signs in that game, but it will take time for the manager to get the players used to the style of football he wants to play.

The manager has a few choices to make when it comes to picking his team after things didn’t really go as planned last week. Some of the players have come in for criticism more than others, but it can’t have been easy for Granit Xhaka in particular to step straight into the team so soon after returning from World Cup duty and to be expected to be as proficient as some of the others. He lasted less than an hour as did Aaron Ramsey who was only returning after missing the last two pre-season games through injury.

It’s fair to say the whole team struggled with the new style at times and particularly with the attempts to play the ball out from the back. There’s an awful lot of work to be done on that part of our game and it’s all happening far too slowly and predictably at the moment. Maybe the inclusion of Lucas Torreira from the start will make a difference against Chelsea and it certainly looks like the manager thinks he’s ready to start.

Assuming he plays it’s a matter of whether he replaces Xhaka or Matteo Guendouzi and I suspect it will be Guendouzi despite his performance last week. Guendouzi might have made mistakes and lost possession on a few occasions, but he never shied away from the ball and was probably the only player who we could say that about last week. Despite this I think Xhaka is probably going to get the nod having had another week to get used to the way the team has to play.

There are decisions to be made elsewhere too with the left back spot a real problem. Hopefully Nacho Monreal can recover in time to play with both Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles injured and Stephan Lichsteiner having had to fill in there last week after Maitland-Niles went off injured. Lichsteiner did better than Maitland-Niles when he came on last week, but it’s difficult for a player to play out of position and particularly against the better teams in the league.

Our central defensive partnership still needs a lot of work too, but our real problem there seems to be the personnel available. I’m far from convinced by Sokratis so far and Shkodran Mustafi slipped back into his old habits before the end of last week’s game after showing promising signs early on. With Laurent Koscielny a long term injury we are limited in our options and it could continue to be a problem position for the rest of the season. When we played Chelsea in a pre-season game in Dublin a few weeks ago Antonio Rudiger used his height to score from a corner and he almost got a second goal from another corner and we have to be aware of his threat.

Petr Cech has struggled with his part in our new way of playing and he very nearly scored an own goal as a direct result  last week. He’s not overly comfortable passing the ball out from the back and I’m not sure it’s something he will get the hang of at his age. Surely Bernd Leno was bought to play just that way and it would make sense to get him into the team as soon as possible and give us a more solid passing base at the back. To be fair to Cech he made some good saves last week and that part of his game looks better than last season. If we’re building for the future you would have to imagine the time for Leno to get his chance has to come soon.

If Lichsteiner doesn’t play at left back he could come in on the right for Hector Bellerin who wasn’t exactly at the races either. It would be unfair to apportion too much blame to Bellerin when so many others were just as bad and he didn’t get too much help from those around him at crucial times too. I would be very surprised if Bellerin didn’t start and I can’t see how leaving him out would benefit us in the long term. All of the players have to learn how to play that ball out the way the manager wants it to be done and there would be nothing to be gained in leaving Bellerin out.

Further forward I thought Alexandre Lacazette did well when he came on last week and it’s going to be hard to leave him on the bench again. The problem is who would be left out for him and I think he probably will start on the bench again. Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan all struggled last week and perhaps the work they had to do closing others down meant they were a little jaded or thought a little slower when they did get the ball. For me we quite simply have to play Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as he is a goal scorer supreme and we need him to put away chances if we can manage to make some. 

Chelsea looked good in beating Huddersfield 3-0 away from home last week, but Huddersfield are not Arsenal and they’re definitely not City. They lost the Community Shield to City the previous week and they don’t look an awful lot better than us at the moment. They are better in defence though and the return of Eden Hazard is bound to cause us a few problems as he has done in the past.

We shut up shop away to Chelsea last season and came away with a scoreless draw and a similar result wouldn’t be the worst result. It’s important for the new manager to get some points on the board and a point away to Chelsea is an acceptable result for any team in the Premier League. I think we have the firepower to beat them or at least score a few goals, but it’s a matter of whether we can keep them out at our end.

If things don’t go our way he can at least tell himself we have had a very tough start to the season and the next eight games are all against teams who finished outside the top six last season. Two games in against the champions from the last two seasons is too early to make any judgements, but they will come thick and fast by the 3rd of November when we play Liverpool if we haven’t racked up plenty of points in the previous eight games. Even then it will be far too early to make a judgment in what we are led to believe is a long term project, but we all know how quickly judgements are made and how quickly managers can lose the backing of those in charge at any club or of the fans too.

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 Complete Their Transfers With Five Signings

With the World Cup over and football most certainly not coming home it’s time to look at Arsenal’s transfer dealings so far. Unai Emery has been quick to assess his squad and he has already brought in five players who he hopes will strengthen the team defensively. Given our defensive problems for a number of seasons now it’s an issue which had to be addressed and we can only hope he has brought in the personnel we so badly need.

Of course it’s going to take more than a few new players to change a team that conceded more goals from errors than any other Premier League team last season. We need a new mindset and determination from the players and that’s something the new manager has to get through to them from day one. We need the players to defend better as individuals and as a team too and that’s something that has to come from tactical nous and hard work on the training ground.

So far we have seen the arrivals of a goalkeeper, a right back, a central defender and two defensive midfielders. All of those arrivals are very promising, but I’m still not sure we have the actual quality needed in defence. It’s going to take an awful lot of work on the training ground to turn those players into a well marshalled unit, but it can be done.

The arrival of Bernd Leno must mean either Petr Cech or David Ospina will be on their way and there are rumours of Cech even heading back to Chelsea. Personally I think we can do better than both of them and I wasn’t impressed with either of them last season although it can’t be easy to play behind that Arsenal defence. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Leno claim the goalkeeper’s shirt for himself and maybe we might even sign another keeper if both Cech and Ospina decide to go elsewhere.

With Laurent Koscielny more than likely going to miss most of the season and Shkodran Mustafi possibly on his way out after some dreadful performances last season it’s the centre of our defence which needs the most work done on it. Neither Calum Chambers or Rob Holding are proven at the top level yet while both Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Konstantinos Mavropanos have little more than one Premier League game between them, but Sokratis is an experienced player at least.

Stephan Lichsteiner has been signed as cover for Hector Bellerin and he’s a defender with a great pedigree and he’s most definitely a winner. He’s exactly the sort of player we could do with in the squad and I’m looking forward to seeing him join up with the rest of the squad once he gets his much needed rest after his World Cup exploits with Switzerland. I can’t admit to having followed his career too closely, but I wonder if there’s any chance he might just be able to play as a central defender.

The right hand side of the defence looks strong with Lichsteiner and Bellerin to call on while the left hand side doesn’t look too weak either with both Nacho Monreal and Sead Kolasinac vying for a place. There has been some talk of Monreal going back to play in Spain, but Emery appears unwilling to let our best defender from last season go.

The most impressive work in the transfer window so far seems to have been in the defensive role in midfield with both Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi added to the squad. Torreira looks like he’ll step straight into the team and he looks like a very good addition while Guendouzi looks like he’s one for the future, but he will get to show us what he can do on occasions this season. 

We might not have added any attacking players to the squad yet and we might not add any at all, but the work we did in January will be very hard to beat. I can’t wait to see Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang playing from day one and I think he’s going to score an awful lot of goals for us. Henrikh Mkhitaryan is another player who really excites me and I think he gives us options in midfield and attack which we didn’t have before his arrival. 

The most important business for us this summer could be tying Aaron Ramsey down to a new contract and Emery seems confident he can do so. A fully fit Ramsey is a very important player for Arsenal and I hope he can be persuaded to extend his contract as soon as possible. If not I can only imagine he will have to be sold this summer and we will have to look to spend big to replace him. 

I still think we will add another attacking player and I hope it’s a wide player because we are lacking some genuine width in the squad. Reiss Nelson might get the chance on occasions to show what he can do, but he still has a lot to learn and we need someone who can give us that something we are currently missing on a regular basis. 

Pre season started off encouragingly with an 8-0 win against Boreham Wood last Saturday and it will continue over the next week or so in Singapore with games against Atletico Madrid and PSG before we play Chelsea in Dublin on the first of August. It’s a game I’m lucky enough to be going to as it’s only about 12 stops away from me on the train. I haven’t seen Arsenal play in Ireland since the early days of George Graham’s reign in the 80s and I’m really looking forward to seeing them play and I’m hoping for a very strong team with the season starting only nine days later.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.