Arsenal v Spurs: NLD Preview

After winning their first two games Arsenal came crashing back to earth last week when they lost 3-1 away to Liverpool. While it wasn’t as bad a defeat as we have suffered at Anfield in recent seasons it still showed we have a long way to go to match the pacesetters in the Premier League. However, our aim this season has to be returning to the top four and the Champions League football it brings.

A defeat at Liverpool might not have helped that cause, but a home game against Spurs is far more important for it. They are definitely one of the other four teams looking to take one of the two places available in the top four as Liverpool and City look set to fight for the title again. There are those who think Spurs will challenge both City and Liverpool this season, but last week’s home result against Newcastle showed exactly why they won’t.

Unai Emery has taken some stick for his formation against Liverpool last week, but it might have been different if either Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Nicolas Pepe had taken their good chances to put us ahead in the first half. I don’t think his tactics were right for the game, but at least he tried something he thought might work even if it did seem like the players were unsure of how to enact his plan. I doubt if we will see a formation like that at home to Spurs and I think he has a much better idea how to beat them.

We beat them 4-2 at the Emirates last season and would have won away to them too if it wasn’t for a last minute penalty miss. Interestingly that penalty would have been retaken if VAR had been around due to encroachment from the Spurs player who eventually stopped Aubameyang scoring the rebound. With VAR in use at all Premier League games we can only hope it will catch the serial divers and cheaters that abound in the Spurs team.

The manager has a few decisions to make in his team selection and the toughest one could be about Nacho Monreal. It looks like he could be on his way back to Spain with the European transfer window still open, but he is currently the preferred left back of those available for selection. If he lets Nacho leave it means playing Sead Kolasinac on the left of what will probably be a back four and he seems more than hesitant to do so. 

When Kieran Tierney is back to full fitness he looks destined to make that position his own and it makes economic sense to let Nacho leave. Do we keep him until at least January for just one game, but then again it’s a very important game and one we just cannot afford to lose. It’s a complicated call for the manager to make and he has to be conscious of so many factors when he’s making it.

Other than that decision it appears the rest of the back four picks itself with David Luiz, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Ainsley Maitland-Niles keeping their places in front of Bernd Leno. Luiz showed exactly why there were doubts about us signing him at Liverpool last week when his errors led directly to two of their three goals. He can be a very good player, but he also has that ability in him to cost his team goals in big games in particular. I just hope we won’t see that side of him on Sunday.

The full debut of Pepe last week gives the manager a real selection headache up front. I’m one of those fans who believes we have to play Aubameyang through the middle if we’re going to get the best out of him. If he plays through the middle it doesn’t really leave any room in the team for Alexandre Lacazette, but he’s exactly the type of player you want in a local derby.

It’s a tough call for the manager to make, but I think he has to play both Aubameyang and Pepe with their pace and Spurs vulnerability to the ball over the top. Their defence is a little short on numbers at the moment and looking probably as vulnerable as ours. I think power and pace could be the key against them even if it means leaving Lacazette out of the team.

Winning the midfield battle could be crucial for us and getting to grips with the Spurs midfield won’t be as difficult as getting the better of Liverpool’s last week. Dani Ceballos looked very good in his debut against Burnley, but he didn’t find it as easy against Liverpool. I think he might just relish the chance to play against Spurs at home and show us exactly what he can do.

I would like to see Lucas Torreira alongside him as I think it’s a combination which could be very effective for us and surely Torreira must be ready to start by now after returning from international duty much later than the rest of the squad last month. As much as I like Matteo Guendouzi I would like to see how a midfield trio of Ceballos, Torreira and Joe Willock would fare together.

If the manager were to follow my advice he would have one player left to pick and that would depend on the formation he opts for. There are so many to choose from with Lacazette, Reiss Nelson, Mesut Ozil, Guendouzi, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Granit Xhaka all looking for a chance to prove themselves. I think we will see Xhaka in the team, but probably at the expense of one of the midfield trio I prefer and the last place is still a toss up.

As much as getting the right personnel is important it’s also very important to get the tactics and attitude right on the day. If we can approach the game in the same vein as our home games against Spurs, United, Chelsea and Liverpool last season I think we will be on the right track. I hope the players will be anxious to put last week behind them and get one over on their local rivals yet again.

They have only won away to us once in the Premier League since 1993 and that was nine years ago. In the eight games since that defeat we have scored 20 goals against them and only conceded nine including scoring five twice and four once. When we turn it on at home against them the goals flow and that’s exactly what we need on Sunday.

If we can go into the international break five points ahead of Spurs on the back of a victory over them it would be a huge boost for us. While I could take a draw to keep us ahead of them a win is infinitely superior and well within our grasp. Let’s just hope the players can find the level of intensity and commitment needed in a local derby to take those three precious points and the bragging rights that go with them.

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’s Premier League Trip To West Ham Previewed

Arsenal had a fairly run of the mill 3-0 win away to Blackpool in the third round of the FA Cup last week after beating Fulham 4-1 in the Premier League only a few days earlier. Those games brought an end to a very busy festive schedule which wasn’t great to say the least, but it could have been worse too. The low point was the 5-1 defeat away to Liverpool after scoring first in the game and it showed up just how poor we are defensively even if it wasn’t really a surprise.

We haven’t won in our last four away games and we have now conceded 21 goals away from home in our 10 games this season with only three other teams conceding more away goals. It was our away form which saw us miss out on a top four finish last season with only City taking more points at home and it seems our away form could be heading that way again this season. Our away results were initially quite good this season, but it seems other teams have realised they just need to attack us and the chances will flow. It doesn’t help when we try to sit on a lead because it’s something we are incapable of doing and the only way we’re going to improve our away results is by continuing to attack.

It might only be a trip across London to play West Ham today, but I think it’s a really big game for us. If we’re going to continue to keep a real interest in a top four finish we have to keep pace with Chelsea and try to stay ahead of a rejuvenated United too. We don’t play any of the rest of the top six in our last eight games and we need to get to those games with a top four place still in our sights. It does mean we have to travel to both City and Spurs as well as playing at home to Chelsea and United in our next nine games and it’s going to be difficult to keep our challenge up.

As it stands Chelsea are three points ahead of us and we will draw level if we can beat West Ham before they play Newcastle in the late game today. On the face of it Chelsea should stroll through that game, but they only drew 0-0 at home to struggling Southampton in their last home game and Newcastle don’t actually tend to concede too many goals away from home this season. The chances of Chelsea slipping up will surely increase just a little if we can put some pressure on them by beating West Ham.

United have won all four of their games since they parted ways with Jose Mourinho only a few weeks ago even if those games weren’t against the best teams in the league. They travel to Spurs tomorrow and while I would never wish for Spurs to win any game they could do us a favour by at least taking a point off them. We all know Spurs aren’t real contenders for the title and they will bottle it at some stage, but it is looking increasingly difficult for us to catch them. They are six points behind Liverpool at the moment and we’re a further seven points behind them which probably means we have as much chance of catching them as they have of catching Liverpool.

We had hoped to be able to strengthen the team in the January transfer window, but it seems there is precious little money in the kitty at the moment and we will have to be happy with whatever loanees we might be able to tempt our way. Our need to strengthen the centre of our defence and add some attacking width is clear for all to see and our top four chances could depend on who we can add before the month is over. I’m still not sure how the sixth wealthiest club in the world hasn’t got two pennies to rub together, but I have no doubt it has an awful lot to do with us being the only Premier League club who’s owner doesn’t invest a single cent in the club.

Back to today’s game though and our need for three points against a West Ham team who have lost more home games than they have won and have only kept one clean sheet at home. We haven’t kept a clean sheet away from home either so the chances of both teams scoring today must be pretty high. If it’s a shoot out we do have the joint highest scorer in the league in our ranks and hopefully Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang can be the man to make the difference.

The manager does have some or all of Nacho Monreal, Shkodran Mustafi, Hector Bellerin, Laurent Koscielny and Mesut Ozil available for selection again at least and he will have more options than he has had recently and a few decisions to make too. He has to get his team right and it’s something he has struggled to do in recent weeks, but some of those returning players might make it a little easier for him. He has struggled to get any balance in the team recently and the midfield mix has been wrong far too often. 

The return of Bellerin would give us more attacking options on the right and I imagine we will play three central defenders if both him and Sead Kolasinac play. With our lack of genuine width in the team the two of them will be very important when it comes to getting behind the West Ham defence and cutting the ball back for others to score. That was our best route to goal for the early part of the season and it would be great to fully reopen that route.

I can’t say I’m overly confident of us getting the win today given how we have performed away from home recently, but it’s certainly well within our abilities. If we take the lead and sit back giving the initiative to West Ham it will only go one way so we have to stay on the front foot from the first to the last minute. There’s still plenty to play for this season, but anything other than a win today will make a top four finish an awful harder for us to achieve.

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.

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.

Which Arsenal Players Are On Their Way Out

Unai Emery has already brought five new players into the Arsenal squad this summer and he’s going to have to offload a few of the players he has to cover at least some of their transfer fees and wages as well as keeping the squad at a workable size. Of course Jack Wilshere has already left to join West Ham as he decided the new manager wasn’t going to give him as much game time as he wanted. We didn’t get a fee for Wilshere though as he was at the end of his contract and I would imagine any new purchases will have to be funded by players leaving.

We also saw the departure of Jeff Reine-Adelaide to Angers today, but he can hardly be considered a loss from the first team squad. He was a player with a lot of promise a few seasons ago, but we rarely got to see what he could do mainly because of a series of injuries. It’s hard to know how he will fare, but you have to at least wish him well for the future.

If the rumours are to be believed there are a few more players who the manager considers to be surplus to requirements and he is currently listening to offers for some of them. With so many defensive players already arriving it would surely be safe to assume we will be seeing the back of one or two of the defenders we have. Shkodran Mustafi had a fairly torrid time last season and the influx of central defenders could well see him on his way, but the ongoing injury to Laurent Koscielny might mean he stays put.

There has also been plenty of talk of Nacho Monreal retuning to Spain, but the manager seems reluctant to sell a player who was our most consistent defender last season. If Sead Kolasinac can make the left back berth his own it could see the departure of Monreal, but I think we will keep him for this season at least. Besides those two I can’t see any other possibilities for defenders leaving and I would even be surprised if either of them were sold.

The arrival of Bernd Leno has left us top heavy with goalkeepers though and I would be surprised if we didn’t sell at least one of them. Petr Cech has been linked with a return to Chelsea, but they opted to sign Rob Green instead while David Ospina is as always being linked with most of the clubs in Turkey. I think we need to sell at least one of them and given the choice I would opt to sell Ospina before Cech.

Of course the contract negotiations with Aaron Ramsey are still ongoing and getting him to extend his contract could be our best piece of business this summer. With the transfer window closing in two weeks we need to tie him down as quickly as possible or we will have to spend big to replace him in the current market. We just cannot allow him to run his contract down like both Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil did last season.

With Granit Xhaka due back from his World Cup duties soon there has been some speculation that he might be surplus to requirements. It’s something I can’t see myself and I would be very surprised if he isn’t a big part in Emery’s plans for now and the future too. He has his detractors and he hasn’t always been at his best for us, but I think he’s a player with an awful lot to offer.

Lucas Perez is yet another player who’s future could be uncertain, but the early signs are the boss is prepared to give him a chance. He was certainly persona non grata last season, but the new regime seems prepared to let him prove his worth. The sales of Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott in January and the possible sale of Danny Welbeck must surely keep a place open for another attacking player in the squad and Perez could be that player.

Welbeck is probably the last player who the boss is looking at offloading this summer and it wouldn’t surprise if he was sold. I don’t think he’s quite up to the level we want to play at and it would make sense to cash in on one of the rare occasions when he is actually fit. We’ll probably have to wait for him to come back from his World Cup duties before anything happens, but he certainly has to be a candidate for the exit door in the next two weeks.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Update As The World Cup Gets Real

When the World Cup started Arsenal were represented by nine of their players at the tournament and now with half of the 32 teams on their way home that figure has been cut to five players. The four players on their way home all managed to see some action with varying degrees of success, but at least they will be available to play for Arsenal sooner than the players still caught up in the tournament.

The big surprise among the players on their way home is Mesut Ozil as the reigning champions exited at the group stages for the third World Cup in a row. Germany picked Ozil from the start against South Korea and he created enough chances to win the game for them, but their 2-0 defeat saw them finish last in their group. As usual the Ozil haters were out in force blaming him for the failure of his country and just about anything else you care to think of. For me I think their demise was probably down to a little bit of over confidence and the lack of a striker to put away all the chances they (and Ozil in particular) made.

Joel Campbell will join Ozil on a beach somewhere no doubt and he managed to get his first start of the World Cup as Costa Rica managed their first point in a 2-2 draw with Switzerland. He actually had a very good game from what I saw and he had s huge part to play in both of their goals. He probably won’t be an Arsenal player next season, but his performance against Switzerland should at least mean sone interest is shown in him by other clubs.

Both Mohamed Elneny and Alex Iwobi are on their respective ways home too as their countries bowed out at the group stages. Egypt lost all three of their games with Elneny playing all of those games, but it’s probably a tournament they would prefer to forget. Nigeria lost two of their three games, but it took a very late winner from Argentina to see them off on their merry way. Iwobi didn’t see an awful lot of game time after starting their first game and failing to impress.

We still have the Swiss pair of Granit Xhaka and Stephan Lichsteiner involved as their country face Sweden in the last 16 on Tuesday, but they will have to do so without Lichsteiner as he got his second yellow in that game against Costa Rica and has to serve a one game suspension. He set up their first goal in that game and Xhaka played quite well too. Lichsteiner will be hoping the team can progress to the quarter finals so he can come in again and share in some of the glory.

David Ospina gets the thrill of playing against an England team which will see Danny Welbeck on the bench once more although he did manage a few minutes off the bench in their last group game. The defeat against Belgium sees England in the supposed easier half of the draw, but they will have to get past a Colombian team who have won their last two games without conceding a goal and only lost their opening game because they had to play for 87 minutes with 10 men. I’m not saying Colombia are favourites, but England could underestimate them at their peril.

As Arsenal fans we all know Ospina’s weaknesses and England would do well to try to exploit them. They have been very good at set pieces so far and I expect the ball to be put right in on top of Ospina at every chance. I also expect to see him go down injured on at least three occasions and who knows he might actually be injured on one of those occasions.

The final Arsenal player is Nacho Monreal who looks highly unlikely to get a game at all unless someone else is injured or suspended. As I write this Spain have just gone out on penalties in their round of 16 game with Russia and yet again Nacho is on the bench watching.

It does look like we will have a few players in  the quarter finals, but maybe only because England are playing  Colombia and we are guaranteed at least one player in the last eight.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Latest Arsenal World Cup Update

The World Cup continues apace and the Arsenal players at it are continuing to make very little impact. Of the nine players who are there to represent their countries only four started in the second round of games after five of them had started in the first round.

The first Arsenal player to make a real impact was Granit Xhaka when he scored a fantastic equaliser to get Switzerland back into the game against Serbia. A late Xherdan Shaqiri goal gave them the three points and they will qualify for the knockout stages once they don’t lose to Costa Rica. They could even win the group if they can outdo Brazil’s result against Serbia, but I’m sure they’ll be happy enough once they progress. Xhaka nearly got himself in trouble with FIFA for his goal celebration, but they decided not to press charges for him, Shaqiri and Stephan Lichsteiner.

Xhaka was joined in that Swiss team by Lichsteiner for that game and the more I see him the more I like him. He looks like he has the mentality we seem to be lacking and hopefully some of that can rub off on his new team mates next season. 

David Ospina kept a clean sheet for Colombia as they bounced back from their defeat against Japan with a convincing 3-0 win against Poland. He played his part in that victory with some good saves and he even managed to go down injured three times during the game as per usual. Colombia will have to beat Senegal in their final group game to progress, but they have every chance of doing so if they play like they did against Poland.

The last Arsenal player to get a game from the start was Mohamed Elneny and he has played his third game as I write this. Unfortunately Egypt lost all three games to finish last in their group and the tournament is over for them despite having Mohamed Salah among their ranks. On the plus side from an Arsenal perspective at least Elneny will have some down time before he’s back to pre season training.

The tale of the rest of the players doesn’t play too well with Nacho Monreal and Danny Welbeck still to kick a ball for Spain and England respectively even though both of their countries have progressed to the next round. 

Mesut Ozil didn’t play for Germany as they managed to bring themselves back from the brink of elimination with a 2-1 win against Sweden and a victory over South Korea should be enough to make the last 16 for them. It doesn’t look like it was injury which kept Ozil out, but you can’t be sure and I would be very surprised if we don’t see him back in the German team before too long.

Alex Iwobi came off the bench very late on as Nigeria beat Iceland 2-1 to boost their chances of progression. They should make the last 16 if they don’t lose to underperforming Argentina, but that still won’t be an easy task. Iwobi will find it hard to get into the team if they continue to perform like they did against Iceland, but he might still have a part to play too.

Finally Joel Campbell didn’t see any action as Costa Rica went down very late on to Brazil. They’re out of the tournament and they won’t find it easy to get anything from a Switzerland team looking for a result to make the last 16. With their tournament over they might just be tempted to give Campbell a chance to play from the start in that final game.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

World Cup Update From An Arsenal Perspective

With the first round of games at the World Cup over it’s time to look at the impact of the Arsenal players in the tournament so far. We have nine players in total playing for their countries, but not all of them are guaranteed starters.

First up I suppose we have to talk about Mesut Ozil and his contribution, or lack thereof, in the defeat for Germany against Mexico. Germany didn’t play well on the day, but for me far too many pundits and Arsenal fans are far too quick to lay the blame at his door time after time. If I hear one more idiot saying “he’s nicking a living” I think my head will explode. 

For me he was far from their worst player, but those who crave attention find it easy to single him out despite evidence to the contrary. He’s not the sort of player to grab a game by the scruff of the neck and win it on his own, but it seems nothing else is good enough than just that for some. His statistics on the day were quite good and it’s difficult to hold him responsible when others fail to finish the chances he invariably creates. Germany are far from done in this tournament though and we will probably see a lot more of them and Ozil too.

Granit Xhaka and Stephan Lichsteiner were both important cogs in the Swiss team that got a creditable 1-1 against tournament favourites Brazil. That point gives them a very good chance of progressing to the knockout stages, but they still have a tricky game against Serbia as well as a game against Costa Rica. I thought both of them played quite well without being spectacular and I have no doubt they both have more to offer.

Lichsteiner did well against Brazil’s star player considering he had to play behind Xherdan Shaqiri who didn’t offer him too much defensive cover. Hector Bellerin will still be our first choice right back, but I would have no worries seeing Lichsteiner coming into the team at any time. Xhaka can do better and I would expect to see him get more of the ball in their next two games and hopefully make a real impact on those games.

Alex Iwobi played from the start for Nigeria in their 2-0 defeat against Croatia and that defeat leaves them on the brink of exiting the tournament with games against Argentina and Iceland to come. Iwobi didn’t have too much of an impact on the game and he was substituted shortly after the hour mark. He’s another player who might still make an impact though and I hope he can retain his place for the next two games and maybe go some way towards proving his doubters wrong.

Joel Campbell came off the bench for the last 30 minutes for Costa Rica in their 1-0 defeat against Serbia. With Brazil and Switzerland still to play the chances of progression for them are slim and they could easily end up pointless when the group concludes. I thought Costa Rica looked a little sharper in attack when Campbell came on and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start their next game.

Mohamed Elneny has played two games for Egypt now and defeats against Uruguay and Russia mean their tournament is as good as over. He hasn’t played badly in their two games, but he didn’t exactly make a huge impression either. It looks like he’ll be on his holidays very soon and back to pre season training for Arsenal nice and early.

David Ospina played in Colombia’s 2-1 defeat against Japan and there was very little he could do to prevent their first goal which was a penalty. He didn’t cover himself in glory for Japan’s winner though and I thought it was a ball he should have come for and won. Colombia have an uphill task with games to come against Senegal and Poland, but they can still progress to the last 16. They weren’t helped by having to play for 87 minutes with 10 men after an early red card and the absence of star man James Rodriguez too.

Danny Welbeck and Nacho Monreal didn’t get to play for their respective countries in their first games and they can only hope they get a chance to show what they can do as the competition progresses. Both England and Spain will be expected to progress to the last 16 and there’s every chance both of them will be called upon at some stage.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Players At The World Cup

With the World Cup only just around the corner it’s time to take a look at the Arsenal players who we will get to see playing in it for their countries. There are nine on show overall and I’ll go through them one by one starting with the ones with the best chance of actually lifting the trophy.

The Arsenal player with the best chance of winning the World Cup is probably Mesut Ozil considering Germany are the reigning champions and second favourites to lift the trophy. They have a very strong squad and Ozil is an intrical part of their team as long as he can recover from the injury which hampered his end to the season with Arsenal. If any Arsenal player is going to take a World Cup winners medal home it’s Ozil and it would be a real surprise if Germany didn’t at least make it to the semi finals. I’d give Ozil a rating of 40/100 for his chances.

Nacho Monreal has had a very good season for Arsenal despite the club having it’s worst season defensively under Arsene Wenger. He’s not a definite starter for Spain, but he can be depended upon if he gets the call to give his all. With Spain’s hopes in turmoil after the last minute sacking of their manager they might find their chances of regaining the trophy they won in 2010 that bit more difficult. After the events of this week I think his chances of lifting the trophy have drifted out and maybe they at about 20/100.

Despite playing for England Danny Welbeck is probably the Arsenal player with the third best chance of winning the World Cup. After recovering from his latest injury he finished the season well and he will be hopeful of getting a chance to make an impact in Russia. England should get out of their group, but their record in the knock out stages in tournaments isn’t good and they will have to raise their game to have an impact on this competition. If they reach the last eight they will have done quite well and for that reason I think his chances should get a rating of about 7/100.

David Ospina might not be the first choice goalkeeper for Arsenal, but he is most certainly the first choice for Colombia with nearly 100 caps to his name. They don’t have an easy group though, but their chances of making the last 16 are still pretty good. On the other hand their chances of winning the trophy are fairly long and even longer if Ospina insists on standing behind his line. They might be rank outsiders compared to the big boys, but only 10 other teams are a shorter price which means I should give them a chance of about 3/100 of winning.

Granit Xhaka can divide opinion among Arsenal fans, but he’s certainly one of the star players in a Swiss side that tends to qualify with ease and disappoint at tournaments. They will have to finish ahead of either Brazil or Serbia to make the knockout stages and that could prove to be more than problematic for them. If they’re going to make an impression they will need Xhaka to be at his best, but the chances are they will struggle for the goals they need to progress. I think Xhaka can make an impression at the World Cup, but his hopes of lifting trophy are probably about 1/100.

Stephan Lichsteiner has only just joined Arsenal after a very successful time at Juventus and he will be key to Switzerland’s chances too. He’s a vastly experienced defender at the very highest level in the game and he will make his 100th appearance for his country in their opening game against Brazil on Sunday. Like Xhaka he will be hoping to at least make the knock out stages in what will surely be his last chance to impress on the biggest stage of all. Like Xhaka his chances have to be 1/100.

Mohamed Elneny got injured towards the end of the season, but it looks like he will recover in time to represent his country at the World Cup. They’re in a group with the hosts, but it’s a group which gives them a great chance of progressing to the knockout stages. If they do make the last 16 they might need a bit of magic from Mo Salah to have a chance against any team, but who’s to say that won’t happen. With a ranking out of 100 it’s not easy to rank Egypt’s chances, but I can’t really go any lower than 1/100.

Alex Iwobi is another player who divides Arsenal fans, but it’s difficult to deny that he is very talented. How he puts that talent to use for Arsenal seems to be the issue, but he is certainly making an impact for his country with five goals in his 19 games and some good performances too which were topped off with two goals in a 4-2 friendly win against Argentina. They have a very tough group though and it will be a huge task for them to progress to the last 16. That means I can’t give them any more than the minimum 1/100, but in reality it should probably be less.

Joel Campbell is still an Arsenal player despite being out on loan for what seems like an awfully long time. Costa Rica are in a very tough group though and only four teams have a lesser chance of winning the trophy if the bookies are to be believed. It would be a huge deal for them to make the last 16 from such a tough group, but it’s something I just can’t see happening. Again their rating should be a lot less, but I’ll give them the minimum of 1/100.

With Ireland not qualifying for the World Cup I’m not sure who to support, but I will at least enjoy watching the Arsenal players playing for their countries.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Huddersfield Previewed

The day has come when Arsene Wenger bids his final farewell and its got more than just a tinge of sadness about it. In almost 22 years at the club he took us to some highs which we never really dreamed of and introduced us to football we could only dream of. Those in charge at the club have decided a new man is required to move us forward and make us truly competitive again. I don’t think Arsene himself is too happy about the decision and I have no doubt he still believes he is the right man for the job.

He’s been given a fantastic send off by our fans and opposing fans alike as they put rivalries aside to pay tribute to a manager who had a huge impact on the Premier League and English football. With nothing on the line for either team today it looks like Huddersfield will give him the send off he deserves after the fantastic send off he got in his final home game against Burnley last week. I just hope the team he selects today can be a part of that send off and somehow or other put an end to a disastrous run of league results away from home.

We have finished the season with only three points less than City at home, but a defeat today and a win for them would see us finish 39 points behind them. I know nobody else has come close to them either, but they could end up with 36 points more than us away from home. There are only three teams in the whole league who have taken less points on the road and it’s that statistic which has got the manager the bullet more than any other one. 

If we had got 10 to 15 more points away from home I don’t think the decision about his departure would have been taken out of his hands. The number of games away from home where we have scored first and lost is amazing and off the top of my head I can remember Watford, Swansea, Newcastle, Brighton and Bournemouth all coming from behind to beat us. We are currently on a run of seven away defeats in a row and that is enough to get any manager the bullet.

The players have one final chance to put an end to that run today and they need to do it for him. Only Burnley have scored less goals at home than Huddersfield and only Swansea have scored less goals overall and surely they are a team we should and can beat. Scoring is as alien to Huddersfield as defending to us though and we have the ability to make any team look good at home to us.

We have lost away from home to two of the relegated teams and if we lose today we will have lost to all three of the promoted teams too. Our only away wins came at Everton, Burnley and Palace and we haven’t taken a single away point in this calendar year. That’s the worst away record in all of the top five leagues in Europe and all four English leagues this year and one which we have to put an end to today for Arsene’s sake if for nobody else’s.

I imagine he will play the strongest team he can as there are no more games to worry about resting players for with the season over today. We should see Hector Bellerin, Nacho Monreal, Shkodran Mustafi, Jack Wilshere and Alexandre Lacazette return to the team which lost at Leicester on Wednesday night. I thought we played very well in that game considering we had to play for 75 minutes with 10 men, but again our inability to defend cost us the game.

We don’t have the ability to control a game away from home and we are far too open and too easy to attack. I can’t see that changing today and the chances are the individual mistakes which have haunted us this season will continue, but we just have to be strong enough in attack to counter our dodgy defence. With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the team we have a player who can and will score bundles of goals for us so we have to make those chances for him and others today.

I have no doubt tears will be shed by many fans today and we’ll never see the likes of Arsene Wenger again at our club. We have to move forward though and it had reached a stage where the belief in him to be the man who could do that had gone for me and many other fans. Let’s just hope he gets the send off he deserves for all he has done for our club both on and off the field today.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Watford Preview

Things took a very pleasant turn for the better for Arsenal on Thursday night when they won 2-0 away to AC Milan in the Europa League. That result leaves them in a very strong position ahead of the second leg on Thursday night and they can concentrate on trying to get a positive result today. They haven’t played well in the Premier League since the 5-2 win at home to Everton a few weeks ago and they need a similar performance today.

It’s been a dreadful year so far for Arsenal with defeat after defeat which has seen the Europa League as their only chance for a trophy this season. The top four and the Champions League football that comes with it is gone too and again the Europa League is the only route back to Europe’s elite competition available to the club. They have to make sure they finish high enough to play in next season’s Europa League though because the teams behind them are closing fast and putting sixth place under threat.

It’s a sad state of affairs for the club when we are looking over our shoulders at Burnley closing in on us in sixth place as we enter the final stages of the season. For the sixth richest club in the world to be struggling to hold on to sixth place in their domestic league is completely unacceptable and it shows how far we are from our true potential. We need to win enough points between now and the end of the season to finish comfortably in sixth starting with today.

We owe Watford one too after they came from behind to win at their ground earlier in the season. We weren’t helped by some bad refereeing decisions, but we were still the architects of our own destruction on the day. We also owe one to Troy Deeney after he told all who would listen to him after the game that we had no “cojones”. 

It will be interesting to see how our players react to him today because if it was me I would certainly “let him know I was there’ early on. As a team we don’t particularly resort to the Spurs tactic of rotational fouling, but I would love the players to decide themselves to do just that on Deeney today. It’s something I can’t see happening though, but I will be pleasantly surprised if we kick him from one end of the pitch to the other.

Having played on Thursday night away from home Arsene Wenger will have to consider making some changes today to keep players fit for next Thursday. If they’re fit again I would expect Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal to play as their replacements both went off injured on Thursday night and would be better off on the bench today for their own sakes if they make the squad. Petr Cech will return in goal, but maybe it’s time for David Ospina to get the nod over him after his two mistakes helped Brighton to beat us last week. I’m not Ospina’s greatest fan and I doubt if the manager will go with him, but the more I see of Cech the more I believe he’s too far past his best to continue as our first choice keeper.

Up front Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is sure to play as he’s a top class striker and was ineligible on Thursday night. He has two league goals to his name since he joined the club at the end of January, but a player with his ability has the potential to destroy the defence of any team in any league given the chances. We need to make those chances for him today and for the rest of the season too and if we do he could well get us plenty of much needed goals.

With Aubameyang sure to play it makes sense to keep Danny Welbeck on the bench as he is going to be the first choice striker on Thursday night. With his injury record I think it’s a big risk to play him too often and playing him today could easily rob us of his services against Milan. If that was the case we would be forced to play Eddie Nketiah against Milan and maybe that might just be the break he needs.

Elsewhere I doubt if there will be too many changes to a winning team that needs to find some consistency. The away game against Watford summed up so much that is wrong with this team and the home defeat against them last season did the exact same thing too. We cannot afford to let Watford beat us for the third time in a row and we need to see more of what we saw on Thursday night if we’re going to take all three points.

As bad as we have been this season our home league form has still been pretty good with only the two Manchester clubs winning at the Emirates. We have drawn with Liverpool and Chelsea too, but we have beaten every team below us we have played and Spurs also.

Watford’s away form is in the bin at the moment with only one point and two goals in their last seven away games. They have kept clear of the wrong end of the table by improving their home form, but it’s up to us to make sure they continue that away form. 

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.

We’re The Famous Arsenal And We’re Going To Wembley

Going into last night’s second leg of the Carabao Cup semi final at home to Chelsea I didn’t hold out too much hope of Arsenal advancing to the final. The first leg saw a very good defensive performance from Arsenal and they were well worth the 0-0 so the advantage should have been with them as they were at home. My worry was our current form and our inability to defend when good teams (or any team) attack us.

Arsene Wenger went with the same team (except for David Ospina) and formation that strolled to a 4-1 win at home to Palace on Saturday. New boy Henrikh Mkhitaryan was ineligible and there weren’t too many other options due to injuries and lack of genuine depth in the squad. It wasn’t going to be an easy task, but Chelsea hadn’t been at their best recently and they had their injury problems too.

The game didn’t start well for Arsenal with Chelsea dominating and it was no surprise when they took the lead when Eden Hazard slipped a shot past Ospina after being played through. There were only seven minutes gone, but Arsenal were all at sea in defence and midfield while the ball just could not stick when it went forward. The signs were ominous for Arsenal and I couldn’t see a way back into the game for them at that stage.

Somehow or other they were level only five minutes later when Nacho Monreal got his head to a corner and it took two deflections before nestling in the back of the net. Chelsea continued to dominate after that goal without ever really cutting Arsenal open, but we showed very little in attack for the rest of the first half. We needed a shake up at half time to try to go on and win and that’s just what we got.

The manager switched from a back four to three central defenders in the main with Mohamed Elneny dropping back between Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi. The new formation seemed to work as Arsenal took more control of the game without actually totally dominating proceedings and it only took 15 minutes for them to take the lead. Again the goal had a touch of fortune about it, but with the luck we have had recently it was about time something went in our favour.

Alexandre Lacazette did very well to hold the ball up on the right and he tried to get it into the box, but it took a deflection off Antonio Rudiger and Granit Xhaka was on hand to prod home. It was tough on Rudiger who was also credited with Arsenal’s first goal, but Arsenal just about deserved it at that stage. I waited for them to drop back and defend in depth, but for once they stayed on the front foot and continued to press forward. They didn’t create an awful lot until Alex Iwobi missed a glorious chance with about 10 minutes to go after a great Arsenal move and a sumptuous ball from Mesut Ozil.

Eventually they dropped deeper as the clock ticked down, but Chelsea still couldn’t open up a stubborn defence. Every player gave his all and they defended very well as a team in that second half. When the final whistle went I was pretty happy to beat Chelsea despite the prospect of playing a very good City team in the final next month.

I could have a go at a few players who really didn’t perform well despite trying hard, but maybe that’s something for another day. I was particularly impressed with Monreal who was an inspiration to those around him and I have to say I’m beginning to like Mustafi more with each game. He loves to win the ball and tries to do so at every opportunity, but he does get caught out occasionally which can be fatal for the team. 

Elsewhere both Jack Wilshere and Ozil were very impressive and they seem to be working better with each other with each passing game. Lacazette worked very hard, but he’s still struggling with his confidence and we’re just not making enough chances for him either. He wasn’t helped by a linesman who continually called him offside despite replays showing he was onside. 

There’s just over four weeks to go to the final and it will be our fourth Wembley final in five seasons. We won three FA Cups in that time, but we have never won this competition under Wenger and I’m sure it’s a trophy he would like to get his hands on. In the great scheme of things it’s not the biggest competition to win, but winning it would still make our season an awful lot better. 

For the moment though we can bask in the glory of beating Chelsea and the knowledge that our players have the bones of a week off playing before we go to Swansea next Tuesday night. Nothing other than three points will do in that game and who knows we might just have a shiny new striker to show off on the night too. Meanwhile we can enjoy the rest while the teams we are trying to catch have to play in the FA Cup this weekend. Of course I’d prefer to be playing in the cup too, but that ship has sailed and we can only make the best off the situation as it is.

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 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.

Arsenal's Trip To West Ham Previewed

It's only been a couple of days since Arsenal got a rather fortunate point at Southampton and they face another away game tonight. While their home form has been up there with the best of them this season they have generally struggled on their travels. Eight points from eight away games is hardly awe inspiring or the form of a team hoping to challenge for a chance to finish runners up to City.

After the defensive shambles in the opening stages at home to United I expected Arsenal to be a lot tighter at the back against Southampton. The reverse was true though and they were very lucky to be only one down before any semblance of decent defending appeared. Arsene Wenger blamed it on nervousness as a result of the performance against United which is quite bizarre.

If we were to believe that then it says very little for our players or their ability to get over a bad performance. I would have thought a bad defensive performance would have led the players to concentrate harder and make sure they did the simple things properly at the start against Southampton. Instead we were treated to players passing straight to the opposition, failing to track runners and defending as if it was something they had never worked on in training.

We can't afford to defend like that against West Ham despite their lowly league position as they showed when they beat Chelsea 1-0 on Saturday. I've seen a bit of West Ham this season and I have been far from impressed with them, but like any Premier League team they can bite back if they're underestimated. Their home form hasn't been exactly great this season and their performance against Chelsea was by far their best one at home so far.

The manager has a few choices to make before the game with Aaron Ramsey picking up a knock against Southampton and due to miss out as well as Shkodran Mustafi. He has to decide whether he will stick with three central defenders or switch to a flat back four. For me playing four at the back makes more sense and the extra man in midfield might give us more control in the game.

I can understand his desire to stick with a formation which got us out of a tight spot last season, but it's obvious he doesn't have faith in it. As soon as we're chasing a game he switches to a back four and it's difficult to believe it's not something he would like to switch back to on a permanent basis. Our personnel are far more suited to that formation and it's a method used throughout every other level at the club as far as I know. It just doesn't make sense to stick to three central defenders, but when did making sense ever have anything to do with football or Arsenal for that matter. 

If I'm not mistaken Nacho Monreal is the youngest of the three central defenders who started against Southampton and he's 31. Laurent Koscielny has struggled with injuries and it's a big risk to play him twice a week, but it's one we seem happy to take regularly. I suppose we could be playing the three of them together while Mustafi is injured as the manager thinks playing only two of them would be a risk.

In midfield the absence of Ramsey should open a door for Jack Wilshere, but the manager has already said he sees his best position as further forward and I wouldn't be surprised if he's on the bench tonight. Maybe Mohamed Elneny, Francis Coquelin or Alex Iwobi might get the nod alongside Granit Xhaka and all three of them would probably be better suited to the defensive duties that come with the role. It's not as if Ramsey has been ultra defensive though and Wilshere would certainly offer more creativity than the other three in my opinion. 

We will miss Ramsey and I hope it's only a short term absence with so many games over the next few weeks as he has been one of our better players so far this season. That's not to say he has always been good, but neither has anyone else for that matter.

In attack I would hope Alexandre Lacazette will continue to lead the line, but I would imagine Olivier Giroud will think he can't do much more than he has done already to try to get a start. His late goal saved us against Southampton and I would be more inclined to think he should get a chance if he had been better in the Europa League games when he did start. Like so many of the more experienced players he seemed to do little more than go through the motions in those games when he should have been trying to stake a claim for a place in the first team.

We didn't lose as much ground as we might have last weekend with Chelsea and United losing, Liverpool drawing and only Spurs winning, but we cannot afford to drop any more points tonight. Chelsea won last night and I will be very surprised if United, Liverpool or Spurs drop any points tonight so we need to at least keep pace with them. It won't be easy, but we have the players to win the game without a doubt if they would only go out and play as well as we know they can play.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Huddersfield Town Preview

With Sunday's stroll in the park at Burnley fresh in our minds it's quickly back to Premier League action for Arsenal tomorrow night when they play at home to Huddersfield Town. That hard fought, and a little lucky, win at Burnley moved Arsenal above both Spurs and Liverpool and into the top four. They're still 12 points behind City, but they're only four points behind second placed United and there isn't an awful lot between the five teams trailing directly in City's wake.

Agsinst Burnley the team didn't show as much drive and commitment as they did to beat Spurs the previous week, but at least they managed to take the three points. Far too often when we aren't at our best we get punished by the opposition and it came close to that in what was a fairly even game on Sunday. We got the win though and thankfully some of the teams around us dropped points too.

Having played on Sunday there's a case for Arsene Wenger rotating the team a little and that might not be the worst idea when you consider United will come a calling on Saturday evening. That game at home to United is going to be another huge test for us and we need to go into it in the best position possible which means three points against Huddersfield are an absolute must. The players cannot go into the game thinking it will be easy though as it's never easy against any team in the Premier League.

We are on a great run at home with six wins out of six in the league this season and United are the only team who can match that 100% return on their own patch. We finished very strongly at home last season too and it's great to see us making the Emirates such a fortress. With our away form improving in the last few games we have some cause to be hopeful this season when it at least comes to trying to finish in the top four.

When it comes to the possible changes I suppose we could see Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck or maybe even Olivier Giroud come in from the start. With Mesut Ozil still unavailable there's a good chance Wilshere might play in his role after Alex Iwobi got the nod on Sunday. Wilshere has been patient this season as he has played in the lesser competitions and this could be the ideal time to give him a Premier League start. 

With Welbeck back from injury he could get the nod too, but it would probably be at the expense of Alexis Sanchez and I don't know how good an idea that might be. Welbeck is almost as injury prone as Wilshere and it's almost getting to the point where he can't really be considered as a proper first team option due to his consistent injuries. I hope he can get a good run without injuries, but like Wilshere I fear that boat might already have sailed.

I would be very surprised if Giroud came in instead of Lacazette because I have been far from impressed by him when he has played in the Europa League. Lacazette has scored most of his goals at home this season and he might get the chance to add to that tally tomorrow night against a team who are struggling badly on their travels. There's every chance we can put a few goals past Huddersfield if we're at the races and he's the man most likely to get those goals.

Huddersfield won their first away game 3-0 at Palace, but since then they have only taken one point in five away games and have failed to score in each of those games. They are there to be beaten and with the right performance they are there to be well beaten too. I'd love to see Arsenal put four or five goals past them, but I'll be happy with the three points ahead of United on Saturday.

How I'm going to get to see that match is another matter as I'm bringing my wife to New York for her birthday and the chances are we'll be in a department store at 12.30pm New York time on Saturday. Thankfully my Vodafone Red Plus subscription gives me internet coverage at a very good price in the States and I can at least keep up with the game. I don't like to ever miss an Arsenal game, but it's not every week that your wife turns 50 even if it coincides with us playing United.

Anyway enough of United for now as just like the players I need to concentrate on the job in hand which is Huddersfield tomorrow night. I'm plumping for an Arsenal win and a few goals to go with it and hopefully another clean sheet too. I read somewhere that Arsenal haven't conceded a goal yet this season when we have had our favoured three of Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal and Shkodran Mustafi in the center of defence so let's hope those three stay fit and continue to play together.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Beat West Brom With BATE Up Next

Arsenal played at home to West Brom on Monday night knowing that nothing but a win would do after all of the top teams in the Premier League won at the weekend. They have struggled away from home this season, but they have won all of their home games. Thankfully they kept that record up against West Brom, but not without a few scary moments along the way.

The performance in the first half left a lot to be desired with some very sloppy play in midfield leading to far too many chances for West Brom. They had a stonewall penalty denied to them early on when the referee either didn't see it or played an advantage which ultimately didn't lead to a goal. The tackle from Shkodran Mustafi was far too typical from a player who needs to learn how to stay on his feet.

We rode our luck in that first half though and took the lead with Alexander Lacazette headed in after an Alexis Sanchez free kick had been touched on to the bar by the Albion keeper. Alexis came close with two other free kicks, but I was still glad we made it to the break with our lead intact. Whatever was said at half time had an impact because we saw a much more focused team in the second half and West Brom rarely got a look in. 

The second goal came from a well taken Lacazette penalty after Aaron Ramsey had been bundled over. Ramsey kept his place ahead of Mesut Ozil who came off the bench late on as he made his way back from injury or continued to haggle over a new contract depending on what you choose to believe. I wonder if Ozil will start tomorrow night away to BATE Borisov considering he was on the bench against West Brom.

The three points gained against West Brom moved us up to seventh in the table and we have a good run of games coming up too while some of the teams above us have to play among themselves. While I still can't see this team genuinely challenging for the title I at least want them to make a fist of trying to finish in the top four. One season without Champions League football is bad enough, but another season would be an absolute disaster when it comes to finances and attracting new players.

As for the trip to Belarus tomorrow night it's going to be a tricky game for us with so many probable changes from the perceived first 11. I would imagine we could see anything up to eight or nine changes from the team that beat West Brom and those players might not find the task too easy. We can expect to see David Ospina, Per Mertesacker, Rob Holding, Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Ainsley Mailland-Niles, Alex Iwobi and Olivier Giroud in from the start along with a few others.

The issues will come in the wing back roles as we saw in the League Cup against Doncaster and when we played Koln in our first Europa League game. The only real cover for Sead Kolasinac is Nacho Monreal and he's already in the team in a different position while the only real alternative to Hector Bellerin is Mathieu Debuchey. I would doubt very much if Monreal, Kolasinac or Bellerin will play and not only is Debuchey not ready to return, but it's hard to believe he's still an Arsenal player.

We seem set on our new formation, but the manager should have addressed the issue of back up for his wing backs in the summer if he intended sticking with it. Of course there were other areas of the team and squad which needed attention and most of them were ignored too. The arrivals of Lacazette and Kolasinac were very welcome though and I'm highly impressed by both of them so far.

BATE will make things very tough for us and they have proven to be a hard team to beat on their own patch in European competitions. I would be more than happy with a point as the three points at home to Koln put us in a strong position in the group with BATE drawing away to Red Star Belgrade in their first game. Three home wins and a little more besides should see us out of our group and maybe we might just take the competition a little more seriously then.

The most important game for us at the moment is the home game in the Premier League against Brighton on Sunday. It's another must win game and the manager has to make sure he has a team that can go out and win that game. Brighton haven't had a bad start to life in the top flight, but we need to

not only beat them, but beat them well. That might mean sacrificing the trip to BATE, but as I said I would be happy enough with a point.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal See Off Bournemouth As Bigger Tests Await Them

After a traumatic two week wait for a game since their 4-0 drubbing by Liverpool it was back to Premier League action for Arsenal on Saturday when Bournemouth came calling. We didn't find them easy to beat last season with a 3-3 draw at their place while we struggled to eventually beat them 3-1 at the Emirates. It was a different matter on Saturday though as Arsenal won easily and could have scored a few more than the three goals they managed.

The team was more or less as expected with the exception of Alexis Sanchez I suppose who was on the bench with Danny Welbeck retaining his place. We did see the return of both Sead Kolasinac and Alexander Lacazette though which meant the team looked balanced with players playing in more or less their best positions. The one exception was Nacho Monreal who looks like he's now a certainty as one of the three central defenders despite it not being his position. He has done well there though and it makes sense to play him on the left of that back three.

As good as Arsenal were it has to be said Bournemouth offered very little and it was all too easy. Welbeck took his second goal well even if he was a little fortunate with his first goal and Lacazette took his goal very well too. We were rarely under pressure at the back with the exception of Jermain Defoe hitting the post early in the second half and a late flurry which saw Petr Cech make one good save right at death when we were down to 10 men.

The reason we were a man shy was Francis Coquelin picked up an injury when we had already used all of our subs and his absence means are midfield options are even more limited. He would have been a shoe-in to play against Cologne in the Europa League on Thursday night, but Arsene Wenger might have to get a little creative with his team selection now. I suppose Mohamed Elneny will play, but who partners him in the centre of midfield is the big question and will it mean a recall for Jack Wilshere.

As tempted as the manager might be to play a much weakened side he will also want to make sure we're not playing catch up in our group as it's a competition we can most definitely have real hopes of winning. United showed the advantages of winning it last season as it qualified them for the Champions League despite only finishing sixth in the league and we might need that safety net come the end of the season. The problem with playing a strong team is we face Chelsea away from home three days later and it's a game where we have to turn up in a big way.

After the debacle of Liverpool and our dreadful away record against any sort of good side for far too many years it has reached a stage where the fans are unwilling to accept any more of the dross we have seen far too often. Anything other than a defeat at Chelsea would be a great result, but if we lose while playing well and giving our all it would be a marked improvement from what we have seen too often in the past and against Liverpool only a couple of weeks ago. Chelsea have recovered from losing their opening game and look like they will be right up there in the title race again this season.

When you look at our players as individuals they are capable of being a very good team, but far too often the sum of the parts does not match up to those individual parts. We need to play as a team with players who are willing to give their all for the team and for their team mates too with no players hiding. It's certainly not beyond the bounds of possibility, but after Liverpool it's a hard stretch to believe it will happen.

If we can come through the Chelsea game with our pride intact the fixture schedule is pretty kind to us relatively speaking until at least November. We could give ourselves something to build on in that Chelsea game and a good run after it could leave us in a fairly good position. I know there's a lot of ifs and buts in there and the chances are the team will let us down, but as a fan you have to believe your team can do it despite what your eyes tell you sometimes.

I'm not saying we're going to win the league, but we have been completely written off for a top four place by far too many "experts" already. A top four finish is most certainly not beyond the team and squad as it is even if the chances of winning the league are slim to none. While a top four finish isn't the bee all and end all it's certainly far superior to the alternative which sees us playing on Thursday nights this season.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.