49, 49 Undefeated

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s it for today.

Arsenal v Nottingham Forest: Carabao Cup Preview

After the very exciting comeback at home to Villa on Sunday Arsenal are very quickly back in action tonight when Nottingham Forest come calling in the Carabao Cup. As cup competitions go the Carabao Cup is at the bottom of the pile and it gives Unai Emery a chance to rest a few players. The number one priority this season has to be a top four finish and I can’t imagine he will risk the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in this game.

When we trailed Villa late on and we were down to 10 men it didn’t look good, but the players managed to find it within themselves to get the goals we needed. Massive credit has to go to Matteo Guendouzi for driving the team forward in the second half and to Aubameyang who yet again scored us the goal to take all three points. The result was just what we needed, but like our other performances so far this season it was far from impressive.

With only two days between the games the manager will have to use his whole squad which could see the return of a few players from injury. Rob Holding is the one most likely to get his first game of the season while both Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin are more likely to come off the bench at some stage. We should also see those who didn’t get a run out on Sunday getting a game from the start .

We might even see the rare sight so far this season of Mesut Ozil in the team while I would imagine Reiss Nelson and Gabriel Martinelli might get a game too. With Aubameyang surely having to be rested and Alexandre Lacazette injured Martinelli might even be the one to lead the line with Nelson on one side and maybe Bukayo Saka on the other. 

Saka was unfortunate to be the one sacrificed on Sunday when Ainsley Maitland-Niles was sent off and he deserves a chance to show what he can do again after a very impressive display in the Europa League last week. Callum Chambers came on to play right back when Maitland-Niles was sent off and despite some defensive frailty he managed to score our second goal. I thought he was very unlucky to lose his place in the team after the opening game against Newcastle and he must surely be given another chance at some stage as the centre of our defence is shambolic at the moment.

I didn’t think signing David Luiz was a good idea and we have seen the worse side of his game all too often in an Arsenal shirt. He seems to have had a detrimental affect on Sokratis Papastathopoulos too because their partnership is one which scares the life out of me at the moment. If Holding plays tonight it will probably be alongside Shkodran Mustafi and he’s our only central defender who scares me more than Luiz or Sokratis.

Forest put four goals past us a couple of seasons ago in the FA Cup in what was one of Arsene Wenger’s worst results in his many years at the club. We had a young and inexperienced team that day and there was no experience on the bench in case we needed to call on it. I imagine the manager might just have a little bit of back up tonight in case things aren’t going our way.

Forest have started the season quite well with 15 points from their eight games and they’re currently in the top six in the Championship. They have only lost one game and they have only conceded six goals in their eight games so they’re not going to be a pushover. We have some pretty good players available tonight though and I don’t see why we can’t make home advantage pay and progress to the next round.

I’ll be happy to see Holding, Bellerin and Tierney make their first appearances of the season though and to see some of the young guns get a run out too. Progression to the next round is always preferable, but I’m not so sure we want too many extra games at the moment. The younger players will still get a few run outs in the Europa League group games I suppose even if it does go pear shaped tonight. 

I might not sound overly confident, but I suppose watching Arsenal so far this season has given me that lack of confidence. Having said that we’re in the top four and won our toughest Europa League group game with what looked like relative ease if you only saw the score line. I’m still very worried that we won’t take advantage of the crisis at other clubs to cement our place in the top four and bring back Champions League football. Enough of the doom and gloom though and here’s hoping for a great performance and a victory tonight.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Watford Previewed

With the first of far too many pesky international breaks out of the way it’s back to Premier League football for Arsenal as they travel to Watford this afternoon. After yesterday’s results a win today would move us up to third place behind second placed City on goal difference and possibly level on points with Everton depending on how they do against Bournemouth in the early game. The table is already starting to take shape and it looks like Everton and Leicester will be the two teams looking to break into the top six from last season.

Arsenal came from 2-0 down at home to Spurs in their last game to take a point and that was a very important result for them. After losing 3-1 at Anfield the previous week they couldn’t afford to lose to another team chasing a top four place. A draw might not have been what we wanted prior to the game, but at 2-0 down I was more than happy not to lose.

Unai Emery will be without the services of Alexandre Lacazette who is out for approximately a month with an ankle injury. Lacazette‘s absence leaves the squad a little light of strikers with a lot of games coming up in the next month. It does mean that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will play in his favourite position in all of our league games, but we will most certainly miss Lacazette.

The manager has a few decisions to make ahead of the game with Lacazette’s place to be filled as well as what midfield lineup to choose. With Aubameyang through the middle of the attack we might see Reiss Nelson play on the right while Nicolas Pepe will be on the right. Pepe is slowly settling into the team and I think we’re going to see the best of him very soon.

After his performance against Spurs Matteo Guendouzi has to be nailed on to play in the midfield while Granit Xhaka will more than likely start too despite the ridiculous penalty he gave away in that game. I know he is extremely error prone and those errors are very often costly, but he appears to be one of the first names on the team sheet once he’s fit. If those two are nailed on it leaves one of Dani Ceballos, Joe Willock and Lucas Torreira to choose from which isn’t easy on the other two. 

The boss could always opt for a different formation I suppose, but I doubt it. He could even decide to bring in a fit again Mesut Ozil to the team, but I would be very surprised if he gets any further than the bench at the start of the game at least. We have an abundance of options in midfield at the moment and our defence could be following quite soon.

I imagine we will see the same back four as we did against Spurs, but we have a trio of players on the way back from injuries who will be looking to get into the team. Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding and Kieran Tierney are all part of the long term plans for our defence and the sooner we have them available the better. There are plenty of games coming up for those returning players to blood themselves in between the Europa League and the Carabao Cup. 

Watford are stuck on the bottom of the table with only one point from their first four games and that came in their last game away to Newcastle. Their poor start cost Javi Gracia his job and Quique Sanchez Flores has taken over the reins again. Hopefully they won’t get the traditional new manager “boost” and we can add to their woes by taking the three points.

I have no doubt they will try to get about us and put the boot in where they can in an attempt to unsettle us. We had an awful record away from home last season and we let in far too many goals for our own good. They will look to play on that defensive vulnerability if they can and we need to stay strong and repel them.

It’s all about taking the three points today and while it would be great to put in a performance to remember too it’s the points that matter. We won our first away game at Newcastle despite a pretty poor display and we were well beaten at Liverpool in our last away game. If this season is going to be any better than last season then we have to improve our away performances and results too.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Cardiff City Previewed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Doncaster The First Game In A Good Run For Arsenal

Arsenal play at home to Doncaster Rovers tonight in the third round of the Carabao Cup which is a competition that has formerly gone by so many names I have forgotten most of them. It's a competition we have never won under Arsene Wenger and if memory serves me right we have only won it twice ever with George Graham delivering the trophy in 1987 and 1993. It's a competition in which we regularly give a run out to fringe players and youngsters and I expect it to be just so tonight too.

Arsene Wenger said it will be a similar team to the one which beat Koln in the Europa League last week, but I expect we will see even less of an influence from the first team. Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal both started that game and Sead Kolasinac came on as a sub, but I would be surprised if any of them were in the squad tonight. Alexis Sanchez played from the start too and with him still on the path to full fitness I suppose it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he could play tonight, but I doubt it.

To be honest it would almost be an insult to Alexis to play him tonight and if he does play it would certainly be seen as a punishment for wanting out in the summer. We don't play again until next Monday though so there would be plenty of recovery time if he was chosen. With Danny Welbeck injured yet again it would be crazy to risk Alexis tonight and there would be a huge backlash if he played and picked up any sort of knock.

I imagine we will see players like Rob Holding, Calum Chambers and Per Mertesacker in defence with David Ospina probably in goal although I'm not sure who the wing backs will be. In midfield it seems Jack Wilshere will get a run out and you would imagine Mohamed Elneny would start too with Ainsley Maitland-Niles playing in either midfield or defence. The front trio could easily consist of Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud and Reiss Nelson and it looks like a side which should have every chance of getting a good result at home to a League One club.

I don't profess to know too much about the current Doncaster side, but they have only one win and six points from their first eight league games. Confidence can't be too high for them, but I would imagine they will still be looking forward to a trip to one of the big boys and a chance to make a name for themselves. It's a potential giant killing for them and we have to be aware of that and make sure they don't get a  chance to do themselves too proud.

The team are on a high at the moment after the 0-0 draw at Chelsea on Sunday and facing into a run of games which could and should see us rack up win after win. On Sunday it looked like we had learned the lessons from our defeat at Liverpool, but for me the crunch will come in the next few away games at the top teams. We have looked like we have learned those lessons too often in the past only to have failed just when it matters the most. 

We're already six points off the top of the league, but a few wins in a row would soon see us close that gap. The opportunity is coming up to do just that and tonight's performance could have an influence on that even without the first team players on view. Confidence is a thing which grows with each result and anything other than a win tonight could dent that confidence.

I'm looking forward to both Wilshere and Chambers showing what they can do tonight and maybe giving the manager some food for thought in his first team selection. Giroud might just get his 100th goal for the club and Nelson looks like the most likely player from the youngsters to make a breakthrough this season. It might not be the most important competition in the world, but I'm always very fond of watching Arsenal win.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.

The Great Switcheroo Sees Arsenal Reign On A Night Of Chaos

To say it was an eventful night at the Emirates last night is an understatement, but at least Arsenal managed to come through it with the three points. I saw the video clips during the day of Koln fans marching and singing through the streets of London and it was fairly obvious there was a lot more than the 2,900 away fans allocation. It seems there were up to 20,000 of their fans in London and at least half of them descended on the ground before kick off.

It led to a very scary situation for Arsenal fans with riot police eventually being called in to ensure safety inside the ground. From the reports I have read the Koln fans did their homework and many of them joined as Red Members which gave them access to tickets not taken up by Arsenal fans on the night. I have no doubt others tried to force their way in and it led to Koln fans taking over many of the sections reserved for home fans.

I know from the experience of a friend when Arsenal play in another country that a U.K. resident cannot purchase a ticket for a home section of that team's stadium. I wonder if it was the same for Koln fans and if Red Members purchasing tickets from Germany were blocked from doing so or if being a Red Member entitles you to a ticket regardless. There are ways around those rules of course, but it would be interesting to know whether the club actually allowed German residents to buy tickets for the game.

Thankfully the trouble was kept to a minimum and there was a lot of light hearted banter I'm led to believe. I have no doubt a lot of Arsenal fans chose not to enter the ground when they heard of the events unraveling and it must have been scary for those with children in particular. The decision to go ahead with the game was probably the right one when you consider what might have happened with so many Koln fans there if the game had been called off. It meant the kick off was delayed by an hour though which meant plenty of Arsenal fans had to turn around and go home as they could not have got home by the normal methods with the later finishing time.

In the game itself Arsenal started poorly and a bad clearance from David Ospina led to Koln going ahead early on. The three central defenders again didn't look good and the team just aren't playing well when they are deployed no matter what players are chosen. It's a system which worked really well at the end of last season as we searched for something to change our fortunes, but maybe it has run it's course.

Arsene Wenger changed formation to a 4-2-3-1 at half time with the unfortunate Rob Holding making way for Sead Kolasinac and it paid an instant dividend with The Tank scoring a cracking volley. The lead goal was an absolute beaut too with Alexis Sanchez eventually waking up and deciding to take part as he buried a shot into the top corner. The icing on the cake came when Hector Bellerin put the rebound away after a Theo Walcott shot was saved and we deserved the three points in the end.

It was good to see Jack Wilshere make his return and Reiss Nelson make his debut and they could both have a part to play this season. We are very short in the centre of midfield and the passing seemed an awful lot slicker when Wilshere came on. He has a lot to do to convince the manager to use him, but last night can't have done his case any harm.

It leaves us top of our Europa League group with a trip to BATE Borisov in a couple of weeks, but we have a much more pressing matter this Sunday. The manager has a lot of decisions to make before we travel to play Chelsea on Sunday and the first one has to be what formation he uses. It's clear that the one he's persisting with just isn't working and we're only at our best when we ditch it.

Besides the formation he has to decide if Alexis will regain a starting place and if he does it's a matter of who misses out. Opting for the second half formation against Koln would allow him to play with one less defender in the team, but it would mean more defensive duties for Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka. They have been found wanting in those duties at times already this season and if we play that formation they will have to be a lot more disciplined.

Finally for today it seems the only UEFA charge we will have to answer to after last night is for blocked stairways and the ticketing situation seems to have been ignored. Koln have charges of their own to face, but thankfully their fans didn't come looking for a fight or who knows what might have happened.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.