Arsenal Beat Bournemouth To Reach The FA Cup Fifth Round

Last night went pretty well for Arsenal all things considered as they won 2-1 away to Bournemouth to progress to the fifth round of the FA Cup. Mikel Arteta picked a mixture of youth and experience with Bukayo Saka, Matteo Guendouzi, Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah, Emiliano Martinez and Gabriel Martinelli all getting a chance from the start. He also played the recovering Hector Bellerin who was the captain on the night as well as Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Granit Xhaka and Nicolas Pepe.

The young players approached the game as if they had something to prove as Arsenal went on the front foot from the very first minute. A great 22 pass move involving all 10 outfield players ended up with Saka blasting the ball past the Bournemouth keeper to give us the lead after only five minutes. Rather than sit on their laurels Arsenal continued to dominate despite being away from home and a second goal seemed almost inevitable.

That goal came 20 minutes later when Nketiah had the easy task of stroking the ball home after Arsenal played through the attempted Bournemouth press. It was that man Saka who set it up for him, but yet again it was another great team move from back to front. As the first half progressed Bournemouth gradually came out of their shell, but Martinez wasn’t called upon until shortly before the break and he was up to the task.

Bournemouth took a more agricultural approach after the break as they attempted to “put it up ‘em” and put the frighteners on this young Arsenal team. Enter Guendouzi who was simply having none of it as he got stuck in winning tackles and giving as good as he got. I don’t know if it’s Arteta’s influence which was showing in him last night, but whatever it was he was very impressive.

A word for Joe Willock too who I said yesterday might be the player in our midfield to break into the opposition box given the chance. His ability to carry the ball towards the Bournemouth defence was very impressive too and there is a real case for him to play in that role more often. With so many young players willing to give it their all when they get a chance the future certainly looks promising.

I haven’t forgotten Martinelli or Nketiah with the former putting in another great shift and the later doing what he does best and putting the ball in the back of the net. When they were backed up by a disciplined Xhaka the team had a great shape although Xhaka still managed a couple of his usual lapses. He’s being asked to play a deeper role than previously and he’s growing into it as well as regaining the respect of the fans after the incident against Palace earlier in the season.

Bournemouth came into the game a lot more after the break, but for all their huffing and puffing they rarely threatened the Arsenal goal. We were a little vulnerable on crosses as Martinez struggled to impose himself and he got away with a couple of poor punches from those crosses. There wasn’t a lot he could do about the Bournemouth goal when it did come, but at least it was late enough to cause us little bother for the rest of the game.

The goal came in the fifth of almost 11 added minutes at the end of the game and the main reason for all that added time was a very unfortunate injury to Mustafi. He was actually having a very good game on the night and I can’t remember him putting a foot wrong at any stage. The traveling fans were so impressed they were even singing his praises at one stage which is surely something we haven’t heard in a long time.

The injury to Mustafi only increases our need to add a central defender with Calum Chambers already out for the rest of the season and Rob Holding still looking like he has a way to go to get back to form after his injury. We have been linked with a couple of players and it looks like a deal might be on the cards before the transfer window closes on Friday night. If it happens I think it will probably be the only deal we do.

The draw for the fifth round was made before the game and we will face another trip to the south coast to play League One side Portsmouth in early March. We’re getting towards the business end of the FA Cup and a win against Portsmouth would put us through to the last eight if we can do it. I won’t quite say I can smell the sweet air of a Wembley final, but who knows where we might end up come May.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Standard Liege: Europa League Preview

It’s back to Europa League action for Arsenal tonight when Standard Liege come calling in our second group game. We won the first game 3-0 away to Eintracht Frankfurt a couple of weeks ago to set us up nicely for the remaining games. It may not be Europe’s premier competition, but we might need to depend on the Europa League for Champions League qualification if we can’t manage a top four finish for the fourth season in a row.

Our top four chances didn’t take too much of a blow when we drew 1-1 away to United on Monday night, but it still felt like a missed opportunity given their current form. We hadn’t won away to United in the league in 13 years before Monday night and it could be another 13 years before we get as good a chance again. At least we managed to come back and take a point though and that point was enough to keep us fourth in the league.

I expect plenty of changes from that team tonight as Unai Emery looks to rest some players ahead of the Bournemouth game on Sunday and also give a chance to some fringe players and youngsters. He can’t go too far though as we need to make sure we have a strong enough team to take the three points.

Emiliano Martinez should play in goal with a central defensive partnership of Rob Holding and Shkodran Mustafi in front of him and probably Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin as the two full backs if they’re up to it. For me Holding, Tierney and Bellerin are the future of our defence and I’m looking forward to seeing them all slowly play their way back in after their injuries. Mustafi has had his fair share of problems, but he did very well against Frankfurt and Forest and hopefully he can do so again tonight.

In midfield we should see the players who didn’t start against United get a run out which should mean Joe Willock and Dani Ceballos play with Mesut Ozil surely accompanying them. I’m not sure if Ceballos and Ozil can be accommodated in the same team which could mean one of them will start on the bench with the possibility of Ainsley Maitland-Niles even getting a game in his preferred midfield role or who knows Callum Chambers could play there too as it’s not an unfamiliar position to him.

In attack Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has to be rested as he is so important to us which has to mean Gabriel Martinelli plays centrally as he did so well in the Carabao Cup against Forest last week. I would imagine he will be flanked by Reiss Nelson and probably Nicolas Pepe despite the fact that Pepe played on Monday night. His confidence is a little low at the moment, but maybe successive home games against Liege and Bournemouth might just be the tonic he needs.

As I’ve said far too often already this season we’re not playing well, but our best two results came in the Europa League and the Carabao Cup when our team was pretty similar to what it will be tonight. We might have been a little lucky to win 3-0 away to Frankfurt, but the 5-0 win at home to Forest was an excellent display all around even if they are a Championship team. More of the same tonight would do very nicely and put us in a strong position in our group just ahead of the next dreaded international break.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

It’s Do Or Die For Arsenal Tonight

After last night’s events in Amsterdam the impending sense of doom as an Arsenal fan increased by at least ten fold. What Spurs did to come back and win that game was something that is so far beyond Arsenal that it’s not even comprehensible. It means they will play Liverpool in the Champions League final on June 1st while we have our chance to make it to the Europa League final tonight.

I for one will be wholeheartedly behind Liverpool on that night, but Arsenal need to do their part too. If we can progress tonight we will play the final in Baku three days before the Champions League final and it would give us a chance to get something on the board before Spurs play. For us to end the season with a European trophy when they have had their best season in 58 years would be some consolation and it would be even better if Liverpool beat them.

I’m fairly confident of Liverpool doing just that, but my confidence in Arsenal living up to their part of the deal is considerably less. My confidence in them progressing to the final isn’t even all that high and who can blame given our recent performances. Four points from our last six games against teams below us in the league has blown our top four chances and left us with the Europa League as our only realistic route to Champions League football for next season.

Third place was well within our reach with all the other contenders faltering too, but we blew it big style. With United playing at home to already relegated Cardiff on Sunday the chances are we will finish sixth if we don’t win our game at Burnley at the same time. My confidence in the team winning that game is hovering somewhere around zero at the moment and it could go even lower after tonight.

Unai Emery has made some big mistakes in team selection, tactics and substitutions recently, but he has a chance to make some amends tonight. We went to Napoli in the second leg in the last round with a two goal lead and progressed after winning 1-0 on the night. We have a two goal lead tonight too, but crucially for Valencia they managed an away goal at our place last week.

There is going to be an awful lot of pressure on the players tonight to put in a performance to get us to that final, but pressure isn’t something they have coped with well recently with the exception of our European games. Valencia aren’t a bad side, but Napoli were better and we rose to the challenge in both legs against them. Even in the home leg against Valencia last week we came back from 1-0 down to win 3-1 despite almost always falling to pieces when we have gone behind in games recently.

We need to be really tight at the back tonight and it’s something these players struggle to do on a regular basis. With Valencia needing to push on we can hopefully exploit any space behind their defence with the pace of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Despite missing his fair share of chances he is still right up there with the leading scores in the Premier League and the goals both him and Alexandre Lacazette have scored this season have gotten us out of a lot of tricky situations.

It’s the lack of goals from our midfield that has been our real attacking problem for me, but our biggest problem is undoubtedly our defence. When the same players make the same stupid mistakes time after time it beggars belief, but it just keeps happening anyway. The penalty Granit Xhaka gave away against Brighton on Sunday was a case in point and there can’t be too many of us who didn’t know exactly what was going to happen when he attempted to break up the Brighton attack. Sure he wasn’t helped by the terrible pass from Henrikh Mkhitaryan to gift them possession, but he didn’t engage his brain for a single second in how he dealt with it.

Shkodran Mustafi has the ability to do exactly the same thing to us at any given time, but I have no doubt both of them will be playing tonight. To be honest the manager has very few options due to the squad size and the players he has absent through injury so we all have a fairly good idea which players will be playing. Maybe he’ll pull something out of the hat, but with so much resting on this game and I would be very surprised if he did.

As I said already my confidence isn’t high, but I live in hope. The events of the last two nights have shown us anything can happen in football and maybe that will include us making it to the final. I know Valencia will take heart from the comebacks of Liverpool and Spurs, but I choose to hope for those games giving us hope of what would be a reversal in our fortunes. 

I really worry how we will react if they score first, but last week did show we are capable of keeping our heads at least. Our reaction to going behind in away games has been different though and it has made us all question the mental strength of the players. Maybe they can show tonight that it is something that they do possess. I had wondered before last week if the players had been saving their best performances for the Europa League and they showed as much in that game. It’s time for them to show us how much it means to them again tonight and maybe raise our hopes just a little after such a dismal end to the season.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Leicester Previewed

It’s been a bad, bad week for Arsenal with two defeats in the Premier League at home to Palace and away to Wolves which leaves their top four hopes no longer in their own hands. Two victories would have seen us third in the table with a top four place very close to a certainty and the manager able to maybe rest a few players ahead of our Europa League semi final first leg at home to Valencia on Thursday night. It wasn’t to be though and now we have to hope for other results to go our way as well as taking enough points ourselves to take advantage of other teams slipping.

On that note we will be greatly helped by the two teams who are realistically fighting for that last Champions League place for next season playing each other on Sunday afternoon. With Spurs already four points clear of us and some favourable fixtures to finish their season I can’t see them missing out on third place despite the distraction of their Champions League semi final games and their incredible ability to bottle it when the going gets tough. Even their loss at home To West Ham shouldn’t be enough to derail them, but you can never be sure just when things will finally fall apart for them. We’re only a point behind Chelsea and we’re two points ahead of United so realistically we want United to win which would leave them both level on 67 points with two games to play.

For us to benefit to the maximum we would obviously need to win at Leicester, but a draw wouldn’t be the worst result as long as United can win that game. If United win both them and Chelsea will be on 67 points and a point at Leicester would leave us on 67 points too and our goal difference is superior to both of them. Chelsea would have a minimum of three goals to catch up while United would have a maximum of nine which would surely make us favourites if we can win our final two games.   

Winning at home to Brighton won’t be easy for us despite how badly they have done recently as it comes between our two games against Valencia while winning at Burnley will be even tougher given our away form and the fact it comes three days after the second leg against Valencia. At the same time United will be playing two of the bottom three and they will have a real chance to try to catch up on the goal difference gap while Chelsea don’t have the easiest fixtures either and they have Europa League semi finals to contend with too. I can see it going to the last game of the season and I think we will finish in the top four if we can take seven points from our last three games.

So a point at Leicester wouldn’t be the worst result unless of course Chelsea get something at United and it would put our fate firmly back in our own hands. Of course getting a point at Leicester won’t be easy when you consider how bad we were at Wolves on Wednesday night and how bad we are generally away from home with the exception of a very good performance away to Spurs. 

Leicester contain plenty of pace and a real threat on the counter attack and that’s something we seem to have a real problem coping with. Unai Emery hasn’t really done anything to improve us defensively this season, but he hasn’t been helped by long term injuries to both Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin. If we’re going to get anything from the game I think we are going to have to play five at the back.

Like many others I have been fairly critical of Shkodran Mustafi this season, but he wasn’t on the pitch at Wolves when others showed they were just as capable of making the mistakes for which we berate him. With Laurent Koscielny playing game after game at the moment I think we will have to rest him before something gives which will probably mean Mustafi coming back into the team. The other central defender will surely have to be Nacho Monreal as it’s a little unfair on Konstantinos Mavropanos to expect him to come in at the deep end again. Maybe Mavropanos can be slowly developed starting with cup games next season, but it’s asking an awful lot for him to play at this level in such important games.

If Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has recovered from his minor procedure I expect him to play, but Alexandre Lacazette might well be rested ahead of Valencia. The injury to Aaron Ramsey seems to have been a real blow to how we had being playing and we could really do with him against Leicester, but he isn’t ready to return and probably won’t ever play for us again unless we reach the Europa League Final.

We seem to have problems no matter what way we play away from home. If we try to take the game to the opposition we get taken apart on the break while we simply can’t stop the opposition if we try to sit back and hit them on the break. I would be very surprised if Leicester didn’t try to get among us and pressurise us as it seems to work for almost every other team on our travels.

If we concede the first goal we’re in a huge amount of trouble as we have only taken one point away from home so far this season after conceding the first goal. We have allowed the opposition an awful lot of shots against us compared to the shots we have taken despite having more possession than our opponents on average away from home. It’s our inability to create chances from all of our possession which is really harming us and I think it has a lot to do with us not having a genuine wide player to speak of in the squad.

The manager has to make do with what he has though and hope he can get a performance out of them to get the result we need. I would be happy with a point to keep our top four hopes alive ahead of a very difficult game at home to Valencia on Thursday night, but I have real reservations about our ability to even do that. For me our biggest problem is our lack of balance and that’s something that just can’t be sorted with the players we have so we just have to make do. It’s accentuated away from home and there can’t be many teams in the Premier League who don’t have a genuine belief they can beat us on their own patch.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Rennes Preview

After a fairly disastrous night in Rennes last Thursday Arsenal bounced back on Sunday with a 2-0 win against United to move them back to fourth in the Premier League. If they neeeded a confidence boost after that defeat they couldn’t have asked for a better result and it moved them within a point of third placed Spurs too. A top four finish is a very real possibility now providing we can sort out an abysmal run of away results.

We have only won twice in our last 11 away games in all competitions and those wins were against Blackpool and Huddersfield. We should have won away to Spurs a couple of weeks ago though and except for some very poor refereeing and a last minute penalty miss we would have won too. I thought we were pretty much in control of the game away to Rennes last week too until the Sokratis Papastathopoulos red card, but our utter inability to cope when playing with a man down cost us dearly.

The players have the chance to redeem themselves tonight though and it would be quite the redemption with a two goal lead for Rennes to overturn. It’s certainly far from impossible and I’d say our chances are a little less than 50/50, but we have given ourselves an uphill struggle. If we’re going to do it we’re going to have to put in a performance similar to the one against United on Sunday.

I know United had their chances in that game and we rode our luck a few times, but you couldn’t question the attitude and commitment of the players for one moment in the game. Unai Emery made a bold team selection and it paid off for him even if we had a little help from David de Gea and the woodwork. He might need to be just as bold tonight because we need to have enough attacking intent to cause them real problems.

Of course we opened them up at ease in the first leg and we really should have been more than one goal ahead by the time Sokratis got his marching orders. I’m not denying how easily they opened us up when we were down to 10 men, but their defensive abilities offer us real hope for tonight. Hopefully the penalty Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored against United can be the catalyst for him to find some form in front of goal again.

His finishing has been below par recently and I know strikers miss chances all the time, but everything about his game is off at the moment. Thankfully Alexandre Lacazette’s suspension was reduced and he can play tonight and I would be very surprised if the manager didn’t play both of our main strikers. They work well together and Lacazette is on a great run of contributing at least a goal or assist in successive games for quite a while now.

If Mesut Ozil gets the nod again he’s the man who can open them up and make the chances for those two as well as getting our wide players in behind them. Speaking of which I wonder if the manager will use three central defenders again and let the wing backs get forward. We create quite a lot of our chances from pull backs when our wide players get behind the opposition and Sead Kolasinac is probably our best player at getting into that position.

If he does use that formation it would probably mean Shkodran Mustafi filling in for the suspended Sokratis and regular readers will know how that makes me feel. He’s an accident waiting to happen in almost every game he plays, but we would have little other choice with that formation tonight. If we play two central defenders and Nacho Monreal gets the nod over Mustafi it would also be a clear message of how the manager rates Mustafi I suppose.

Anyway here’s hoping we can come up with another good performance and result tonight and our home form in the league would suggest it’s certainly well within our capabilities. We have won 13 of our 16 home games in the league this season with only City winning more and we’re currently on a nine game winning streak. In five of our last six home games we would have done enough to either put Rennes out or bring the game to extra time and we need more of the same tonight. I can’t say I’m overly confident of us going through, but I have a nagging feeling we’re not quite done with the Europa League yet this season.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Rennes Previewed

With the battle for a top four place in the Premier League in full flow Arsenal have the distraction of the Europa League knock out stages to contend with this evening. While the Premier League might seem so much more important at the moment they still have to give their all in the Europa League considering the rewards available in it. As well as a Champions League spot for next season for the winner there is also quite a wad of money to be made from the competition.

If I’m not mistaken Arsenal made close to €40 million from reaching the Europa League semi finals last season and winning the competition would increase that prize. They also played seven home games in the competition last season and a conservative estimate for match day income from those games would probably be another €25 to €30 million. While the Champions League offers more filthy lucre the amount available from the Europa League can’t be ignored either.

Of course they have bagged some of that money already with four games behind them and the return leg to come next week, but the further you go in the competition the greater the rewards become. The importance of the extra income from European football can’t be overstated as it adds greatly to the transfer kitty. While it might not be the most glamorous competition winning the Europa League could bring in somewhere north of €75 million from all sources and that would certainly buy a very good player or two.

Anyway to the game and Arsenal’s chances against a team who had no fixture last weekend so they could rest ahead of this game while we had to play a hard fought local derby. I can’t say I know an awful lot about Rennes, but this is a very big game for them and a chance to take the scalp of the sixth richest club in the world. They’re currently slap bang in the middle of their domestic league with almost as many defeats as wins this season.

We have another huge game on Sunday against a United team who got an unbelievably lucky penalty decision to put them through to the last eight of the Champions League last night. We lost at home to them in the cup already this season and it’s hard to believe Unai Emery won’t have one eye on that game with his team selection this evening. United have a lot of injury problems building up at the moment, but they have coped with them pretty well so far.

I think the manager has to go with Pierre-Emireck Aubameyang up front with Alexandre Lacazette suspended for both legs which should see Lacazette start on Sunday. In midfield Lucas Torreira will surely start in both legs as he has a three game domestic ban to serve. We could see the return from injury of Ainsley Maitland-Niles in defence with Petr Cech playing in goal.

There could be some more rotation from Saturday too and the manager might well be tempted to play the same team against United as the one that started against Spurs. With the exception of the Shkodran Mustafi mistake for the penalty (which was offside anyway) the team were very disciplined against Spurs and I think he’ll look for more of the same against United. That will surely influence his team selection tonight with those who missed out on Saturday quite possibly starting today.

We could well see both Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac come into the team and there’s even a possibility the player we signed on loan in January could get his first start. I’m still not sure why we brought Denis Suarez in, but we took one of the few players available I suppose and I remain to be convinced that it wasn’t a massive waste of time. Even with those six or seven changes we would have a fairly strong team and one which would belie our supposed lack of squad depth.

With three players on the long term injury list we could still draft in Aubameyang, Ozil, Torreira, Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Cech and Suarez which would only leave only four of the team that should have got more than a point against Spurs having to play. Those four will probably be Mustafi in the centre of defence with either Laurent Koscielny or Sokratis Papastathopoulos getting a much needed rest, one of Matteo Guendouzi or Granit Xhaka in midfield and one of Alex Iwobi or Henrikh Mkhitaryan in midfield/attack. It’s a strong enough team to go there and get the win or failing that to at least leave us in with a very good chance ahead of the return leg next week.

Our chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League are still a lot easier through the Premier League, but the Europa League cannot be ignored as a back up plan as well as a chance of some actual silverware. After the United game we finish the league with eight games which are all well within our capabilities of winning and I have no doubt a good return from those games will give us a real chance of finishing in the top four. For the moment though it’s all systems go on the reserve plan against Rennes this evening.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Barely Batter BATE Before Drawing Rennes

Arsenal did what they had to do against BATE Borisov last night and the 3-0 win was enough to put them through to the last 16 of the Europa League with relative ease. It could have been a lot better, but after losing the first leg 1-0 last week the most important thing was progressing to the next round. The draw for the last 16 was made this afternoon and Arsenal will face Rennes away from home on March 7th with the return leg at the Emirates a week later.

On the face of it it’s a fairly good draw, but Rennes will be by no means a pushover and Arsenal’s schedule is about to become very hectic. They play at home to Southampton on Sunday which is followed by another home game against Bournemouth on Wednesday before an early trip to Spurs the following Saturday and then Rennes away on Thursday followed by home games against United and Rennes on the Sunday and Thursday respectively. By my reckoning that’s six games in 19 days with four of them at home and two away from home. 

It’s a pretty tough schedule for a squad as paper thin as Arsenal’s and any more injuries would be very unwelcome at this stage. There is an international break soon afterwards and Arsenal have a free week before that as they’re out of the FA Cup, but coming through six games in 19 days won’t be easy. Of course Spurs and United face a similar fixture pile up, but they both have one game less in that time scale as they only have to play the second leg of their Champions League last 16 ties.

Drawing Rennes is definitely more desirable than the draw could have been to us, but they showed they’re no pushover by winning 3-1 away to Real Betis last night to reach the last 16. The first leg was originally meant to be played at the Emirates, but it was switched because Chelsea are at home on the same night and you can have two Europa League games in the same City on the same night. Rennes aren’t particularly happy with the decision and I suspect we might not have heard the last of it. 

Getting back to the victory last night and it wasn’t exactly a thrill a minute, but we did what we had to do. We were helped when a defender turned in a Pierre-Emireck Aubameyang cross early on and we followed it up with headers from corners by Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos. The fact we couldn’t really open them up in open play should not be lost on us though as we continue to struggle with our game.

Mesut Ozil was given the chance to show what he can do from the start and while he didn’t set the world alight I still thought we looked a lot more fluid with him in the team. His inclusion meant Aaron Ramsey sat the game out and I wonder if Unai Emery will switch the two of them around for Southampton on Sunday. I’d like to see Ozil get a run in the team, but I’m not sure if the manager will have been overjoyed at his unwillingness to chase back and close down on the occasions he lost possession.

I can’t say I’ve been over impressed by Stephan Lichsteiner since he joined us on a free transfer from Juventus last summer, but he made a telling contribution with an early clearance off the line last night. Maybe a goal from BATE would have made us concentrate a little harder on the task in hand, but it could have harmed our brittle confidence too and who knows where the game would have gone then. After our third goal the game petered out, but it was good to see Sokratis come back from his injury even if Laurent Koscielny went off with what looked like a slight knock.

There’s some big tests ahead for us and to be in the best place to face those tests we need maximum points against both Southampton and Bournemouth first. Neither of them are a pushover, but their away records are not good and anything other than six points from those two games will be a huge disappointment.

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.

Arsenal v Burnley Preview

Arsenal had almost forgotten what defeat was like before last weekend, but successive defeats to Southampton and Spurs have certainly reminded them of how bitter it can taste. Our 22 game unbeaten run came to an end at Southampton in the Premier League last weekend and Spurs added to our misery at home in the Carabao Cup quarter final on Wednesday night. Defeats are a part of football, but there is no doubt we played a huge part in our own downfall in both games.

They need to put those defeats behind them against Burnley and get back to winning ways by any means they can. It’s certainly well within their capabilities even with the team getting more tired with each passing game. The lack of depth in the squad in certain positions is becoming very obvious and it’s something that might have to be addressed in the January transfer window.

There’s little we can do about it at the moment though and the early kick off against Burnley gives the players little time to recover from the defeat against Spurs on Wednesday night. Unai Emery played more or less the strongest team he had available in that game and that could come back to haunt him over the busy festive season. After Burnley we face trips to Brighton and Liverpool before we play at home to Fulham and those four games take place in just 10 days.

Laurent Koscielny wasn’t risked from the start against Spurs and it was understandable given that he has just returned from a long term injury. Nacho Monreal played in that game and he’s just back from injury too while Stephan Lichsteiner wasn’t risked having picked up a knock in the defeat at Southampton. The chances are the three of them will have to start against Burnley with Shkodran Mustafi and Sead Kolasinac both doubtful and they have a combined age of 99 years. 

At least Sokratis Papastathopoulos is available to play in the centre of the defence and we can only hope the manager doesn’t decide to deploy Granit Xhaka there too. Not only is it not his natural position, but we miss his influence in midfield too much when he plays in defence. Xhaka and Lucas Torreira have formed a very good partnership in the centre of our midfield and it’s something that has to be allowed to grow.

On top of our defensive woes it appears Mesut Ozil is “persona non grata” with the manager and his days at the club could well be numbered. If that is the case it’s not going to be easy to move on a player on his wages who signed a lengthy contract extension less than a year ago. I hope he can sort things out with the manager, but it doesn’t look that way at the moment. Ozil is an incredibly talented player who can help us win against any team and we will suffer without his creative talents if he continues to be left out of the team. As the games come quick and fast I suppose it will become more obvious if the manager doesn’t want him or not.

I thought Henrikh Mkhitaryan played quite well against Spurs with the exception of the great chance he missed to put us ahead shortly before they scored and he could find himself playing a more important role if Ozil doesn’t play. The Aaron Ramsey situation is less complicated than Ozil’s and he will play at times, but it appears we will lose him too. It appears two of our most talented midfielders will be plying their trade elsewhere next season or even next month and it could leave a gaping hole in our squad.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang seems to have been given the nod as first choice striker and he has scored the goals to deserve that role, but he has missed his fair share in the last few games. I wouldn’t be surprised if the manager decided to rotate him against Burnley with Alexandre Lacazette the obvious candidate to replace him. Aubameyang has had a great impact off the bench when he hasn’t started this season and that could be the case again against Burnley.

We couldn’t really ask for a better opponent as we try to get three previous points in our pursuit of a top four finish. Burnley have only taken one point in their last five away games and they failed to score in four of those games. They have tightened up in defence in the last few weeks, but only two teams have conceded more goals away from home. They’re in the relegation zone at the moment and we’re not going to convince anyone we can keep our challenge for a top four finish going if we can’t beat them.

If we’re going to keep that challenge going we are going to have to start playing well in the first half of games at some stage. The last two games have shown we can’t always depend on our second halves of games to get us out of trouble and we need to do better from the start. It’s quite incredible that we haven’t led any of our 17 Premier League games so far at half time and I think today has to offer an ideal opportunity to end that statistic.

We have tough trips to Brighton and Liverpool coming in quick succession, but we can only concentrate on the job in hand against Burnley. I think we will win, but if we don’t it could make the rest of the festive schedule very difficult for us.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Football Is Back As Arsenal Play Bournemouth

After what seemed an interminable two week wait real football returns for Arsenal today when they travel to play Bournemouth. After yesterday’s games we’re four points behind fourth placed Chelsea and a win would put us only one point behind them. Our main goal for this season is a top four finish and we need to keep as close as possible to that top four as the season progresses.

Our next two league games after today will be really tough challenges for us and three points today will put us in a better position going into those games. I don’t think Spurs have been at all impressive this season, but they’re winning games and we will have our work cut out against them next week, but it’s certainly a real opportunity to put one over on one of the teams above us. We travel to play United only three days later and again they have been far from impressive, but they’re never easy to beat at Old Trafford.

Before those games we play a Bournemouth team today who have been very impressive so far this season. They slipped up away to Newcastle in their last game, but they will be only one point behind us if they can get the better of us today. They play some good attacking football, but their defence is their weak point and that’s something we have to exploit.

We haven’t exactly set the world alight this season either, but a great run of seven wins in a row after losing our first two games put us on the heels of the leaders. Three draws in our last three games have seen us fall back a little, but we didn’t really deserve any more than those draws against Palace and Wolves in particular. The performance against Liverpool was impressive though and it’s that level of skill and commitment we need to aim for far more often.

Unai Emery should have a few more defensive options today at least and I wonder if he will be tempted to pair Rob Holding and Sokratis Papastathopoulos in the centre of the defence. Holding’s performances this season make him a first choice for me and it’s a case of whether he opts for the error prone Shkodran Mustafi or goes with Sokratis now that he’s available again after injury. We have the prospect of the return of Laurent Koscielny fairly soon I think and he will certainly make the job of choosing a central defensive partnership more challenging.

With Nacho Monreal still injured and Stephan Lichsteiner doubtful the full backs pick themselves in Sead Kolasinac and Hector Bellerin. Kolasinac needs to improve, but injuries have limited his game time this season and hopefully he can improve now that he’s fully fit. On the other side Bellerin has done very well going forward and he’s an important part of how the manager wants to play even if his defending still needs improvement.

Both Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka have to be nailed on in midfield with Matteo Guendouzi as back up. After that I can only assume we will see both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette in from the start even if it means we don’t have an experienced striker to make a difference from the bench. The real poser for the manager could be who he picks to pull the strings behind the attack and wide.

He has to choose two from Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alex Iwobi and Aaron Ramsey and he needs to make the right choices. We have struggled in attack in our last few games and he might need to change things around a little to give us the creative boost we need. Before this weekend only Spurs had scored more away goals than us and they have played three more away games.

I think we can make the chances we need to score a few goals today and the outcome will depend on how we cope with a Bournemouth team who have been very good going forward this season. They have some very dangerous players who play well together and we have to be very mindful of their movement off the ball. We have been far from convincing in our defending all too often this season and they will take advantage of that if they’re given the chance.

Despite having a new man at the helm we are suffering from the same problems that have plagued us for too many seasons and Emery has his work cut out to change what seems like a mindset at the club. We have the ability to go out and win comfortably today, but none of us would be too surprised if we put in another performance like the ones against Palace and Wolves. At least we drew those two games, but a draw really isn’t enough today and we need a performance and result to boost our confidence and belief ahead of the upcoming games.

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’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.

Bitter Disappointment As Arsenal Fail To Beat 10 Man Atletico

It’s been a very disappointing season for Arsenal, but they have a chance to come out of it with some pride and glory if they can go all the way and win the Europa League. They played at home to Atletico Madrid last night in the first leg of their semi final knowing they needed a positive result to take to Madrid next week. It was never going to be an easy task against an Atletico team who stop teams scoring goals for fun.

Arsene Wenger went with the expected starting 11 which meant Mesut Ozil and Jack Wilshere returned from illness and injury respectively for Alex Iwobi who dropped to the bench and the injured Mohamed Elneny. I worried that Atletico would be too savvy for us and would bide their time before picking us off on the break with Antonio Griezmann in excellent form coming into the game. We needed to start with determination and a fast tempo and we did just that.

With less than 10 minutes gone and Arsenal in the ascendancy thinks took a real turn in our favour. Atletico’s right back received his second yellow card of the night for a nasty looking challenge on Nacho Monreal and it was hard to argue with the referee’s decision. We had the chance to put them to the sword and try to make the second leg a much easier prospect.

Arsenal surged forward and came close to scoring time after time, but the elusive goal wouldn’t come in the first half thanks to some excellent goalkeeping and profligate finishing. Atletico came back into the game late in the first half and early in the second half, but they soon retreated en masse to their own penalty area to try to defend the 0-0 scoreline. It seemed to be working for them until Alexandre Lacazette rose highest to head home a Jack Wilshere cross and put us 1-0 up.

We didn’t sit back and look to defend that lead as we pushed for more goals to bring the prospect of the final even closer. At the other end we maintained our discipline in defence and Atletico didn’t look like scoring in the second half. It took just one moment of madness to undo our good work though and that moment came with less than 10 minutes to go.

First of all Danny Welbeck ran into a blind alley and fell over looking for a foul that never happened when he lost the ball. With Atletico in possession in their own half Aaron Ramsey stood and watched as a long ball was played forward instead of at least attempting to close it down or put pressure on the player launching it. What happened next just encapsulated all that is wrong about our defending.

Every team knows how susceptible we are to a long ball, but Laurent Koscielny got to it ahead of Antonio Griezmann and just had to deal with it. Unfortunately he decided to try to hook it back over his head and instead hit himself in the face with that ball and the ball fell to Griezmann with only David Ospina to beat. Ospina got enough on his attempt to keep it out, but Shkodran Mustafi couldn’t stop him dispatching the rebound to the back of the net.

On the face of it the goal wasn’t the worst one to concede, but when you look closer it’s ridiculous how many things we got wrong. After both Welbeck’s and Ramsey’s contributions the spolight fell on the defenders and they really didn’t cover themselves in glory. 

With Nacho Monreal five yards behind him Koscielny decided to push up and play offside for some bizarre reason. I’m not sure which one of them was at fault, but both of their actions showed a complete lack of communication. As Koscielny chased back with Griezmann he was watched by a virtually static Mustafi who never considered that Griezmann might get the better of Koscielny. When he did it was too late for Mustafi to recover in time and he slipped in his attempts to do so which only saw the shot deflect off him into the roof of the net.

We needed every single player to be on his game and concentrate 100% for every minute of the game, but as well as they did for so long they just couldn’t stop themselves reverting to type. The absolute basic errors we have made all season long came back to haunt us and Atletico got the away goal they craved. Try as we did we couldn’t regain our advantage and we had to settle for a draw on the night.

While going to Atletico and getting the result we need to progress to the final isn’t beyond us it’s still a huge task. They haven’t conceded a home goal in 11 games and they showed last night that they know how to defend even when they’re down to 10 men. We need to go there and score or we will be out of the competition and it’s going to take a monumental effort from the players to get a result.

I suppose last night was to be expected and it was foolish to let a team who have disappointed so often get our hopes up. I thought we played well enough though and we managed to get a goal against a team who don’t concede too many goals. Even at 1-0 we had a chance of going through, but those chances are vastly reduced now.

The disappointment stems from the chance we had when they went down to 10 men and the chances we continually created, but failed to take. We couldn’t have asked for more than playing against 10 men, but somehow we managed to mess it up for ourselves yet again. Hope springs eternal though and I refuse to give up on that hope until I hear the final whistle next Thursday night.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Atletico Madrid Preview

It’s been nine years since Arsenal played in a European semi final and while the Europa League is European football’s second class trophy it’s still one we badly want to win. Not only is it our only way into next season’s Champions League, but it’s also our only chance of a trophy this season. With Arsene Wenger due to leave at the end of the season it would be a fitting farewell present for him for the players to present him with his first European trophy.

If we’re going to make that final we’re going to have to overcome Atletico Madrid over two legs in the semi final and it’s going to be by far our toughest task so far this season in the competition. The group stages were relatively easy as we topped our group with teams made up mainly of young players, reserves and fringe players. As we progressed through the knockout rounds we gradually strengthened the team and now we’ve reached the stage where our season depends on the Europa League.

The manager has to play his strongest available team tonight and I imagine we will see Mesut Ozil return to the team as long as he has recovered from his “illness”. Unfortunately we will be without the injured Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Mohamed Elneny, but at least Jack Wilshere should be back after his latest injury. The first big question could be who plays in goal if Petr Cech is fit to return as David Ospina has been the cup goalkeeper this season.

I would normally plump for Cech, but I’m not sure his form merits his inclusion and I don’t think the choice of keeper is crucial tonight. That’s not to say it’s not important, but with Cech probably well past his best and Ospina not particularly good to start with it doesn’t really matter who plays tonight. What is important in the long term is the acquisition of a top class keeper.

I would imagine the defence will be the same as it was in the 4-1 against West Ham on Sunday despite the form of Shkodran Mustafi. If we switch to three central defenders it might afford him more cover, but it could leave us short elsewhere on the pitch. As bad as he has been recently I would be very surprised if the manager dropped Mustafi and we just have to hope he can cut out the costly mistakes.

With Antonio Griezmann and Diego Costa up front for Atletico our defenders could be in for a rough ride. Griezmann is a top class striker in excellent form at the moment and we have had our runs in with Costa during his time at Chelsea. Let’s hope our defenders can be the ones winding him up tonight and he doesn’t get away with his usual foul play and cheating. If the officials behind the goals do their jobs correctly I wouldn’t be surprised to see him on the end of a tough time from the referee tonight.

I thought Elneny would have kept Wilshere out of the team tonight, but his injury on Sunday should see Wilshere in from the start with Ainsley Maitland-Niles unlikely to get the nod. It’s a midfield trio with very few defensive instincts between them, but we have to hope they can knuckle down knowing the prize on offer. We cannot allow our defence to be exposed and they have to make sure at least one of them sits at all times.

I’ve been really excited when both Ozil and Mkhitaryan have started together and I think they could have opened Atletico up between them and created plenty of chances for Alexandre Lacazette. With Mkhitaryan out it looks like Danny Welbeck will get the nod instead and to be fair to him he has been in good goalscoring form since his return from injury. He doesn’t have the creativity Mkhitaryan possesses, but he will work very hard for the team and he’s got an eye for goal at the moment.

It’s going to be hard to break down an Atletico team who seem to defend for fun and we might well have to bide our time. There’s no point in going all gung ho and leaving them too much space to create havoc in our defence. As bad as our away form has been in the league it has been very good in the Europa League. As long as we can go to Madrid next week still in the tie there will be hope and the chance for the players to come good.

The last time we played in a European semi final we lost the first leg 1-0 at United thanks to some heroics by Wojciech Szczesny, but the second leg went desperately wrong. Before we knew what hit us we were 3-0 down anf we went on to lose 3-1 on the night. For some that is the point where they decided we needed a new man in charge of the team. Maybe it just might be a fitting end for Arsene if he could gain some redemption in Europe before he finally departs at the end of this season.

That’s it for this week.

See you next week.

Arsenal Lose To Newcastle As Seventh Place Looms

The deja vu feeling reared it’s ugly head again for Arsenal yesterday when they lost 2-1 to Newcastle. Like so many times already this season (Watford, Bournemouth and Swansea) we took the lead away to a team at the wrong end of the table and ended up losing. We have only won three of our 16 away games this season and we have lost nine of them.

To make matters even worse it was our fifth away defeat in a row in the league which is our worst run away from home in 34 years. Burnley are only two points behind us and will move ahead of us into sixth place if they beat Chelsea on Thursday night. That might seem like an unlikely scenario, but they have won their last five games and Chelsea might just have their minds on their FA Cup semi final against Southampton next Sunday.

We are the only team in the four leagues in England without a point away from home since the turn of the year. The Premier League season doesn’t run to the calendar year though, but it’s still a harsh statistic. It makes you wonder exactly what Arsene Wenger has to do to make those who are in charge actually consider removing him from his post.

Up to now I have thought the best thing for the club would be for him to realise the job is beyond him and walk away. I know he has never walked away from any contact and he’s not going to change that, but I had hoped against hope that he would come to his senses. It has now reached the stage where the club have to take control and remove him from his position at the end of the season regardless of how our attempts to win the Europa League pan out.

Speaking of which the thought that we can somehow beat Atletico Madrid over two legs seems laughable at this stage. They are a team that know how to defend and while they might not be a thrill a minute to watch they look ideally suited to making our semi final as painful as the Champions League semi final was against United in 2009. I can’t see us holding them at home or away and our only hope is to outscore them over the two legs, but we will have to go a long way to score away to a team who haven’t conceded a home goal in 10 games.

We might have had a sub strength team yesterday after the trip to Moscow on Thursday night, but the team we had out there was good enough to win and particularly after we had taken the lead. Newcastle didn’t even have to do an awful lot to get back into the game as we handed them the goals with yet more individual mistakes. Our ability to self harm is unbelievable and nobody has a clue how to change it.

When the manager tells us after the game that he can’t understand it and the players are lacking confidence away from home because of the run of results it’s hard to take. It’s his job to prepare them for games and instill the required confidence and belief in them. He is the man who told us there is no reason for the difference in results for a team away from home compared to at home and yet his team is the one with the biggest disparity in those results.

I don’t normally like to single players out, but Shkodran Mustafi is having a torrid time at the moment. He seems to have a huge part in almost every goal we give away and he seems incapable of learning from his mistakes. I think he ideally likes to attack that ball from distance and win challenges, but when it goes wrong for him the whole team suffers.

With Laurent Koscielny nursing an injury which is severely limiting his playing time and will do even more so going forward I imagine we are left with Mustafi as our senior central defender. He should be the one leading by example and telling others what to do, but the way he is playing he should really be on the bench. We don’t appear to have enough defensive options and I wonder if Nacho Monreal could be played centrally again with Sead Kolasinac getting a game on the left.

For me we just haven’t invested properly in our defence (or goalkeepers for that matter) and we are paying the price. The money was there last summer, but we got a left back on a free transfer and the manager doesn’t trust him enough to play him now anyway. I think it’s more than just the players faults though and I cannot see how the same mistakes could be made game after game if they were being coached properly or believed in the coaching they were getting.  

We were on a very good run before yesterday, but that was disguised by five of the last seven games being at home and the away games being in the Europa League where our away form is the opposite of what it is in the Premier League. With the Europa League so important to us now we could be set for more Premier League horror shows and finishing seventh is a very real possibility. We still have to visit United, Leicester and Huddersfield and it’s difficult to see where our next away point will come from.

We have to play at home to Burnley too and the result of that game could have a huge bearing on our final league position. For the sixth or seventh richest club in the world to finish seventh in their own league is almost laughable, but it’s a very real possibility. Other clubs among the current elite of English football have suffered the same or similar fates in recent seasons and the common outcome was the manager was shown the door.

We had our worst season ever under Wenger in terms of our league position last season, but that will be surpassed this season without doubt. When his contract was renewed last summer the talk was of strengthening and building for the future and looking to get back into the hallowed top four. We will spectacularly miss that target and while the Europa League might help us achieve the Champions League goal it’s impossible to believe this is a team or club that is building for the future or progressing. The only way we will progress is with a new man at the helm with new ideas to depart to the players and the sooner it happens the better. I’m not sure what the catalyst for that change will be, but it is coming and it’s only a matter of time and possibly how low we can go before it happens.

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’s Trip To Crystal Palace Previewed

With all of the other challengers for runners up to Manchester City having played already it’s time for Arsenal to play catch up tonight. All the other teams won with the exception of United who dropped more points to give us hope that second place is a real target. Both Liverpool and Spurs scored five against teams struggling at the wrong end of the table while Chelsea won, but are still finding goals difficult to come by.

Memories of this game last season are hard to banish from my mind as Arsenal were at their very worst in a 3-0 defeat. Theo Walcott was the captain that night if memory serves me correctly and his comments after the game have played a part in his demise at the club in my opinion. As it stands it seems we might be about to offload him when the transfer window opens in a few days.

Palace have been on a very good run for the last couple of months and the fact that they’re not even in the relegation zone is a huge achievement considering they lost their first seven games without scoring a goal. As it stands they are unbeaten in eight games although they have drawn five of them while they are unbeaten in six at home with three draws in those games including a victory against Chelsea. When they beat Chelsea they didn’t have a point or a goal to their name and from what I saw of the game Chelsea paid the price for underestimating them.

It’s something Arsenal have been accused of far too often for my liking and it’s something they cannot afford to do tonight. Considering our inability to defend even at a basic level we have to be switched on from the very start tonight. We played a back four in that defeat at Palace last season and probably will do again tonight, but most of the time in between we have used a back five.

With Nacho Monreal our tonight I would expect to see Shkodran Mustafi in from the start as he has recovered from his injury. The big question is who will play at left back if it’s a back four and I can only assume Ainsley Maitland-Niles will get the nod ahead of the player who was voted the best left back in the Bundesliga last season.

For me I think Sead Kolasinac should play and AMN could maybe get a chance in the centre of midfield which is his natural position and a position where we are struggling badly at the moment. With Aaron Ramsey still injured it means we will see Granit Xhaka and Jack Wilshere play with Mesut Ozil dropping back to help them. There is no real balance in that trio and no recovery pace to help the defence between Xhaka and Wilshere, but maybe AMN could offer both of them to the team.

We were overrun in midfield by Liverpool in our last game for all but about 10 minutes, but we managed to do enough in that brief spell to get a 3-3 draw. We should really have lost by four or five goals and it’s difficult to believe we will somehow have improved defensively as a team since then. Palace might not be Liverpool, but they will cause us problems and I think we will have to score two or three goals tonight to have any hope of winning.

With three games to play in a week we can make or lose a lot of ground in the fight for second to sixth place. Three points tonight and agsinst West Brom in a few days would make the home game with Chelsea a less worrying prospect before we head into a month full of Cup and league games. It’s most certainly not beyond us, but who knows what you will get with this Arsenal team.

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's Trip To Southampton Previewed

It's been a week since a combination of our defensive horror show and an inspired performance from David de Gea saw Arsenal lose 3-1 at home to United. That performance was Arsenal in a nutshell as they yet again managed to get the hopes of us fans up only to utterly shatter them. It's a story we've seen unfold in front of us all too often for far too many years now and yet we continue to hope it won't happen.

The goals we conceded said so much about our inability to do the easy things correctly and to concentrate properly on our defending. You can point to individual errors and lapses in concentration for each goal, but the inability to defend as a team played a big role in the game too. I think we made United look an awful lot better than they are and I don't give them a snowball's chance in hell of catching City.

The second string at least strolled to a 6-0 win at home to BATE on Thursday night in our final Europa League group game. We finished top of our group and we will go into the knockout stages as one of the favourites to lift the trophy. The draw for the last 32 takes place on Monday and I wouldn't be surprised to see Arsene Wenger take the competition a little more seriously once it resumes

We have bounced back from defeats in recent months with positive results and it's something we need to do again today at Southampton. We need to put those defensive errors behind us and concentrate on our need to keep pace with the other teams chasing a top four finish. We're not going to catch City, but United aren't out of our sights yet, Chelsea lost yesterday with Spurs winning and Liverpool playing after us today.

We've had a few problems playing away to Southampton in recent seasons and the 4-0 loss there a couple of years ago is the reason Wojciech Szczesny no longer plays for Arsenal which is a shame as far as I am concerned. That was a game to forget though and one of the worst performances I have seen from an Arsenal team in many years. Given the chance Southampton can play well against almost any team in the Premier League and we cannot give them that chance today.

We did manage to do the double over them in the league last season and a fairly youthful Arsenal team won 5-0 at Southampton in the FA Cup last season too. They have won three of their eight home games this season, but those three wins were all against teams at the wrong end of the table. Besides those games they have really struggled to score goals at home although the return from injury of Charlie Austin seems to have helped them in the goal scoring department.

I don't expect to see too many changes to the Arsenal team that lost to United, but obviously the injured Shkodran Mustafi will miss out. The manager will have to decide whether to make a straight replacement for Mustafi or to bring in a player to bolster the team elsewhere. Despite playing three central defenders on a permanent basis at the moment it's still not his favourite formation and he must be sorely tempted to switch to a flat back four in every single game.

I think we could probably do with the extra man in midfield today and I wouldn't be surprised to see us switch to two central defenders. Whatever formation we play the players have to be better in possession in front of our own goal. It's something that has plagued us all season long, but not every team have been as ruthless as United were in exploiting it last week.

If we have Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette in attack we have the ammunition to take on any team and I would be very surprised if the three of them don't start today. Ozil and Lacazette have been very good in recent weeks and while Sanchez hasn't quite been at his best I don't buy into those who think he's not giving his all. He may give that ball away more than your average player, but he doesn't actually give it away more than players in a similar position to him who are taking chances to make things happen in attack.

With so many games coming over the next few weeks we have to put the defensive side of last week's defeat behind us and bounce back with three points today. We have seven league games in the next 25 days including home games against both Liverpool and Chelsea and we need to take as many points as possible from those seven games. We have every chance of starting those games in the best possible fashion today and I just hope we can do so.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.