Shambolic Defending Sees Arsenal Draw 2-2 At Watford

Arsenal went to Watford yesterday knowing a win would put them third in the table before they started their Europa League campaign in midweek. Unai Emery brought Mesut Ozil and Dani Ceballos in for the injured Alexandre Lacazette and Lucas Torreira who wasn’t injured, but they were the only changes from the 2-2 draw with Spurs. A trip to the team holding up the rest of the table offered us the perfect opportunity to get our second away win of the season.

While we didn’t exactly play well in the first half two goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had given us a seemingly comfortable lead. What occurred in the second half was shambolic at best and we were incredibly lucky to come away with a point in the end. The fact that we handed Watford their two goals on a plate made it even worse.

When you look at the stats for the game they make for very uncomfortable reading from an Arsenal perspective. Watford had 31 shots against us which is the most by any team ever against Arsenal in the Premier League era. Two thirds of those shots came in that second half which saw Watford have a shot almost every two minutes.

In five games this season we have handed the opposition five of the eight goals we have conceded on a plate. No other team conceded more goals from errors last season and we’re already well on our way to obliterating that total this season. We signed David Luiz to solve our central defensive issues and he has already gifted the opposition three goals in his four games and probably cost us three points in the process.

Anyone who couldn’t see the possibility of Luiz’s propensity for errors making out defence even worse than it was last season was looking at his arrival through rose tinted glasses. I said when we signed him that I honestly didn’t think he was a good fit, but we needed a central defender and we probably didn’t have very much to spend. You have to feel for Callum Chambers who played well in our first game against Newcastle, but has had to watch from the sidelines ever since.

You can’t completely blame the defence though as they didn’t get any protection from the players in front of them. Watford were given free reign to run at our defenders and they didn’t have a clue how to cope with it. Despite all of that Watford couldn’t find the back of the net until they capitalised on two ridiculous errors from us.

As bad as Luiz’s penalty they gave away was it had nothing to compare to the goal Sokratis Papastathopoulos gave away. The insistence on playing the ball out from the back is admirable, but there is no point in doing it if you haven’t got a clue how to do it. The casualness of his pass to Matteo Guendouzi was unbelievable and it made it far too easy for Watford to score.

The admission by Granit Xhaka afterwards that we were scared in the second half was almost unbelievable. These are supposed to be professional footballers and to think they were scared by the teamat the  foot of the table attacking them is quite incredible. Not only that, but it also gives every other team in the Premier League a template for how to play against us and how to get at us.

If it wasn’t for Aubameyang who knows where we would be and there were fans saying it made sense to sell him during the summer because of his age. He now has as many goals as we have gifted the opposition (5) in our first five games and the rest of the team have three between them. He’s going to have to score a lot more goals than he did last season if we’re going to have any chance of a top four finish.

For me it’s up to the manager to get the message across to the players as to how he wants the team to play and then to get them to put that plan into operation. I wish I knew how he wanted to play though because we don’t have a style of play and we’re dependent on players making something out of nothing rather than imposing ourselves on the game and the opposition. There’s a long way to go this season, but performances like the one against Watford fill me with fear rather than the optimism I want to feel.

The games are coming thick and fast now with a trip to Frankfurt on Thursday night followed by a home game against newly promoted Aston Villa. It’s a Carabao Cup game at home to Forest then and that’s followed by a League game away to United. It will be very interesting to see how all of those teams approach their games with us and whether we will be capable of dealing with any pressure they put on us.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Trip To Wolves Previewed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

A Bad Night For Arsenal In Rennes

It’s hard to overstate the importance of Arsenal staying in the Europa League as long as their chances of finishing in the top four are in the balance. It offers a route to the Champions League for next season and we have already spent two seasons away from Europe’s top table. There’s the financial rewards to consider too and of course players will be more inclined to sign for a team who can offer Champions League football.

Unai Emery only made four changes from the team which were more than a little unlucky to only draw away to Spurs last Saturday with Petr Cech, Lucas Torreira, Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang coming into the team. I thought he would have made more changes with the hugely important game against United coming up on Sunday, but the team selection showed his intent in this competition. It was certainly a strong enough side to do enough on the night to get a result and that’s exactly how things started off at least.

Alex Iwobi scored very early on when what was really a cross evaded everybody and went in at the far post. It was the start Arsenal wanted and they continued to make chances as the half progressed, but unfortunately Torreira, Aubameyang and Shkodran Mustafi didn’t take those chances before the game turned hugely in Rennes favour. I’m very fond of Sokratis Papastathopoulos and I thought both of his yellow cards were harsh, but he needed to be more careful after getting the first one.

I thought the second yellow was more of a fifty fifty between him and the Rennes player with their player then falling at just the right time to fool the referee. With Arsenal down to 10 men they had to consolidate and hold out until halftime, but they conceded from the resulting free kick. The first attempt was blocked, but when it came out to the taker again he blasted it through the remanents of the Arsenal wall to bring Rennes level. The Arsenal players in the wall didn’t cover themselves in glory as they shirked to avoid the nasty ball hitting them and Cech didn’t stand a chance in the Arsenal goal.

The tide had turned in Rennes favour, but at least we struggled through to half time in the hope the manager could give the players the instructions they needed to get out of the game with their chances of reaching the last eight intact. Bizarrely he didn’t make any substitutions though as he moved Henrikh Mkhitaryan to right back with Mustafi moving to the centre of the defence. I thought he would have taken Ozil off as he looked for a stout defensive performance from the 10 players he had left.

I’m a big fan of Ozil, but a backs to the wall defensive performance is not the ideal scenario for him. I can only assume the manager wanted to keep him on to try to keep possession and maybe help to nick another away goal. It almost worked a couple of times, but the chances Arsenal created in the second half were far outweighed by those created by Rennes. It didn’t take them too long to take the lead when a cross deflected off Nacho Monreal and looped over Cech with more than half an hour still to play.

Matteo Guendouzi had replaced Alex Iwobi before that goal, but it was a substitution which really didn’t work. He was caught in possession too often and I’ll discuss the part he played in their third goal shortly. He talked about always giving 150% before the game, but his lack of experience was there for all to see. I still think he’s going to be a great player, but he still has an awful lot to learn.

Sead Kolasinac and Aaron Ramsey came on for Ozil and Aubameyang and it looked like Arsenal would get away with a one goal defeat despite Rennes making some good chances. Granit Xhaka really should have been sent off too after making a ridiculous challenge when he was already on a yellow card, but we were on the good side of a bad refereeing decision for a change recently. With the game almost over Arsenal did what we seem to do best and pressed the self destruct button once again.

We pushed players forward for a throw in far in their half and when we lost possession we were caught awfully out of position. As Rennes broke with five on four Ramsey sprinted past Guendouzi to try to make up the difference, but he couldn’t get there in time to stop a free header at the far post putting Rennes 3-1 up. Ramsey made about 20 yards on Guendouzi in the space of 80 yards and Guendouzi certainly didn’t give “150%” when it was needed most.

The manager and the team completely failed to deal with going down to 10 men and his decisions were strange to say the least. It’s difficult when you look back at Arsenal teams who knew how to play with 10 men and actually went on to win games. The lack of leadership on the pitch and bench last night was not a pretty sight.

We’re still not quite out of the competition though, but we will have to be an awful lot better next Thursday night if we’re going to progress. We have another huge game before that on Sunday and many people are saying this will be the defining week of our season. Defeat against United on Sunday will certainly be a blow, but it won’t end our top four chances as long as we can bounce back and play well in our final eight league games.

Out biggest problem could be our away form as we’ll probably need to win four of our remaining five away games. We have only won twice in our last 11 away games in all competitions and those games were against League One side Blackpool and Premier League also-rans Huddersfield. I thought we had turned the corner against Spurs last Saturday, but last night proved me wrong once Sokratis got his marching orders.

As a football fan hope always springs eternal and I still think we can overcome Rennes on Thursday night. They are not great in defence and we can put them out as long as we can keep our defensive discipline while putting in a strong attacking performance. Our home form suggests it’s still quite possible, but that home form is about to face a huge test against a rejuvenated United on Sunday who just cannot stop winning games away from home.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Southampton: Premier League Preview

After an easy if unconvincing victory at home to BATE Borisov on Thursday night it’s back to Premier League action for Arsenal today when Southampton come a calling. Chelsea play in the Carabao Cup Final later today and United have a very tough game against Liverpool so today’s game might just give us a chance to move up to fourth place. We have a home against Bournemouth on Wednesday night too and two wins would put us in a strong position ahead of a very busy and tough run.

Two Premier League games away to Spurs and at home to United are really tough challenges and we have the two Europa League games against Rennes either side of the United game. As tough as those games will be they also offer us a real opportunity to cement a place in the top four before a run which doesn’t include any of the rest of the top six in our last eight games. Our ultimate aim this season is to qualify for the Champions League and we need to give ourselves every chance possible of achieving that goal.

Alexandre Lacazette had to sit out that win on Thursday night due to suspension and he’ll miss the two games against Rennes because of that suspension too. The chances are we will see him play all of the next four Premier League games as a result with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang possibly on the bench for a few of them. Aubameyang isn’t on a great goalscoring run at the moment and maybe he could do with a rest ahead of those very important games.

Elsewhere Unai Emery will probably have to replace Laurent Koscielny with Sokratis Papastathopoulos after Koscielny went off with a slight knock on Thursday night. It’s a straight swap and it shouldn’t affect the team too much although we will miss Koscielny’s ability to intercept at the near post and his improvement with each game since his return from his very long injury lay off has been a real plus recently. The manager might also be tempted to put Sead Kolasinac in on the left of the defence although Nacho Monreal does offer more defensively while Kolasinac offers more in attack.

The big question could be the inclusion or not of Mesut Ozil and I hope he gets the nod. A home game against a team in the bottom three can be a bit of a dog fight, but I think the manager will trust him more against Southampton than he might away to Spurs in particular. If he doesn’t opt for Ozil I imagine Aaron Ramsey would be the player to come in, but I thought Ozil’s link up play on Thursday night was very promising and we all know exactly how good he can be. If he doesn’t opt for either of them maybe he will give Denis Suarez a chance, but I’m still not convinced we’ll see too much of our January loan signing.

We could also see Lucas Torreira return in midfield and either Matteo Guendouzi or Granit Xhaka could make way. Personally I like the Torreira and Xhaka partnership which doesn’t mean I have any problem at all with Guendouzi and he is surely going to be a fantastic player in years to come. A combination of any two of those three would suit though once we don’t play all three as it takes an attacking player out of the team.

Southampton might be in the bottom three, but I would be very surprised if they stayed there too long. They’re surely too good to go down, but that has been said of better teams in the past who have ended up in the Championship. They are unbeaten in four away games even if they have only won three of their 13 away games this season. A draw would be enough to move them out of the relegation zone, but it would most certainly not be a good enough result for us.

While Thursday was relatively comfortable if unconvincing we could do with not only a win, but a good performance too today ahead of the upcoming challenges. A little bit of momentum in terms of performances and results could go a long way to helping us achieve our aims for this season and if we’re going to get there those performances will have to start very soon. At the end of the day I will of course be happy with three points, but it would be good to make others sit up and take notice of us for the first time in quite a while.

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 v BATE Borisov Preview

After last weeks debacle away to BATE we get a chance to make amends in the second leg this evening. For reasons best known to those running European football the game will start at five to six and I won’t be surprised to see a lot of empty seats as a result. Of course those seats could just as easily be empty as a direct result of the awful football we’ve being playing recently.

Our biggest problems have been away from home though and we have actually won our last six home league games with only the top two teams in the Premier League taking more points at home than us. We’re playing against a team who are ranked so far below us that our defeat away to them last week was almost laughable, but we have the chance to at least make some amends for it this evening. The prize is a place in the last 16 of the Europa League and the chance to progress with the ultimate goal being winning the final and the Champions League place that goes with it.

The hope before last weeks game was to get a good lead over there and rest a few players this evening ahead of a Premier League game against Southampton on Sunday. That hope is well gone and Unai Emery has to play his strongest team possible to make sure we progress. He has a few decisions to make ahead of the game, but he will have to plan without Alexandre Lacazette after his red card in the first leg ruled him out of today’s game. 

With Lacazette missing it means Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will surely lead the line and I think playing one striker suits us better than playing two. There’s no point in playing two strikers if there’s no one to pull the strings behind them and that’s something we sorely missed in the away leg with Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey missing for whatever reasons you choose to believe. They’re both available tonight as is Henrikh Mkhitaryan and I hope for two of those three to start. 

In defence Sokratis Papastathopoulos is available again too and I think we’re a little better at the back with him in the team. That doesn’t mean we’re actually any good at the back, but he is less error prone than Shkodran Mustafi at least. A lot of our attacking intent comes from our wing backs and in that respect we are missing Hector Bellerin with Ainsley Maitland-Niles not up to his level when it comes to getting forward while Sead Kolasinac does create plenty of chances, but the defensive side of his game is suspect to say the least.

To be fair it’s probably not going to be all about who’s out there today though because a half decent Arsenal team should stroll through this game with the right commitment, tactics and attitude. Those performances have been few and far between this season, but the wins against Spurs and Chelsea and the draw with Chelsea were all surely templates for how we could and should play. A performance approaching any of those games should see us get the better of BATE with at least a few goals to spare and maybe then we can worry about possibly drawing a good team in the last 16.

Earlier this season we found it hard to function in the first half of any game, but far better second half performances came to our rescue time after time. The manager was given the credit for tweaking the team and tactics to influence those games, but there were those who asked why he couldn’t get it right before the game considering his reputation for doing his homework in advance. Rather than managing to do so it appears he has somehow done the opposite and our second half performances are now worse than our first half ones.

The second halves against City, Huddersfield and BATE were all abysmal and we created virtually nothing after first halves that were at least a little promising. All of those games were away from home though and the league results have held up at home even if we lost in cup competitions to both Spurs and United. We need to find one of those home league performances tonight and we need to do it for 90 minutes and not just one half of the game.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Goodbye FA Cup My Old Friend

Well the good news is Arsenal won’t have any pesky FA Cup games to get in the way of our quest for a top four finish and the Europa League after losing at home to United in the fourth round of the FA Cup. The two teams who have won the trophy more than any other team met last night and Arsenal went down 3-1 with an all too familiar performance. There was more than a hint of bad luck at times, but the better team on the night progressed to the fifth round.

Unai Emery picked a strong team with only three changes from the 2-0 win at home to Chelsea last week. Petr Cech came in as the “cup” goalkeeper with Alex Iwobi replacing Matteo Guendouzi and Ainsley Maitland-Niles getting the nod to play at right back with Hector Bellerin out for up to nine months. It meant a change of formation from the one which worked so well against Chelsea last week.

Arsenal started off quite well, but not as well as they did against Chelsea. The signs were positive early on, but they took a turn for the worse when Sokratis Papastathopoulos went down with what looked like an ankle injury after only 20 minutes. He had to go off with Shkodran Mustafi replacing him and not only did we lose the pace in the centre of our defence, but we also lost our momentum.

United gradually came back into the game and they took the lead just after the half hour mark when ex Arsenal man Alexis Sanchez finished from a tight angle after our defence made a mess of trying to play him offside. It was a bitter pill for Arsenal fans to swallow and it wasn’t made any easier by his replacement being unable to play due to injury. What we couldn’t afford to do was gift United another goal right away, but in true Arsenal style that’s exactly what we did.

The ball was lost too easily as we tried to push forward and when United attacked there were gaping holes in our defence. Romelu Lukaku squared the ball to Jesse Lingard who couldn’t really miss and we were two down to a counter attacking team after conceding two goals within two minutes of each other. The signs were ominous and I struggled to see how Arsenal were going to get back into the game without leaving themselves so open at the back that United would take advantage of them yet again.

We did manage to regain our momentum though and we got back into the game shortly before the break when Pierre-Emireck Aubameyang tapped home from close range after great work from Aaron Ramsey. We piled on the pressure as half time approached and it was United who were glad to hear the whistle. I hoped we could approach the second half in a similar vein to which we started and finished the first half.

I got my wish with Arsenal again taking the initiative and going in search of an equaliser. It was Ramsey who came closest with a header which was well saved before fate intervened to rob us of yet another player. This time it was Laurent Koscielny who suffered a facial cut when Lukaku accidentally stood on him and the injury was too much for him to continue after eight minutes of treatment on the pitch.

We were only an hour in and we had lost both of our central defenders to injury which also robbed the manager of the ability to affect the team from the bench. With the departure of Koscielny we also seemed to lose our momentum and impetus again. Mesut Ozil came on for Alex Iwobi at that stage while Guendouzi replaced the injured Koscielny with Granit Xhaka dropping back into defence and Guendouzi coming into the midfield.

While we had the upper hand our attacks kept breaking down on the edge of their box as we cried out for a wide player to punish a defence that was just as bad as ours. With just under 10 minutes to go United put the game to bed after Paul Pogba ran right through us after a clumsy pass saw them overturn possession in midfield. Cech could only push his shot in the direction of Anthony Martial who finished with relative ease and ended the game as a contest despite their being eight minutes of normal time and 10 minutes of added time to go.

Arsenal barely managed an attack of note in those final 18 minutes as they ended the game with a whimper rather than banging on the door to try to break open a porous defence. Ozil did very little after promising at first when he came on while we played absolutely everything down the left, but couldn’t get a good ball into the box. I have no doubt the injuries played a large part in limiting the manager’s hopes of changing the game from the bench if needed.

It’s hard to be too critical of a team who lost their two central defenders to injury after losing their right back in the previous game. We were still too open in front of our defence and maybe the midfield we played against Chelsea would have coped with United’s counter attacking a lot better. It’s hard to see how a team with a central defence of Mustafi and Xhaka can be expected to be able to defend I suppose. Also we are really struggling to break down teams who sit deep and let us attack them while they wait to hit us on the break.

With the transfer window nearing closure we are in dire need of additions to our squad and the injuries are piling up too. We’re without Bellerin, Rob Holding and Danny Welbeck for the rest of the season at least while it looks like Koscielny might be out for a while with a broken jaw too. We’ve been told the cupboard is bare and we’ll have to hope for a loan move or two if we’re going to bring anyone in. It’s hardly an ideal situation and it looks as if the manager will have to work with the squad he has minus the injured players.

We play at home to Cardiff in midweek and we quite simply have to take the three points to try to keep pace with Chelsea and United and especially as we travel to City next weekend. I can’t see us getting anything from that game which makes the Cardiff game even more important. At least we won’t have the pesky FA Cup to worry about any more and we know we have a maximum of 24 games to play if we make it as far as the Europa League final.

While I would like to have seen us progress and it’s never nice to lose at home to any team, never mind United and even more so with Sanchez scoring, but the FA Cup should not be where are priorities lay this season. We are losing more money with each season out of the Champions League and we have to concentrate on the competitions that can see us qualify for it. Luckily for Arsenal they’re the only two competitions we still have an interest in and hopefully one of those interests will come to fruition.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Move Back Into Top Four Contention

The defeat at West Ham last week left me feeling Arsenal had blown their chances of a top four finish this season despite having 16 games still up play. It was the manner of the defeat which gave me that sinking feeling and I couldn’t see how a team who could perform so poorly could seriously hope to push Chelsea and United. They needed to beat Chelsea on Saturday evening to show there was some life still in our challenge and they needed to do it in some style too.

We got exactly what we hoped for in that game with Arsenal coming out of the traps with all guns blazing and Chelsea struggling to cope. A few chances came and went before Alexandre Lacazette put us ahead and then Laurent Koscielny doubled the lead before half time. It was a very strong and disciplined performance, but of course Chelsea had their moments and some chances too like almost any opponent will have.

Overall we were far superior to them and in that first half in particular we showed the desire which had been so obviously missing against West Ham. Our home results have actually held up very well with the only defeat coming in our opening home game against City and we have deservedly won at home to both Spurs and Chelsea now. It’s very hard to reconcile those home results with our inability to win in our last five away games though and we won’t challenge for a top four place unless that away form changes.

There are too many similarities between this season and last season and none more so than in our away form. We started well away from home last season before an awful run saw us fall completely away in the chase for a top four finish. We fell back on the Europa League and hoping to quality for the Champions League by winning it, but we came up short and had to settle for a second season in a row in European football’s second tier competition.

We need to change our away form right away or this season will end up like last season and hopefully that win against Chelsea can restore some confidence on our travels even if it was a home game. We didn’t push on after the win and performance against Spurs or the impressive home draw with Liverpool, but we quite simply have to do it now. It’s not going to be easy in our next away game against City, but a win against Cardiff in our next home game is an absolute must.

The formation we used against Chelsea worked well, but the loss of Hector Bellerin to a long term injury is a real blow. We lost Rob Holding a couple of months ago just when he looked to have become the most important central defender at the club. Bellerin and Holding were the youthful pair in our defence and we will certainly lose some momentum and attacking flair on the right side with Bellerin’s absence.

Thankfully the return of Koscielny has at least helped to strengthen the centre of our defence again, but it has taken him time to come up with a performance like the one he gave on Saturday. We need more of the same from Koscielny if we’re going to improve defensively and the signs are he could be developing a good partnership with Sokratis Papastathopoulos. The problem could be replacing Bellerin with Stephan Lichsteiner the most likely candidate, but maybe Ainsley Maitland-Niles might be the best one.

Before that mideeek game against Cardiff next week we have the small matter of an FA Cup fourth round game at home to United on Friday night. They’re on a great run since they disposed of Jose Mourinho, but their defence is their weak point and a performance like the one against Chelsea will give us every chance of progressing. I can’t imagine Unai Emery will even consider playing anything other than his strongest team against United with a win surely adding to the confidence boost of the win against Chelsea.

As bad as we have been away from home recently we’re only three points off the top four with enough time to catch Chelsea and finish ahead of United too. It’s amazing what a good win and performance can do for the confidence and a week ago I could never have imagined we had a chance of finishing in the top four. Hopefully it has done just as much for the confidence of the players too and we can look forward to a strong finish to the season. I can dream can’t I.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal v Spurs: Carabao Cup Preview

Arsenal’s run of 22 games unbeaten came to an end away to struggling Southampton on Sunday with their hosts winning at home for the first time in the league this season. It wasn’t exactly the greatest way to end the run, but no defeat is ever welcome. There were of course the excuses of an injury crisis in our defence and some poor refereeing, but the performance on the day wasn’t good enough and that was the main reason for the defeat for me.

With a hectic Christmas programme of Premier League games almost upon us we have the inconvenience of a Carabao Cup quarter final at home to arch rivals Spurs tonight. So far Unai Emery has played youngsters and fringe players with a scattering of his first choice players to reach the last eight of the competition, but he has a big decision to make for tonight’s game. If he goes with a strong team it could have consequences for the festive games, but nobody ever wants to lose to that lot.

We don’t know how Spurs will approach the game either, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they went with a fairly strong team for a few reasons. Firstly they will want revenge for the 4-2 defeat to us a couple of weeks ago and they also don’t play until Sunday while we play against Burnley on Saturday. The biggest reason for them could be the prospect of a trip to a cup final and the chance to actually win some silverware which is something quite alien to them.

I expect the manager to rest Laurent Koscielny and possibly Nacho Monreal too as they have only just returned from injury while he might be tempted to leave Stephan Lichsteiner on the bench even though he has recovered from the knock that forced him off on Sunday. Carl Jenkinson and Ainsley Maitland-Niles are likely to play while Sokratis Papastathopoulos is available to play too after missing Sundays game through suspension. Both Shkodran Mustafi and Sead Kolasinac are doubtful with knocks and I would be very surprised if he risked either of them even if they do recover in time to play. It leaves our defence threadbare at best and it will be hard to play three central defenders with the options available despite it being the preferred formation at the moment and the winning one against Spurs a few weeks ago.

With defensive options so limited we can probably expect to see a strongish team in midfield and attack with both Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey likely to play in my opinion. There are issues with both of them at the moment and their chances have been limited, but there is no denying their class and potential to turn the game in our favour. 

I expect to see both Matteo Guendouzi and Mohamed Elneny in the team too with Alexandre Lacazette more than likely leading the line. While Guendouzi and Elneny might not offer us the strength of Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka in midfield they are more than capable of giving us the foothold we need in midfield. I wouldn’t be surprised to see both Torreira and Xhaka on the bench though just in case we need them.

As for Lacazette he has been on the bench for the last few league games with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leading the line, but he has done well when he has come on. Aubameyang has missed his fair share of chances recently, but he is still the joint leading scorer in the league and I think we will continue to deploy him as our main striker. I would be very surprised if he was in the squad tonight and a few days rest before the hectic festive schedule might do him some good.

There are a few options for the last place in the team which would probably have gone to Emile Smith Rowe if he wasn’t injured. If we opt for three central defenders then Zach Medley might come into the equation while Joe Willock could play in midfield or Eddie Nketiah could play up front with or without Lacazette. I wouldn’t be surprised again if it was Willock who got the nod, but it really depends on how strong the manager decides to make the team. There is always the chance he will opt for Bukayo Saka after he impressed in the Europa League last week, but I would be surprised if we saw him from the start tonight.

It’s a hard game to preview with so many options for both managers and all I can really say is I hope those that do play tonight give it their all. Going out at this stage wouldn’t be a real blow, but it’s never nice to lose to Spurs and that could be the deciding factor in how both managers approach the game. We have bigger fish to fry in terms of the other three competitions we are in and finishing in the top four or winning the Europa League are the only ways back into the Champions League for next season so they have to take priority for me.

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.

Some Promising Signs As Arsenal Lose To Chelsea

I suppose we all expected the first two games in charge for Unai Emery to get off to a rough start and that’s exactly what has happened. The fixture list was far from kind to us with a home game against City and a trip to Chelsea to start the season as our new manager looks to change almost everything about the way we play. While the City result seemed almost inevitable the defeat against Chelsea on Saturday really could and probably should have been avoided.

The main response I have seen from Arsenal fans seems to be that we would have lost both of those games under Arsene Wenger too. We actually hadn’t lost our opening two league games since 1992 so Wenger certainly wasn’t around then and he did manage a point away to Chelsea early on last season if I remember correctly. Comparisons miss the point though because it was time for him to go and we have to build for the future under the new manager.

He made a couple of changes from the defeat against City with Nacho Monreal returning from injury to replace the injured Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Alex Iwobi coming in for Aaron Ramsey. The formation was the same as last week though and the game started in a similar fashion with Chelsea getting the upper hand and taking the game to us. 

The first fairly good chance fell to us when a cut back from the left was flashed wide by Mesut Ozil and we paid the price very quickly. Within a minute Chelsea were ahead when a simple ball in behind us put Marcus Alonso in and his ball across the goal was finished with ease by Pedro. It was too easy to get behind us because we played a high line without putting pressure on the ball and that is a recipe for disaster.

After that goal Chelsea dominated and we were lucky to be only one goal behind. Despite their domination we still managed to get into good positions to cut the ball back and it was from one of these that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed an absolute sitter. It was the sort of chance you would expect a player of his pedigree to put away, but he missed it and almost immediately we paid the price again.

Another simple ball over the top from a player who wasn’t closed down put Alvaro Morata in a one on one with Shkodran Mustafi and he turned him inside out before finishing with ease. Where Sokratis Papastathopoulos was during this is anyone’s guess, but he certainly wasn’t there to help his central defensive partner. At 2-0 down I feared the worst and Chelsea had already missed a couple of chances of their own at that stage too.

However Arsenal continued to get in behind Chelsea and cut that ball back and it was Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s turn to miss a great chance next from almost the exact same position as Aubameyang’s miss. The first Arsenal goal came from an attempted cut back from Iwobi which was blocked and fell to Mkhitaryan who drilled it home from the edge of the area. The Chelsea keeper probably should have done better, but Arsenal were back in the game and sensed the fear in Chelsea.

Not long after that we were level and it was Iwobi who scored this time from yet another cut back and in almost the exact same spot that Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan had missed from. There was another chance for Iwobi before the break from that exact same move again, but it wasn’t as clear cut as the ball bobbled badly. There was a near post miss from Aubameyang in there somewhere too and we could easily have gone in at the break two or three goals up despite not playing well for so much of the first half.

The manager changed things at the break with Lucas Torreira coming on for Granit Xhaka as Xhaka had struggled badly when Chelsea were on top. When we were on top Xhaka had performed better though and that’s something that has to be considered in games we are expected to dominate. The full backs also dropped a little deeper after the break and we struggled badly to make an attacking impact.

It looked like we might be content with the point we had and maybe hoped to hit Chelsea on the break. We didn’t have the possession in the right places to do that though and Mesut Ozil couldn’t make any real impact on the game. Ramsey came on for Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette replaced Iwobi, but we continued to look toothless in the second half.

Just as it looked like we might get a point we handed Chelsea another goal with Lacazette firstly giving the ball away and then putting in a half hearted attempt to tackle Eden Hazard. His cross was met by Alonso who had given Torreira the slip and he put it through Petr Cech’s legs from close range. We never really recovered from that goal and our only real attempt to pull it back was a long range effort from Ramsey which went just over the bar.

There were plenty of positives in the game, but our defending was just as bad if not worse than it has been for too long to remember now. At least we had much more threat in attack than we did last week and we created so many chances despite our playmaker not having a good game. A point would have been a fair return I think, but if you defend like we did against a top six side you rarely get anything from the game.

The new manager has pretty much got a free pass for the first two games because of the opposition, but that will end now. We’re one place above the bottom three with no points to our name and six points behind the early pacesetters after only two games. We quite simply have to start winning games and nothing short of three points in our next game will be acceptable.

Thankfully that game is at home to West Ham next Saturday and they lost at home to Bournemouth on Saturday after losing their first game 4-0 at Liverpool. We’ll get to welcome Jack Wilshere back to the Emirates in that game, but there can be no room for sentiment. We need to start clocking up the points in that game and in the seven games that follow before we play any of the top six clubs again.

There will be distractions in the meantime with the Europa League coming up soon and pesky international breaks too, but we have to concentrate on the most important job which is taking league points and trying to keep pace with the top four. It’s going to take a lot of hard work in training to get the team to a point where they can perform the way the manager wants them to perform and there will be a lot less chances to do so in training with all of the other distractions.I think we have to try to target 20 points from the next eight games and if we can get them we will be close to the top four.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Complete Their Transfers With Five Signings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.