Injuries

1st December 2015: Cazorla ligament damage, Sanchez uncertainty and bullish Bellerin

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So we begin a brand new month but sadly, it’s the same old sh*t when it comes to Arsenal and injuries. Reports today say Santi Cazorla has, as feared, damaged ligaments in his knee but the club are still assessing him and how long he’ll be unavailable remains uncertain.

What is for sure however, is that both Cazorla and Alexis Sanchez will miss our crucial Champions League game at Olympiacos next week. And speaking of the Chilean, he’s either got an ‘outside’ chance of making our game against Manchester City on December 21st, or he hasn’t, and will miss our next six matches, depending on who you believe.

So I guess it’s time to have a look at the boss’ options in midfield and further forward, in their absence. For the immediate future, with Mikel Arteta also missing through injury, Aaron Ramsey will have to partner Mathieu Flamini because the only other options we currently have available for the two central midfield berths are Calum Chambers and at a stretch, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The two wide attacking starting spots can be shared between Theo Walcott, Joel Campbell, the Ox and Kieran Gibbs and the sole striker role by Olivier Giroud, Walcott and Campbell. So we still have options and different things we can try despite our substantial injury list. With all those players fit, my preference would be to play Walcott from the left, the Ox from the right, with Giroud centrally, although Arsene Wenger would probably opt to swap the Ox and Walcott.

With our defence at full strength and Mesut Ozil thankfully still available, remarkably, we’ve got a pretty strong selection to call upon. Certainly one I’d be confident can beat the vast majority of sides in the league, but it’s games like the one against City in three weeks that would be the worry.

Jack Wilshere was also reported to be making good progress a couple of weeks ago, with a return date of Boxing Day when we travel to Southampton, penciled in as his comeback game. Then there’s Danny Welbeck, who’s due to return near the New Year and even if Sanchez misses the next month, he’s unlikely to be out much longer as hamstring recoveries don’t usually suffer setbacks.

Arsene’s main challenge I think, will be to get the team to adjust from having Cazorla and Francis Coquelin in the engine room to players with different skill-sets. For instance, for all of Ramsey’s qualities, his distribution isn’t nearly on a level with Cazorla’s so perhaps, as he already does quite often in fairness, Ozil will need to drop a little deeper, a little more often, to dictate our play from the middle of the park.

One man who’s very confident we can cope regardless of which players are out injured however, is Hector Bellerin. Speaking to Arsenal Player, the right-back said:

I have said it before, there is great depth in the team. There are a lot of young players in the team waiting to come through, and we have a lot of quality training with us every day. They are ready to step up so obviously every single player on the bench can do the same job as every single player in the starting XI. We don’t need to worry about [the injuries to Alexis and Koscielny]. The only thing we need to do is go out onto the pitch with the right mentality, it does not matter who we play.

Whilst I admire Hector’s confidence in his squad-mates, and completely agree about the team needing to have the right focus and mentality, we’ll undoubtedly be weaker with the likes of Cazorla, Sanchez and Coquelin missing through injury.

Whether we’ll be strong enough in their absence to win enough games to maintain our challenge for the two big trophies remains to be seen. We’ll find out soon enough.

See you tomorrow.

30th November 2015: Wenger defiant and bullish as injuries pile up

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome to a brand new week on TremendArse. The early prognoses on the injuries suffered by Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla and Laurent Koscielny in yesterday’s draw with Norwich, are reportedly mixed.

The latter’s hip complaint is not thought to be as bad as it appeared at Carrow Road, with the defender struggling to walk straight as he left the pitch, after The Guardian today reported the club hope Koscielny will return to training before the end of the week and should be in contention for Saturday’s game against Sunderland.

For more worryingly however, the same article says the club fear a torn hamstring for Sanchez, which would side-line him for a month, and worst of all, ligament damage to Cazorla’s knee, in which case the Spaniard would follow Francis Coquelin in being unavailable for a number of months yet.

To most fans and observers, we’re in the mother of all injury crises, even by our lamentable standards, yet Arsene Wenger stood firm on his decision to play Sanchez yesterday, despite revealing in the build-up to the game that the Chilean was a doubt for the match due to a ‘hamstring alarm’. He said:

The players are there to play football and not to be rested when the press decides they need to be rested. He says it is a kick on his hamstring. I fear the reality is worse than that. Nobody is scientifically developed enough, not even the press, to predict exactly when a guy would be injured. I must say that with all humility we are not position to predict that, despite all our test he looked alright. We checked him and when you have no force and no middle stretch in your hamstring then there is no problem and he had that. I believe that it is normal that a player gives everything in a game and I’m surprised you are surprised. You have plenty of players across Europe who play every single game and at the moment we are short as Walcott is not there, Welbeck is not there, Oxlade-Chamberlain is just coming back. I can take a gamble on one and in case I can take a gamble on another one.

And the boss also expanded on Cazorla’s injury, saying:

In the first half he got a kick on the knee and it got worse. I don’t know if he has jaded his knee ligament or he it was just a kick on the nerve but the worrying thing was it got worse during the game.

Yet despite all the injuries, and to players who are simply irreplaceable by other squad members by most people’s estimation, Arsene remains confident he, and what’s left of our decimated squad, can cope with the challenges ahead. He said:

We have Ramsey (who can play in central midfield). I can understand you worry for us, but trust us, we will be there. We have to go through that spell. We had a bad spell of a few games now with Tottenham, West Brom and today we only have taken two points but we are still not far and going through a bad spell and not being far. It is not enough but at least we had an opportunity to come back.

You have to admire the boss in a way for remaining defiant, albeit a little cocksure, despite his players dropping like Ashely Young over thin air in a penalty box, but privately he must be as concerned as the rest of us.

How we’ll cover for absent first-choice players and what that will mean for the way we play is obviously going to be an important topic of conversation over the coming days, but personally, I’m holding fire on playing Arsenal manager until the full extent of the damage to our injured players is confirmed.

Despite the undoubted brilliance of Sanchez and the goals he generates, in terms of both the time he might be out for and his importance to our style of play, the player I’m currently most concerned about is Cazorla. Hopefully any scans he has show no ligament damage and our ambidextrous little game-runner is back before we know it. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Til Tuesday.

23rd November 2015: Coquelin absence confirmed. How do we cover?

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Evening all. So Arsene Wenger held his pre-Dinamo Zagreb press conference this morning and confirmed Francis Coquelin’s knee injury would rule him out for ‘at least two months’.

He said:

I’m always cautious. It will be at least two months but I don’t want to speculate more than that. He has a scan today – we will know how long this afternoon.

Since then, a couple of pieces on the official site quote Arsene as saying ‘at least a month’, so either they’ve misheard the manager, or have been given a more positive update following the scan. Either way, considering we play tomorrow, we should get a more informed estimation of the likely length of his absence after the game.

Obviously it’s a bitter blow, however long the Frenchman is out for, especially in an area we are already deprived of the services of long-term absentee Jack Wilshere, with another central midfielder in Aaron Ramsey only just back from a spell on the side-lines himself. Yet the boss thinks we still have enough options in the squad to cover for Coquelin’s absence. He said:

It is of course a disappointment to lose him on the longer term but we have players who can compensate. We have lost a player of quality for a while and we know this can happen during the season. We have players who play in this position, like Flamini. We have players like Chambers [too], because he has been educated as a central midfielder. Sometimes this is a good opportunity for other players to turn up and show they can do the job.

Which is basically always the boss’ response when a player is ruled out for a sustained period and of course he’s right. Without a bit of an injury crisis in midfield a year ago, Coquelin would have remained on loan at Charlton and never had the platform to make himself such an important first-teamer in the first place.

I suppose the difference this time is that we don’t have an obvious candidate who can view this as a chance to make the position his own. Not unless you count Calum Chambers, and I don’t, despite what the boss says above.

It goes without saying I’d love to be proved wrong and for Chambers to come in and perform like a cross between Patrick Vieira, Claude Makelele and Diego Maradona alongside Santi Cazorla in our engine room, but I don’t see it personally. I think he’ll end up a fine central defender but I’m not sure he has the attributes required to play further forward, especially in a technically-intricate style of play such as ours.

Which leaves Mathieu Flamini and he doesn’t have anything to prove or show. We know what he is and that’s a decent back-up to shore things up late in games and start the odd one here and there. But asking him to play in every game would be asking for trouble, as far as our hopes of success this season are concerned, in my opinion.

The transfer window in January would obviously be one place to find a solution of course but as Arsene pointed out today, we can’t access the market right now, so we have to find a way to cope from within the squad.

My preference would be to get either Aaron Ramsey, or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, to try to mimic Coquelin’s qualities. I think they both have the energy required in the role and as intelligent young professionals, should be able to suppress their naturally attack-minded instincts and focus on the defensive side of midfield play; reading danger, making interceptions, tackling, staying positionally disciplined and generally disrupting our opponents through dogged physicality.

After all, that’s basically what Francis did himself, having fancied himself as more of an attacking midfielder for a long time. Wilshere’s another option of course but he’s some way from fitness just yet.

Whichever way Arsene chooses to compensate for Coquelin’s absence though, he has to decide soon and it has to work straight away, because we have a must-win game in the Champions League tomorrow and the busiest portion of the campaign is on the horizon.

Back with a preview tomorrow.

See you then.

22nd November 2015: Reports say Coquelin out for 3 months

Posted on by TremendArse

As if Sunday evening wasn’t depressing enough in it’s own right as we ‘look forward’ to another working week, reports have emerged from France suggesting the knee injury sustained by Francis Coquelin during yesterday’s defeat at West Brom will keep him side-lined for 3 months.

Arsenal fans the world over will be losing their sh*t right now and understandably so, because not only is Coquelin crucial to our side, but we’re approaching the busiest period of the season and as I and many others have been saying since pre-season, not signing another quality defensive midfielder last summer was a massive gamble by the boss.

Well, if tonight’s reports prove true, I’m afraid just like last season when we suffered in the opening months of the campaign having failed to sign another central defender, we’ll only have ourselves to blame. We do have Mathieu Flamini of course for the immediate future, so the Frenchman will now have to up his game and form an understanding with Santi Cazorla until Coquelin returns, or we sign another defensive midfielder.

The alternative would be to ask another player, like Aaron Ramsey for instance, to adapt his game and focus on the type of chasing and intercepting Coquelin’s so good at, or perhaps even see how Calum Chambers fares in front of the defence given that Arsene Wenger has previously suggested he could play there.

That said, the only time I can remember Chambers playing for us in midfield was in the defeat at Southampton a year ago, so if that game is any kind of gauge, we’re better off using that as a very last resort.

In terms of who may be available to buy in January, obviously I have absolutely no clue but I’d suggest even if players aren’t being openly touted by clubs, we ‘make’ them available by bidding high enough.

If, for instance, Sevilla’s Grzegorz Krychowiak has a release clause of say £20m, as reported last summer, then trigger it. Just don’t say nobody good enough was available or we can’t resort to the transfer market every time we sustain an injury.

Of course we can’t, or given our rate of accumulating knocks, we’d have a squad of about 450 players. But with Mikel Arteta and Flamini surely being shown the door at the end of the season, we have a definite need to buy in the defensive midfield area. So do it January rather than July.

Bid for William Carvalho. Or Victor Wanyama. Or whoever the hell is deemed of the required level to play for us, but just get it done. For the record, I haven’t seen enough of Krychowiak, Carvalho or even Wanyama, to have a definitive opinion on their quality or suitability to our side, but the management must already have a good idea of who they’d like and I’d trust their judgement.

Before this news broke this evening, I was planning to go over yesterday’s game again and perhaps take a look at some of the post-match reaction but I think that game is best off consigned to history.

We play Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday so Arsene will have his pre-match press conference tomorrow and we should get more information on Coquelin’s injury then. But for now, we’re forced to envisage the foreseeable future without one of our most important players. And it’s worrying.

See you next week.

15th November 2015: Wilshere boost + Henry and Vieira as potential successors to Wenger

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Sunday salutations. Some good news to begin with this evening as The Mirror’s Steve Stammers has reported Jack Wilshere is on course for a return to full fitness in time for Arsenal’s Boxing Day trip to Southampton.

Having suffered a fractured fibula in training on the eve of the new season, Wilshere’s availability for the busiest portion of the season would obviously be a big boost for Arsene Wenger and the squad, so fingers crossed his recovery continues to progress without any setbacks between now and then.

In the same piece, it’s also revealed that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is the most likely of our injured payers to be fit for the game at West Brom on Saturday. Hector Bellerin and Aaron Ramsey shouldn’t be far behind the Ox in making a return too, considering all three were recently reported to be likely to make their comebacks immediately after this international break.

Elsewhere, two members of our 2004 Invincibles’ squad have had their say on the possibility of Thierry Henry taking over as Arsenal manager once Arsene decides to step down. First up, it’s Robert Pires, who said:

Can I see Thierry Henry taking over from Arsene Wenger? Yes, why not? He is working on his badges. He’s involved with the U19 team at Arsenal’s academy. He’s preparing himself step by step and he wants to get his badges. Question is; would Arsenal want Henry? It depends on the board, the chairman. I can see Henry, as well as Vieira. It’s up to the club to prepare well for the post-Arsene era. That’s crucial.

Gilberto Silva agrees, but thinks the job may come too soon for Thierry, saying:

Maybe one day he could be Arsenal manager. For Thierry when Wenger leaves be quite soon. Maybe he needs more time, but one day he can do it. He’s doing the right thing working with the youngsters, he’s learning day by day. He knows Arsenal.

Frankly, I’d be flabbergasted if Henry succeeded Arsene in the hot-seat, mainly because he’s got about as much of a track record of successfully managing a top-level club as I have.

It’s also worth remembering than when it was put to the boss fairly recently that Henry might one day follow in his footsteps, he basically said his former striker had a lot to learn. So if we assume Arsene will have a big say on who is named his successor, unless Henry makes huge strides in his coaching career over the next couple of years, it’s hard to see him as our next manager.

Patrick Vieira, who has managed the Man City reserve team and now taken on his first, first-team manager role in New York, is a couple of steps ahead of Thierry in the regard, so perhaps he’s the more likely Invincible to be a contender.

Personally, I would want us to go out and get the best proven manager possible when the time comes, and if one day Henry or Vieira prove themselves as good at managing teams as they were at playing the game, then they clearly become stand-out candidates.

Another short post today, but don’t blame me, blame the international break.

Till next week.

3rd November 2015: Bellerin blow ahead of Bayern test

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Hello and welcome back. We’ve suffered yet another injury ahead of tomorrow evening’s Champions League game at Bayern Munich, after Arsene Wenger revealed Hector Bellerin has sustained a groin strain.

I suppose if there is one department we can cope with losing a player in at the moment, it’s defence, but the Bellerin news is still a blow considering how well he’s been performing at both ends of the pitch recently. Thankfully, the boss thinks the right-back only has a ‘small problem’ so hopefully, he’ll be back zooming up and down our right flank in no time at all.

Arsene confirmed Mathieu Debuchy will replace Bellerin for the game at the Allianz Arena, and says he’s confident his fellow Frenchman has the necessary match-fitness to come into the side, having played in the Capital One Cup a week ago. Speaking at his pre-match press conference earlier this evening, he said:

Debuchy will play and I’m confident. I trust Debuchy, he is a 100 per cent educated player in the box and in training. Fortunately he played a full game against Sheffield Wednesday and physically he should be well.

I’m not quite sure what Arsene means by saying ‘educated player in the box’ there, but I’m assuming he means Debuchy knows how to defend, which at times last season, especially during a couple of stints at centre-back, he showed he can be very good at.

Unfortunately for the former Newcastle man, injuries ruined his first campaign with Arsenal and he’s had to sit back upon his return and watch Bellerin play like a cross between Lillian Thuram, Roberto Carlos and Pele.

It can’t be easy as a seasoned, international pro, to watch a player as young and previously inexperienced as Bellerin keep you out of the team, but now he has a chance to come in for a huge game and if he plays well enough, perhaps stay in.

To win back his place longer term however, he’d probably have to help us keep a clean sheet, make five assists and score a hat-trick, because Bellerin has been quite simply sensational. But Debuchy must at least show desire and determination to give Arsene something to think about when he and Bellerin are next both fit.

I mention ‘desire’ and ‘determination’ because on the rare occasions Debuchy has played this season, he hasn’t seemed completely committed, shall we say. A bit sulky even, at the fact he’s now considered a back-up. Perhaps that’s harsh and he was just rusty given his lack of game-time. We’ll see.

So Debuchy will form one part of our back four and Arsene says we’ll need to be disciplined in our defending against the German champions, ensuring we don’t commit too many fouls. He said:

Defensively discipline will be vital tomorrow, of course, but I think we have players with experience at the back and what is important for us is that we show that discipline. We don’t want to get stupid yellow cards and we don’t want to commit undue fouls. We need to manage a good balance between being committed and not giving fouls away.

If there were any doubts as to how tomorrow’s game will play out, Arsene addresses them here. Bayern will dominate possession and no doubt create numerous chances. We’ll defend deep and in numbers and look to make the most of any attacking forays we can muster.

As in the game between the sides at Emirates stadium a couple of weeks ago, we’ll need a little luck and a lot of endeavour to get another positive result against Pep Guardiola’s side, but when you have players of the calibre of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez in your team, you always have a chance of creating chances and and scoring goals, against any opposition and at any ground.

Of course we’ve won at the Allianz Arena in the recent past, which is something Arsene highlighted when discussing his side’s ‘togetherness’ and how Arsenal will approach the game:

We are in a period where we are doing well and that should convince the players that they’re doing something right. We have a good togetherness and I believe we really are a team who stick together when things don’t go well. We will certainly have some uncomfortable moments during the game tomorrow night but that will be a good opportunity to show our togetherness. In good periods of the game, we want to attack. What we want is to play to win. When you’re Arsenal and have won everywhere in Europe, even here, it means we will try to win the game. Are Bayern a great team? Yes, but it’s a good challenge for us as well to show that we have the quality to compete with them.

To be fair, we’ve already shown we can do more than simply ‘compete’ with Bayern, by beating them a coupe of weeks ago but I know what Arsene means.

It’s a shame we’re deprived of the options of players like Theo Walcott, Danny Welbeck and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for the game, because their pace is obviously ideally suited to the counter attacking game-plan we’ll adopt. That said, Sanchez and Joel Campbell are pretty quick themselves.

Yet whether the latter will play has come under some doubt today. There have been reports that we may play Kieran Gibbs on the left of midfield, switch Sanchez to the right and ‘rest’ Campbell, which I don’t understand at all really.

I mean, Gibbs is quick but is he that much more so than Campbell? Plus Campbell has shown in his last two games just how defensively conscientious he is, something which as already discussed, will be vital tomorrow evening.

Back tomorrow with a preview before the big game.

See you then.

29th October 2015: Wenger has to make the right choice

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With a fully fit squad, we have more options for the right-hand-side of the attack in our current formation than any other position. Yet as we prepare to travel to Swansea on Saturday, Arsene Wenger has to choose between inexperience, no experience and playing players out of position.

The boss today confirmed reports that emerged yesterday, which suggested both Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain would be out of action until after the international break, having picked up injuries against Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday evening. He said:

Nothing has changed since after the game. They are out but the scans are today – it’s 48 hours afterwards. We hope they are light injuries, but they are out until after the international break.

So the scan results aren’t in but we already know both players will miss the next three games regardless? I suppose there’s still a glimmer of hope then, that one or both may make a miraculous recovery sooner than expected but for the immediate future, Arsene has a tough decision to make in terms of who plays on the right.

It’s been suggested by some that Arsene is considering playing either Hector Bellerin or Keiran Gibbs in a more advanced position but when asked who he’d pick, there was no mention of either:

(Joel) Campbell and Alex Iwobi (are options). Santi can play there as well but he has become very important centrally. The problem sometimes is that you can destroy two departments if you move one player out. We control the ball better with Santi in the middle.

The hope now must be that either Joel Campbell or Alex Iwobi can be ‘this season’s Francis Coquelin’, by coming into the side unexpectedly because of an injury crisis and performing well immediately. It’s a tough ask, especially when you consider Coquelin had been afforded far more first-team playing time in previous seasons and so was more experienced at Premier League-level than either of them.

But then Iwobi and Campbell were probably our two stand-out players at Hillsborough by my reckoning, and although that doesn’t say a lot considering our collectively abject performance, it’s still worth bearing in mind. For what it’s worth, I think Campbell will get the nod as he’s far more experienced than Iwobi but long-term I think the latter may well turn out to be the better player.

For one so young, the few times I’ve seen him play, in the Emirates Cup and against the Owls, Iwobi looks a very promising prospect indeed and compared to say Chuba Akpom, has better link-up play and is more efficient in possession, which in a pass-and-move style-of-play like ours, is not only crucial, but means he’s got a good chance of settling into our side pretty quickly.

The third option Arsene discussed above – Santi Cazorla – has played from the right previously in his career at both Villarreal and Malaga, but the boss has seemingly concluded he doesn’t want to disrupt our central midfield by re-stationing the Spaniard on the right, which I agree with completely.

And Cazorla has been speaking with Arsenal Player about his reinvention as a deeper playmaker with added defensive duties. He said:

The boss changed my position last season to play me more centrally. It’s a position I really like, though of course it means I’m further away from the opposing area so I have fewer chances to score. I’m finding my best form and I’m really enjoying the new position. You have different responsibilities. In terms of defence, you have to defend more and you have to help the team more in terms of making sure you’re well-positioned to ensure the players in attack can stay fresh. We need the likes of Mesut, Alexis, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott and Giroud to be fresh – so that means myself, Coquelin, Arteta and Flamini need to be well-positioned to ensure those in attack can perform as well as possible.

Of course Arsene has previous in terms of successfully re-positioning players with the likes of Lauren, Kolo Toure, Thierry Henry and even Mikel Arteta prime examples, but Cazorla has to be up there in terms of how well it’s worked out.

I mean, thinking about it now, it makes perfect sense. Cazorla’s passing, speed of thought and ball control makes him what Cesc Fabregas wishes he was as a central midfielder. Add the fact Santi has a better engine than I’d ever previously imagined and can be as gritty as as they come despite being small in stature, and you have the perfect player for the middle of the park.

Yet how many would have suggested the Spaniard for that role before Arsene assigned it to him? Certainly not Gary Neville, because you have to be seven-foot tall to play there according to him. Like Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, hey Gaz?

Back tomorrow.

14th October 2015: Early Watford team news + Wenger on playing away

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. So the internationals are finally over, after lasting for what seemed like an eternity, and as we look forward to Saturday’s trip to Watford, Arsene Wenger has revealed some early team news to the official site.

Mathieu Flamini and Mikel Arteta are back in full training, Laurent Koscielny has a test to see if he’s ready after the hamstring strain that kept him out of our win over Manchester United, and Alexis Sanchez, who was substituted late in that game with a groin strain, yet still went on to play both games and score three times for Chile, has texted Arsene to say he’s fine.

Speaking of our south American superstar, reports have emerged recently that Real Madrid would like to tempt him back to Spain. Firstly, can I just ask Madrid to kindly f*ck the f*ck off – all due respect. We’re readying a new contract for Alexis, and as he said in his press conference after Chile’s last game, he’s very happy in north London.

Secondly, I hear there’s a decent player who plays in the same position over in west London. According to many (Chelsea fans), he’s the best player in England. Go take a look Florentino. Thirdly, remember Karim Benzema and how we waited all summer to sign him and you happily strung us along before refusing to sell? So do we.

I have to say, the mere thought of us selling Sanchez fills me with more dread than I ever felt when the likes of Fabregas, Van Persie or Nasri were about to leave, mainly because the Chilean’s a better player, harder worker and all-round superior human being than that trio of turncoats.

Moving on and Arsene has followed up on talk of scientific studies into home advantage by speaking a little about away form. Interestingly, the boss revealed he asks his scouts for reports on how any potential new signing plays on his travels before making up his mind. He told Arsenal Player:

You could say it’s linked more to bravery – your character is more tested away from home. At home you feel the players are a bit more protected. But what I say to my scouts is, ‘Watch this player for me, but watch him in an away game.’ You want to know how he behaves away from home because usually at home you will be all right. If a scout comes to me and says he has found a good player, I ask where he saw him. If it was at home, I tell them to go and watch them away as well because it’s a better test of their character, their bravery and their desire. Once a player is good away from home, you can say you will consider him.

As I said, interesting. But you’d hope that if Lionel Messi ever becomes attainable for Arsenal, the fact he’s performed far better at the Nou Camp against English teams than away, wouldn’t prevent us from making a bid. Because that would be stupid. Messi’s almost as good as Alexis. Almost.

Finally for today, Petr Cech has been speaking about his favourite save in an Arsenal shirt, which came against Liverpool at Emirates stadium, telling Arsenal Player:

[My favourite was] probably the first one against Benteke because Gabriel tried to intercept the ball when he ran across the goal, and until the last fraction of a second I didn’t know whether he was going to touch it or not. I had to wait and I also knew that Benteke was already there. I thought, ‘OK I have to wait to see if he deflects it towards his own goal or whether it will go anywhere else’, and then I knew that I would have to go fast to the other side. I was lucky that I had perfect timing to get there. Taking information before the situation happens helps. I knew he was running there so I knew that the moment Gabriel missed the ball I had to get there as fast as possible. It’s the awareness that I had two options; to wait and then as soon as the ball went past him, knowing that I had to get there. I was ready for that so as soon as I saw that he would not touch the ball I had already gone. Maybe it’s a bit of experience, but I would say it’s taking the information prior to the situation. That was the key in this moment.

It’s been said before but Cech comes across as a very smart cookie indeed and after a shaky start against West Ham on the opening day of the season, he’s starting to show his true class, making vital saves, like from Martial in our last game.

To be honest, I still can’t believe we signed him, or rather, Chelsea let him leave. Our ‘only’ buy this summer could still prove to be the best bit of business done by any club in the last window.

Til Thursday.

13th October 2015: Welbeck on return, Man Utd battering and more

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Evening all. With Theo Walcott currently performing like a cross between Thierry Henry and Pele, people don’t seem to be missing the injured Danny Welbeck as much as they might have done.

That said, a dip in form for Theo or an injury to his current back-up Olivier Giroud would leave us with a worrying lack of options up front, so it was great to hear Welbeck say his recovery from knee surgery was going well and that he’s hoping to be back in action around the turn of the year.

Speaking from Dubai, where the former Manchester United striker was visiting the Arsenal Soccer School, he discussed a range of topics including his rehabilitation and our stunning, recent win over his former club. He said:

It’s difficult to put an exact date on it (his return from injury), around the New Year. After I had the operation, I was in a leg brace for about four weeks – which wasn’t easy. I had to do a lot of machine work, about six hours a day. Sleeping in a leg brace isn’t good. At night it’s not comfortable, it’s the first time I’ve slept on my back in years. It’s good to finally be out of the brace now and walking. It feels like I’m getting that little bit closer to getting back out on the pitch. The way we started the game (against United) was obviously crucial for the result, in the end. It was a great team performance, I thought the mentality was spot on with the way we started the match and went about things.

Welbeck also revealed his frustration at not being able to play at the moment, said the squad must continually strive to improve, and outlined the importance of consistency in a very competitive Premier League if Arsenal are to be champions:

It’s frustrating being on the sidelines and watching in – you feel kind of helpless. But you just have to keep motivated. The appetite’s there, you just want to get back out on the pitch and show what you can do. So it’s difficult but you’ve got to see the positive side of things at times. Obviously there’s some days when you just want to be back out there playing, but it’s a process and something that I’ve learnt to deal with in time. But it’s hard. The most important thing, obviously, as a team and as a squad, we want to keep on improving. The way we’ve started the league we’ve had a few good results, but there’s also results where we could have done a bit better in certain situations. The most important thing is we improve on what we’ve got to set a standard. We’ve just got to keep on improving as a squad mentally going into games, making sure we’re right for every single match and not just on selected games. In the Premier League there’s teams in the lower half of the table beating teams in the top half and that just shows you the level of competition throughout the whole league. There’s not one game where you can take your foot off the gas and we’ve got to be prepared mentally, physically and tactically for every single match we go into to. It’s the same for every single team. It doesn’t give one side a better opportunity to win the league. Every three points is going to be vital. And if you get those wins and keep racking them up that’s going to be the most important thing come May.

Nothing at all to argue with in that and the bit about the squad improving mentally going into games is the standout-out comment in my opinion. As much as we marveled at our display against United, just a few day earlier we produced a very different performance against Olympiakos.

The players were mostly the same and their physical condition presumably not an issue, so the logical explanation for the defeat would be a lack of focus. But as Danny alludes to above, we need to ensure we’re tuned in for every game, big or small, if we want to lift the biggest prizes at the end of the season.

Anyway, the sooner Welbeck and our other two long-termers, Tomas Rosicky and Jack Wilshere, are back to bolster the squad the better, because when we emerge from a hectic festive period, we’ll no doubt be in desperate need of freshening things up.

Til tomorrow.

6th October 2015: Defenders talk, starlet signs

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. Cloid is here, so news is scarce, but thankfully, a few of our players have been speaking about various stuff, not least Sunday’s scintillating showing against Manchester United at Emirates stadium, so let’s take a little look at what they’ve had to say.

First up is vice-captain and one half of the blossoming Petr-Per relationship bringing much needed experience, maturity and security to the team, Per Mertesacker. The German World Cup winner says the Gunners ‘clicked’ defensively against Louis van Gaal’s men, called the win ‘special’ and expressed his hope the team’s confidence is just as high after the international break. He said:

We had a good understanding [defensively]. I think a lot clicked today. If one of us won a duel, the other would be there and that was the same in the second half. If he [Anthony Martial] ran past one of us, which can happen, someone else would be there straight away. It went well from the start and that’s always crucial. When you take your chances and are strong defensively, that’s a clear indicator that you feel good. [Sunday] was just special and then it’s always difficult for your opponents to gain a foothold when they are so far behind after 15 minutes. You could see how much the team wanted to respond [from Olympiacos]. As a team you try and remind yourself of what you can achieve and you could see that we have a lot of confidence. I hope that we can display that again in two weeks.

I suppose on the one hand, the current break from club football allows us to savour a brilliant win for a little longer than usual without the risk of a bad result replacing our joy with a new-found sense of doom. But on the other, there is the worry that any momentum in confidence and performance could be lost before the players reassemble to face Watford a week on Saturday.

Particularly when you factor in the potential for injuries while the players are away with their respective countries. So you can fully appreciate Arsene Wenger’s comments about ‘praying’ for his players to return unscathed because there isn’t much the club can do other than hope for the best and perhaps implore national coaches to look after them and not over-train or over-play our players over the next fortnight.

Alexis Sanchez is already a concern of course, with the groin injury that forced him off late in the second half against United, and although Arsene accepted his star forward would want to play for his country, particularly against a team like Brazil who they face later this week, you’d hope sense would prevail regardless of the player’s desire to play and he’s left out if at risk of making his injury worse.

Elsewhere, Per’s central defensive partner on Sunday, Gabriel, has been speaking to ESPN Brazil about his red card at Chelsea and Diego Costa, the Arsenal fans, wanting to stay a Gunner for a long time and learning from his new team-mates. He said:

As I walked off after being sent off against Chelsea I thought the fans would hate me, but the support was unbelievable. I have been tested by Costa before in Spain, I think he knows that we were causing him issues, but this is life, we move on. God is always fair but I should have listened to my manager and Cech when they said not to react to Costa. We will play again. The Arsenal fans make you realise how big this club is, I will post one picture and my phone will go crazy for 3 days. I want to stay here for a very long time, I don’t speak the language yet but I feel at home and this club is perfect for me. Having two players to learn from like Per and Laurent is a gift from God. I am shadowing them and picking up lots of things. I want to learn more from Laurent he is really good at coming from behind and taking the ball, I’d like to bring that to my game. Cech is a great keeper he talks to me a lot, I have learnt a few phrases that I know he will say, he is a leader.

If his refusal to be bullied by Costa and his eagerness to stand up for team-mates is anything to go by, Gabriel posseses plenty of leadership qualities himself, ones which will only grow the longer he’s at the club and maintaining his level of performance. Not wanting to tempt fate but he’s barely put a foot wrong since arriving in January and as many have observed, seems to relish defending as much as Frank Lampard does deep-fried Mars Bars.

Finally for today, Alex Iwobi, who was so impressive in pre-season when given a chance to travel and play with the first-team squad, has signed a new, long-term contract the club confirmed today.

I’ve only seen him play for us a couple of times, including the game in which he scored against Lyon at the Emirates Cup this summer and my initial thought was that he’s quick, slick and a little more efficient in his distribution than say, Chuba Akpom, has looked at times. Who knows how he’ll develop at this early stage but he’s clearly highly regarded by the club and is part of a long list of very promising young forwards on the books at London Colney.

See you on Wednesday.