PremierLeague

9th April 2016: Arsenal waste comfortable lead at West Ham

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. If the title was unlikely before today’s match at West Ham, it’s now all but gone after we were pegged back from 2-0 up to eventually draw 3-3 at Upton Park.

I missed the opening portion of the game but tuned in just before Mesut Ozil latched onto Alex Iwobi’s pass to fire us into the lead after 18 minutes. When Alexis Sanchez then doubled our lead 17 minutes later, with a very similar goal and again with Iwobi the architect, in truth, the scoreline felt a bit flattering because the hosts had seen a legitimate goal by Manuel Lanzini ruled out for offside and the contest was pretty even.

Remarkably, the Hammers hauled themselves level and went ahead inside 10 minutes either side of the half-time break. Andy Carroll grabbed all three, heading home Aaron Cresswell’s cross after 44 minutes, equalizing in the second minute of first-half added time, and then powering in another header at the far post seven minutes into the second period.

A friend texted to goad: “Oh look, Arsenal have Arsenal’d”, and it was difficult to disagree. From cruise control to chaos in the blink of an eye, we continue to make unforced errors in games, providing our opponents with just the boost in confidence they need to capitalize on our shortcomings and it’s as predictable as it is infuriating. Unless we’re eight-nil up and playing against seven men, it’s impossible to feel confident Arsenal will see out a win.

I think it was Iwobi who gave the ball away under no pressure in the build-up to their first, just as I was willing us to get to half-time with our two-goal cushion intact. But given his role in our first-half goals and overall display, it would be more than harsh to be too critical. And in fairness, aside from those costly ten minutes, we played pretty well, looked fluent and although it’s a pointless hypothetical, if the game lasted another ten minutes or so, I’d have backed us strongly to grab a winner.

Unfortunately the reality is we’re now 10 points behind the league leaders with just six games to go and another top four finish is the best we can hope for for yet another campaign. After the game, Arsene Wenger had his say on Carroll’s impact, why Arsenal struggled and where it leaves our hopes of the title. He said:

First of all because he [Carroll] is good in the air. We lost a bit of urgency when we were 2-0 up after 43 minutes. We had a good game today but a bad result. We played with a weakness that is redundant in the season. If you look at the goals we have conceded since the start of the season, [most of them] are headers in our box. That happened today. It is difficult to go into any assessment of [our own] performances. I have to look at it again. I don’t think Koscielny was at fault at the goal. The first goal, when you are 2-0 up with 43 minutes played, with the experience we have and the way we mastered the ball, then at 45 minutes it is 2-2, you [put] yourself [in] a decline. This is because you give hope to the other team, that is where that little moment in the game made us pay heavily. Third in the league with 59 points. That is not where we want to be but we have made it much more difficult for ourselves now to have a chance to win the Premier League. We have to keep going no matter what and hope. You never know what can happen. As well, we have to look behind us as people are chasing us. We have to be serious and focus on finishing as high as possible. Where that is, I don’t know. This is one of the places where you could drop points but you see the game and feel guilty you have dropped points.

There’s isn’t a lot more to add really. A slim chance of the title is now flickering on the verge of invisibility. All we can do is hope Leicester choke dramatically, Tottenham do likewise, and we win our remaining games. I’m not holding my breath.

Enjoy your Saturday nights if you can folks.

See you on Sunday.

8th April 2016: Premier League Preview – West Ham away

Posted on by TremendArse

Happy Friday. I have to say I’m looking forward to this weekend more than usual, what with Arsenal playing West Ham in the early kick-off tomorrow, Anthony Joshua fighting American Charles Martin for a heavyweight world title belt after that, and then a nice, lazy, Sunday in store to eat, sleep and revel in doing absolutely nothing. Bring. It. On.

So hopefully Arsenal can get things off to a flier and set the tone for the next 48 hours or so by exacting revenge for our opening day defeat at the hands of the Hammers at Emirates stadium.

Judging by Arsene Wenger’s words yesterday, the likelihood is our starting line-up will be largely unchanged, with Petr Cech returning in goal for David Ospina the only realistic alteration. That said, David Ospina been very solid in Cech’s injury absence and made some eye-catching saves so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Columbian kept his place in the side for now.

As for our opponents, while we’re still missing the likes of Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere, they’ll be able to call upon a fully fit squad which contains some genuine quality in the likes of Manuel Lanzini and or course, the outrageously gifted Dimitri Payet. And Arsene gave his take on our opponents when he spoke to Arsenal Player earlier in the week. He said:

They are a strong side and that’s the message they gave us on the first day of the season [when West Ham beat Arsenal 2-0 at Emirates Stadium]. They surprised us with their quality, they have 50 points now and that’s not a coincidence. Overall I believe they’ve sacrificed the Europa League a little bit, surprisingly, but that has paid off for them in the Premier League. They have had a very strong season.

As for his own team, the boss explained why he’s unlikely to rotate at Upton Park, called for consistency from his team after two league wins in a row heading into tomorrow’s match and highlighted the strength in depth of his squad, saying:

What you try to find is always the right pieces of the jigsaw that work. Sometimes you are forced to make changes and sometimes players move up in training and they make steps and statements that push you to give them a chance. When it clicks, it is even more positive. There is an emergence of players that come up and come back from injury. Sometimes, the balance of the whole team clicks and all these players fighting together helps you to find the right blend. The continuity of our games against Barcelona and Everton was collectively [very good]. We respected those games and we had good possession, great movement and we wanted to score goals. Ideally, we combined offensive efficiency with defensive efficiency in that game. We looked quite solid. I think our game is convincing. What we need to show is consistency with the team, and in the last three games I feel our quality was a high level that raises the confidence. On top of that, we have players who have just come back like Mathieu Flamini, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey, so the competition is there. Petr Cech is back too. In every position, you have competition, and that is very positive.

With Leicester and Tottenham not playing until Sunday, when they face Sunderland and Manchester United respectively, we have a chance to close the gap on both the teams above us if we can beat the Hammers and exert just that bit more pressure on them ahead of their games this weekend.

With just six more games to play after tomorrow, every fixture is clearly all but a title eliminator so here’s hoping our players are fully focused, can play in a similar vein to our recent wins at Everton and over Watford and keep our faint title hopes alive.

Back post match.

COYG!

 

 

6th April 2016: Alexis on injury fears, ambition and Ozil

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome to Wednesday on TremendArse. I’ll start this evening with an admittance from our south American superstar Alexis Sanchez that fear of sustaining another injury has hampered his performances since he returned from a two-month spell on the side-lines earlier in the campaign.

The Chilean tore his hamstring in our draw at Norwich at the end of November, and went on to miss 10 games in all competitions before making his comeback from the bench against Chelsea in late Janaury. Since then, Sanchez has struggled for goals and form by the lofty standards he set in his debut campaign.

There are mitigating circumstances of course, in that he failed to have a pre-season with Arsenal after helping Chile to win the Copa America last summer, before being rushed back to action by Arsene Wemger a lot sooner than most people had anticipated. Anyway, here’s what Sanchez had to say:

Before my injury I was 100 per cent fit. I was feeling well. After the injury I wanted to get back but it was hard. I had a setback and when I played a match, I was scared I would get injured again because the thing I like most in the world is playing football and when I can’t play, I feel sad. Football is my passion, my life and I always want to win. If I lose, I always go home sad, I can’t sleep and that upsets me. When I win, my team-mates are happy and enjoy their families the next day. Football is my life. I think I have adapted well to the club but I am never satisfied with what I do. I want to win the Premier League, the Champions League. I always want to win everything.

Despite having returned from injury over two months ago now, I think it’s fair to say Sanchez is still searching for his top gear. But with the Arsenal team a lot more settled and fluent in recent games, his own personal performances also seem to have improved, partly also perhaps because of a switch to the right flank. He’s notched up two assists and a goal in our last three games against Barcelona, Everton and Watford, so the signs are that he’s approaching something close to his best form again.

Arguably his best performance for us this season, aside from his hat-trick at Leicester in September, came in our mauling of Manchester United in October, when Sanchez scored twice in that ruthless opening 20 minutes in which we scored three times at Emirates stadium. And the forward suggested that game must be the blueprint for Arsenal, as well as lauding the quality of Mesut Ozil:

Before that match, we all had hunger and desire to win — you could see that in the eyes of the players before we went on to the pitch. When all the players have that look of hunger of wanting to win things, it’s difficult for another team to beat us. Ozil is a fantastic player. When I’m on top form, 100 per cent fit, because he has such quality, he can give me the ball with ease and that sets me up for scoring.

Needless to say our two most expensive-ever buys are also our two most influential attack-minded players, so hopefully we can keep them fit for the remaining eight games of the season and then tie them down to new contracts because there just aren’t many of their quality available in the market right now.

Finally for today, after promising there was more to come from him in yesterday’s post, Mohamed Elneny has revealed his joy at grabbing his first goal for the club having netted against Barcelona at Camp Nou last month, and also suggested the Premier League title is still within Arsenal’s reach this term. He told Arsenal Player:

I was very happy with it. However, I wasn’t happy with the result of the game as we didn’t qualify for the next round. It is something that you can’t describe afterwards – but I was very happy to score against Barcelona in the Nou Camp – it was a very beautiful feeling. Also, selecting it as Goal of the Month was very good. I hope to score more goals in the future, hopefully to help the team to win the league title this year.

Let’s hope so Mo. In fact, I can picture it now, Elneny smashes home the title-winning goal on the last day of the season against relegated Aston Villa, as Chelsea beat Leicester at Stamford Bridge, with Tottenham having dropped out of the picture entirely after going on a six-game losing streak.

It’s still on. I’m tellin’ ya …

Back tomorrow.

5th April 2016: Mertesacker refuses to moan + Zelalem to get his chance?

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. A quick round-up for you this evening and I’ll start with some words from our vice-captain Per Mertesacker.

Having lost his starting place to Gabriel in recent weeks, the German World Cup winner has revealed he’s unaccustomed to his current status as back-up, but far from throwing his toys out of the pram and demanding more action, Mertesacker says he has his chin up and will wait for his chance. He said:

I’ve got to admit it is new to me. I’ve been around a long time now and this has not so often been the case, but I’m in good spirits, am fit and I have no pain. Of course I’m playing less, but I’m sticking at it. Maybe I’ll get another chance. Things change quickly nowadays. You get ups and downs as a footballer and you’ve just got to remain professional, and I’ve always been that down the years. That’s why I’ve survived for so long in this business. I listen closely to what the coach says and he knows that he can count on me, no matter what happens. I want to show him in every training session that I’m ready when needed. The team needs every player, whether I’m on the bench now or not – I don’t just write it off. I always look ahead positively and that is the best way to get over the disappointment of not playing.

He may lack pace, but Per’s attitude is clearly faultless. Even if ideally I’d love a top-quality new arrival in central defence, I really hope we keep hold of Mertesacker because as a personality and a professional, he’s a big asset for Arsenal in my opinion.

The defender also gave his take on this season’s Premier League title race and thinks the Gunner’s still have a good chance of upsetting the odds and nicking the crown. He said:

It’s not totally over yet. If we win all of our matches, then we’ve got a good chance. We’ve got to keep focusing on that and that’s why we’re taking things game by game. We’re trying to concentrate fully on our next game against West Ham. We have a bit more time now that we’re not in any other competition so we don’t have to concentrate on anything else, other than the title.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Elneny has been speaking about winning the official website’s Player of the Month award for March and promising there is a lot more to come from him in an Arsenal shirt. He said:

I am very happy to be Player of the Month for such a big club. It feels very good, it will motivate me to have more faith as I play in the team and it shows how the fans love and believe in me. It is very helpful to feel that you are loved by the people in the club and the fans – and I still have more to give the team. So, I would like to thank all the people who nominated me. This is just the beginning. Hopefully, I will contribute more and more to the team in the future.

And finally for today, The Daily Telegraph’s Jeremy Wilson reckons Arsenal may look to internal options as well as new recruits, when bolstering their central midfield this summer after the anticipated departures of the likes of Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini and Tomas Rosicky.

Wilson suggests Gedion Zelalem, on-loan at Rangers this season, will be given a chance to prove himself in pre-season and cement a place in our first-team squad for next season. I’ll admit I haven’t paid much attention to how Zelalem’s been getting on in Scotland but what’s beyond debate is that he’s a brilliant passer from in front of the defence and we could do with more of those.

Aside from Santi Cazorla and Elneny, we haven’t got too many of that tempo-dictating ilk at the club, so I suppose he has a good chance to establish himself over the course of the next campaign like fellow teenager Alex Iwobi has done this. Time will tell and my guess is that it’ll be his physical readiness, rather than any doubts over his his footballing ability, that will decide his short-term future.

Until tomorrow.

4th April 2016: Wenger salutes squad after Watford win

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome to a brand new week on TremendArse. With next weekend’s game at West Ham still what feels like an eternity away, time now to take a little look at some of the reaction from our 4-0 win over Watford.

First up we have the manager Arsene Wenger, who has been praising the mentality of his side, despite the fact his squad showed all the cerebral fortitude of a shoe, in getting beaten by Manchester United and Swansea City recently. Here’s what he had to say:

We have only one target now. We have come through difficult periods and the team who finishes top is the team who can continue to perform and get results even when the period is a bit more difficult. This team has a good mentality. I’ve had many teams in my life and this team is top quality. They have gone through a bad period but, when you play like that [against Watford], that shows that mentally they are pure. You have to find a team who clicks at the right moment. You have a whole lot of different reasons [for it happening], because your injured players come back like Welbeck and because of the emergence of players like Iwobi.

Personally, I think what’s far more important than mindset is the the footballing chemistry of the team. I mean, I’m sure Aaron Ramsey’s mentality is second to none, but the fact he can’t pass the ball to save his life, yet was playing as our chief distributor from the middle of the park during our ‘difficult periods’ this season, is no coincidence.

Not that it’s all on the Welshman of course, because Olivier Giroud being able to run, or Theo Walcott not being scared sh*tless of the ball, would also have helped immeasurably, but midfield’s the area I would pick as the stand-out problem position for us this season, with it’s lack of adequate functionality in key games being the main reason we’re so far off top spot in the league as things stand.

That said, for all the ridicule Arsene attracts by consistently praising his players’ mental strength, why he does it is obvious – to build confidence among his players. Plus we’ve sorted our problem area now it seems, providing we can keep Mohamed Elneny and Francis Coquelin fit and firing for the remainder of the campaign. Indeed, Arsene was full of praise for the duo after the win over Watford, saying:

Both of them are improving offensively. When Coquelin plays with Cazorla, Coquelin is the defensive player which made them a perfect pair. Then Coquelin focused more on defending and Cazorla more on attacking. Now both [Elneny and Coquelin] share the job, so the balance is a bit [better]. They’re more similar. We have four attackers in front of them so we need people who can defend well in central midfield.

Understandably, the manager also singled out Alex Iwobi for praise after the teenager scored one and set one up in only his second-ever Premier League start:

These people (Arsenal fans) have seen many good players over the years and they know straight away when a player has something special, so they acknowledge that. You cannot cheat people. They’ve seen how quickly he’s improved and how well he’s played. It’s surprising how quickly he’s integrated into our game. He’s worked with us since the start of the season and he has grown, gained confidence and when he came in he had an impact straight away. That’s benefited from the fact that he knows everybody and they trust him as well. I didn’t expect that level of efficiency or impact on the scoresheet.

It’s hard not to get carried away by the impact Iwobi’s made in these last few games and although it’s worth stopping for a minute and remembering just how young and inexperienced he still is, the way he’s playing at the moment does make you wonder if he might prove the difference between an all-too-familiar fourth-place finish, or something far better come the end of the season.

Imagine thinking that even just a few short weeks ago. You just never know in football …

Until tomorrow.

3rd April 2016: Iwobi impressive again as Arsenal beat Watford

Posted on by TremendArse

First off, apologies for the four-day break in posts on TremendArse. My adjustment to new working commitments is taking a little longer than I envisaged but hopefully normal service should be resumed from today.

With it being the final stretch of the international break, we didn’t miss much anyway before Arsenal returned to action by hosting Watford yesterday afternoon, when an unchanged side picked up where they’d left off in the league against Everton a fortnight ago by securing three points and keeping a clean sheet.

Alex Iwobi made his second-ever Premier League start and just like he did in his debut at Goodison Park, marked the occasion with a very well-taken goal to cap another impressive personal performance. Indeed, this time the Nigerian international also created a goal – our first after just four minutes for Alexis Sanchez.

Iwobi’s perfectly flighted cross from the left was headed goal-wards by the Chilean, who then tapped home with his left foot after Heurelho Gomes had saved his initial effort. It was a deserved opener for the Gunners after a bright start and having dominated the first half, we doubled our lead seven minutes before the interval. This time roles were reversed as Sanchez’s right-wing cross was expertly converted by Iwobi as he swept it home first time before wheeling away and reproducing that gun-firing celebration he introduced against the Toffees.

The game was all but over as a contest just three minutes into the second period when Hector Bellerin’s left-footed strike was deflected past Gomes after our Cockney Catalan had linked well with Sanchez on the right. Then at the death, Joel Campbell crossed for fellow substitute Theo Walcott to tap home at the near post and complete the scoring.

So overall it was a pretty comfortable day at the office for Arsene Wenger’s men, built on a very effective midfield base of Francis Coquelin and Mohamed Elneny and with a forward quartet in Iwobi, Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Danny Welbeck, who seem to have the perfect blend of attacking attributes between them, combining well and functioning far more fluently than most other combinations we’ve tried this season.

Tottenham’s two dropped points at Anfield yesterday added to the feel-good factor but Leicester’s fourth consecutive one-nil win today leaves them needing four wins from their final seven games to be crowned champions, so it’s very hard not to feel it’s all too little too late as far as our own recent wins go.

Yet Iwobi, for one, is still contemplating winning the title. He said:

It’s crazy, a mad feeling. When you’re young, you dream of this and this is like a dream come true, winning with this team. Winning the title would be amazing but we’re taking each game as it comes, game by game, and we will see where we end up come the end of the season.

Meanwhile, Arsene explained why the win pleased him and praised the impact of Iwobi, saying:

I am very happy because it was a good performance. We scored goals and didn’t concede, and kept the game having a good flow even at 3-0 up. I am pleased with Alex Iwobi’s talent but even more with his attitude and his willingness to learn and to contribute with his teamwork.

Last year it was Coquelin, earlier this season we had Campbell, and now as we near the end of the campaign Iwobi has emerged from nowhere to make himself first-choice and it’s fully deserved. If he can keep playing like he has these last few games, there’s no reason why he can’t stay in the side long-term like Coquelin, rather than drop away a little like Campbell.

He’s got the ability to go it alone as well as play the intricate pass and move football we like so much and it’s possessing that combination of skill-sets that gives him an edge over more established team-mates for a regular starting berth in my opinion.

See you next week.

Probably.

21st March 2016: Wenger vents + Bellerin on having a breather

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. With Easter on the horizon we’re at the start of a short working week for most, but due to the international break, we’re also just beginning what will soon feel like an eternity before club football returns.

And as we head into the latest Arsenal-less abyss, Arsene Wenger has left us with some introspection to keep us occupied by revealing his ‘hurt’ at recent civil unrest within the club’s fanbase. He said:

What hurts me is that at the important moment of the season we played in a sceptical environment. I think after the Tottenham game where we played a very good game with 10 men against 11 and came back to 2-2, I couldn’t understand why – at the moment when you need everyone behind the team – we had to hit that storm. From the media, OK. From our fans? It is a bit more difficult to take.

Whilst I definitely agree with Arsene’s sentiments as far as getting behind the team is concerned, I think it’s fair to say most fans recognized our performance against Tottenham was very good and but for a brainless moment of madness from Francis Coquelin, we’d probably have gone on to win that game.

The ‘sceptical environment’ wasn’t whipped up a by a hard-fought draw at Sp*rs, it was created by a succession of poor results that have seen us fall from pole position in the league not too long ago, to virtually out of contention for the title.

Throw in elimination from the Champions League and FA Cup (admittedly after the Tottenham game), and clearly fans have a right to vent frustration. And that’s before you factor in the depressing familiarity of Arsenal’s seasonal arc, or the industry-high price of a ticket to see the Gunners play.

But having aired his views on the lack of support from the stands for his side, Arsene then balanced things out (or back-tracked, if you prefer), saying:

I never complain about critics, especially when they are turned against me. But we have to get the fans behind us with our attitude, and make sure that they stand behind the team until the end of the season.

It’s the last six words that need properly processing for me. We go with what we have, players and manager-wise, until the last game of the season and then is the time to take stock and draw conclusions. See where we end up, how the end of the campaign pans out. We might win it, or we could finish sixth. Right now though, who the f*ck knows?

There isn’t a doubt in my mind a vociferous support can play a part in helping the team perform better and pick up points and with five of our last eight games at home, where we’ve struggled recently, the fans can come to the fore in a positive fashion. It’s up to us and the least we could, and should, do. That’s my view anyway.

Moving on, Hector Bellerin reckons we’re “definitely” still in the title race and that the international break has arrived at the perfect time as it gives the squad a chance to recharge, regroup and ready themselves for the final straight of the season. Speaking after our win over Everton, he said:

It is great time to go on the international break after a win, and it’s time for the players to recharge their batteries because it is the last bit of the season and it is important for us. We knew it was going to be a hard game. We were really looking forward to it and the team put on a great performance, especially in the first half with two great goals. That gave us the chance to relax a little bit in the second half. It is always a hard place to come and in the last few years we have always had tough games [here]. To get a win like that was important. I think the team has had more purpose with the ball lately and we are playing better football. That is showing on the pitch because we have to defend less because we are keeping the ball and creating way more chances.

Hopefully we can pick up where we left off in fortnight or so – playing fluently, scoring goals and keeping clean sheets.

But to do that, we’ll no doubt need all our players to return from international duty unscathed, so as always, all we can do right now is hope for the best.

See you tomorrow.

19th March 2016: Fluent first-half enough to see off Everton as Iwobi impresses

Posted on by TremendArse

Saturday greetings. Whenever he decides to hang up his stop-watch, if there’s one thing I’ll miss about Arsenal under Arsene Wenger, it’s that unique excitement and feeling of pride that’s generated by the flourishing of a new young talent.

Patrick Vieira, Nicolas Anelka, Cesc Fabregas – the list goes on – and now, Alex Iwobi. Of course, we already knew quite a bit about the Nigerian teenager heading into today’s game against Everton at Goodison Park, given he’s enjoyed a fair bit of first-team football in what has been his break-through campaign, not least his surprise start against Barcelona in midweek, but his performance today felt like a coming of age game. Like Anelka against Manchester United in that 3-2 win at Highbury during our 1997-98 title-winning season, or Fabregas against Juventus in 2006.

With much older and experienced team-mates like Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud and, to a lesser extent, Joel Campbell, left on the bench in favour of Iwobi today, the youngster showed just why his manager has no qualms about starting him in crucial games by producing a brilliant team-minded display and rounding it off by scoring his first goal in professional football to put us two-nil up after 42 minutes.

Having played an important part in helping to win back possession a few yards outside our own box, Iwobi sprinted into space on the right and was found with a great ball over the top by Hector Bellerin. Despite having support to his left, Iwobi showed confidence and composure in abundance by closing in on goal and slipping his shot through the keeper’s legs.

Moments later he combined brilliantly with Danny Welbeck, as the two forwards exchanged intricate back-flicks to bamboozle Everton, but on this occasion Iwobi took the wrong option, choosing to go alone and skewing his shot just wide of the near post when he should have played it back to Welbeck to his left.

Iwobi appears to have developed a promising relationship with Welbeck, and it was the latter who had put us ahead in the seventh minute when he provided a clinical finale to an exquisite team goal. An initial attacking move created a chance for Iwobi following an Ozil cross from the right but the youngster was forced to turn away from goal and restart the move by laying the ball off to Nacho Monreal near the left by-line.

We then worked it across to the opposite side of the pitch and Alexis Sanchez played a sharp one-two with Ozil before the Chilean produced an inch perfect through ball for Welbeck, who needed just two touches to round their keeper and find the back of the net. The run and finish from the striker was Thierry Henry-esque and the least we deserved for a quick, slick start to the match.

We then nearly doubled our lead moments later when Sanchez won the ball high up the pitch and found the on-rushing Iwobi who saw his first-time, side-footed effort saved by their keeper. Something clicked in that opening period for Arsenal as an attacking force and the fact we had had 11 starters who are all very comfortable in possession and quick-witted enough to play a pass-and-move game was undoubtedly the main reason.

There were no Girouds, Ramseys or Walcotts on show to disrupt the rhythm of our passing and even though those three players have their own considerable individual strengths and can be valuable assets in certain circumstances, I think I much prefer today’s cohesion to the more chaotic characteristics that trio bring to the side. That said, Everton were very poor today so perhaps we shouldn’t get too excited just yet.

The second half was a more disjointed affair with David Ospina taking a heavy impact to his side after bravely diving at the feet of Romelu Lukaku, before Kieran Gibbs, Giroud and Calum Chambers came on for Iwobi, Welbeck and Ozil, with the latter worryingly nursing a knock to his left ankle after being caught late by one of Everton’s players.

So all in all a great performance first-half, intelligent game-management in the second, and would you believe it, three whole Premier League points won for what feels like the first time in about three years. Sadly, Leicester show no signs of cracking just yet and ground out another one-nil win today, this time at Crystal Palace, to restore their 11 point lead over us. They have seven to play to our eight, so it’s still possible to catch them but we need the Foxes to start stumbling, and fast.

Spurs host Bournemouth and the Manchester clubs face each other tomorrow, so hopefully results will go in our favour and we can look back at this weekend as one in which we made up some ground ahead of us, whilst also putting some distance between the teams hot on our trail. Otherwise, it”ll be another round of fixtures down without progress points-wise, even if our own performance was very praiseworthy indeed.

See you on Sunday.

18th March 2016: Wenger on title race and team news

Posted on by TremendArse

Happy Friday. It’s Everton away in the early kick-off tomorrow and nothing bar victory will suffice for Arsenal as we try to keep alive our faint hopes of ending the season as Premier League champions.

Many have already written us off and called a two-horse race between Tottenham and leaders Leicester but that, as things stand at least, is premature. If we win tomorrow we could end the day three points behind second placed Sp*rs and eight behind the Foxes with a game in hand – if Claudio Ranieri’s men slip up at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace.

So when Arsene Wenger spoke at his pre-match press conference earlier today and suggested there’s still likely to be twists and turns and the title race was far from a foregone conclusion, you could see where he’s coming from.

On the other hand, with Manchester City just a point behind us, West Ham a further two adrift and even Manchester United not yet out of the top-four picture entirely in sixth place, we need to be just as wary of those behind us in the standings, as we hopeful of catching the two teams ahead. Here’s what Arsene said:

I would say we have to go step by step. Let’s get back to winning habits first, that starts tomorrow… if we win tomorrow, we’ll see. That’s our target. But at the moment, the only way to achieve something special is first to be realistic and humble enough to deal first with Everton. Things will change until the end of the season, that’s for sure. We have to take care of our own destiny, and that’s by producing the performances we expect from ourselves. It’s very tight, but I believe the Premier League is far from over. We are in a position where we hope for the best. I agree that a negative result would be very bad for us, but we focus on a positive result. We know now is the time for us to produce the result we want. We also have to look behind us because things can change very quickly. We want to move forward, but I’m conscious that our position is not secure, even where we are.

In terms of team news, the boss revealed only Mathieu Flamini, who went off injured against Barcelona on Wednesday, is unavailable from our last match-day squad and will be replaced by Calum Chambers. As for our long-term casualties, he revealed:

Wilshere is showing good signs now of recovery, Santi is a bit slower. The players who will definitely be back from injury [after the international break] will be Ramsey, Cech and maybe Flamini. But I don’t think Cazorla or Wilshere will be straight after the international break.

So good news on most but a little sketchy on Santi, which is of course concerning and also a little confusing, because when Arsene spoke a week or two about the Spaniard suffering a fresh setback due to an Achilles problem, the player himself took to social media to express his surprise at the stories of a delayed comeback and insisted he was on schedule to return at the start of April. All a bit weird.

Now usually, I’d play Arsenal Manager right about now and have a guess at tomorrow’s starting line-up but today, I’m not really feeling it. I just hope whoever’s selected performs well, we keep 11 players on the pitch for the whole game and emerge victorious to breathe fresh life into a campaign that’s nearing a flat-line.

Back post-match.

COYG!

17th March 2016: Ozil and Koscielny talk the talk

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. With our season now confined to just the Premier League, we have no fixture congestion issues from here on in, no prioritizing to ponder competition-wise, just nine games to make up the 11 points we currently lie behind Leicester and then pray and hope our rivals in the title race drop enough to see us crowned champions.

At this point it’s already highly unlikely and every game feels like a title eliminator because if we were to fall any further behind, then realistically our challenge would be over even if it was still mathematically possible.

And as we prepare for the season’s final straight, two of our spinal players have been having their say on what they feel is required if we are to beat the odds and lift our first league title since 2004. First up it’s Mesut Ozil, who had some fighting talk when he spoke with Arsenal Player, saying:

Last year we won those last eight [remaining] games but we don’t care about that now. It’s important what happens now. We have to concentrate now and give everything on the pitch. We have to fight. I know the teams playing us will fight to take the points against us, so the games will be tough. We have to fight on the pitch and we have to think from game to game, not that we can win eight games in a row and take the points. Now it’s not possible to win just our games [and that to be enough] so other teams need to lose points as well. The first step is to believe in us. We have to work harder than before. We have tough games coming but we have to take the points. If we win the title, we will be very happy because we believe in us. If you see the whole season, we’ve played very well. We’ve lost some points because we weren’t concentrated or we didn’t score. Now we have to fight for each game to take the points.

Nothing to argue with there and our German assist-meister certainly sounds determined. I’ve seen him get some stick for his alleged ‘lack of effort’ in last night’s loss to Barcelona but I think part of the reason he may have been at less than 100 percent intensity is because deep down, both team and manager knew we were facing an impossible task – especially after Barcelona took the lead to make it 3-0 on aggregate.

So rather than not trying, I think Ozil was sensibly conserving energy, perhaps even on manager instructions. Whether that’s true or not only the player and Arsene Wenger can know for sure of course, but that’s how I’m reading it and you can’t stop me.

Meanwhile Laurent Koscielny says the side have lost a little confidence having dropped so many precious points recently and must now concentrate on the basics to get back to winning ways and rebuild belief. He told Arsenal Player:

We are frustrated because the most important thing in a game is to finish with three points, which we have not done [much]. We haven’t been fighting like we did in the last six months because we lost a little confidence in ourselves and it is harder to win some games. We need to come back and help our team-mates with defending, attacking and a controlled passing movement. We didn’t lose our capacity physically or our technique, we just need to do more. We also need to come back to our basics, be simple and then the confidence will come back. When we get a win, it will be better and after we can play with more confidence, movement and try things we didn’t do before. We need to get back to this and when the results come back, we will be stronger.

If there’s one thing you can always rely on from Arsenal, it’s talking a good game, whether it’s the manager or any of the players. Now if they could just translate all that sensible spiel into on-pitch performances and points, we might yet pull off a minor miracle between now and the season’s end.

But as we all know, our margin for error has all but evaporated, so starting at Goodison Park on Saturday lunchtime, we simply have to walk the walk.

Until tomorrow.