Uncategorized

14th May 2016: Victory over Villa still vital as our campaign comes to a close

Posted on by TremendArse

Saturday greetings. It feels a bit weird not having any Premier League football to look forward to today, but at least Real Madrid and Barcelona are both on the box later as La Liga is decided so there’s the aperitif for tomorrow’s final-day feast.

Speaking of which, far from being an end-of-season dead rubber, our final fixture still has plenty riding on it of course. A win against Aston Villa would not only ensure we finish the season in third, negating the need for a Champions League playoff early next season, we could also pip Tottenham to the runners-up spot behind champions Leicester if Sp*rs somehow lose at already-relegated Newcastle.

And Arsene Wenger discussed the importance of our game against the league’s bottom side when he spoke to Arsenal Player earlier this week, saying:

There’s a big job to do because there’s a difference between finishing third and fourth. We are guaranteed to be in the top four and part of that is because of the job we did at Manchester City. Now we can still finish second, we can still strengthen our position in third, and that definitely gives us a good potential in the Champions League. We want to achieve that and we want to finish well at home as well in front of our crowd. There is not a big difference between second and third, apart from prestige, but that counts as well. We finished third last year so [if Arsenal finish second] we would have moved one place forward. It’s minor but no matter what it is, we want to do as well as we can.

Given Newcastle have nothing to play for and Tottenham players have been making noises this week about their determination to finish the campaign above Arsenal for the first time since the mid-nineties, it’s hard to see a home win. That said, Tottenham are sh*t, so who knows?

In terms of team selection I’d imagine there’ll be a few changes to our starting line-up from last weekend’s draw at Manchester City with Mesut Ozil fit again and Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere having had another week’s training as they build up match-sharpness following lengthy injuries.

Ozil will come into the side for the injured Danny Welbeck of course but I think Alex Iwobi may make way too, with Jack Wilshere brought in on the right and Alexis Sanchez resuming his role on the left. After that, whether Santi starts or Francis Coquelin regains his place is anyone’s guess because Aaron Ramsey and Mohamed Elneny played in the middle last week and didn’t do much wrong in fairness.

Longer term I’d prefer the former pair to be our primary partnership (at least until I’ve taken a closer look at Granit Xhaka) but perhaps Arsene will opt to go with the players in possession of the shirt. We’ll see. Elsewhere though – in goal, defence and upfront – it’ll surely be the usual suspects barring any last-minutes knocks.

So for one last time this season, a debut one for TremendArse no less, COME ON ARSENAL!

Catch you on Sunday after the game.

10th May 2016: Welbeck worry + Giroud on getting back among the goals

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. Some worrying news to begin with this evening as the Guardian have reported that the knee injury Danny Welbeck sustained against Manchester City on Sunday may need surgery and the striker is facing ‘months out of the game’.

A proper prognosis is expected tomorrow but Welbeck’s dreams of playing for England in this summer’s European Championships certainly appear over and he’s already in a race to be fit for the start of next season.

I’m not sure what to say other than our injury curse would be funny if it wasn’t so soul-destroyingly depressing. We’ve improved our medical department significantly in recent seasons yet remain extraordinarily prone to picking up long-term injuries as a club.

Wearing my Arsenal hat I suppose the best thing we can say about Danny’s latest knock is that it’s probably come at the best time it possibly could for us (other than ‘never’ obviously), with the season having just one more game to run.

But that of course is absolutely no consolation for the player himself, who’s not long been back from ten months out of the game with a different knee injury, and who I’m sure was relishing the prospect of representing his country at a major tournament in just a few weeks’ time.

I read somewhere that his ‘type’ of meniscus-related problem isn’t as bad as certain others and that he should make a complete recovery within around four months but when you then add match-practice etc, it may be closer to six.

Hopefully we’ll get good news tomorrow and the time-frame isn’t quite as long as that but for now all we can do is wish Danny a speedy recovery and hope he returns from injury in the same goal-scoring fashion as he did against Leicester in February.

Elsewhere, Welbeck’s fellow Arsenal front-man Olivier Giroud has been speaking to Arsenal Player about ending his goal-scoring drought after he headed home our first against City last weekend. He said:

The goal meant a lot because it has been a tough time for me on the pitch as I have missed a bit of efficiency, a bit of luck and a lot of things. Things haven’t gone my way to [allow me to] finish, but I kept the faith and knew that it would come back. It is always nice for a striker to score, even more with an assist for Alexis’ second goal which was important. We now have our own destiny in our hands to finish third or maybe second. These last few weeks I tried to set up goals. [Alexis’ goal] was my sixth assist but I’m happy to score too and help the team to reach our target and qualify for the Champions League. That is a great present. We are a team and a group that makes the difference. We try to help each other do the job. We fight for each other and we have a good understanding.

Meanwhile, his manager Arsene Wenger hailed Giroud’s performance at Etihad stadium, as well has praising his team’s ability to twice fight back from a goal down to secure a point. He said:

Olivier Giroud was questioned recently and I’m happy I kept confidence in him because I thought he had a top-level performance. He was fighting, he had control of the ball, he was finishing and he gave an assist. We showed a lot of character and the intensity of the game was very high. We dealt well with what was thrown at us and Manchester City looked like they were doing absolutely everything to win the game. They are difficult to beat and we have shown again that we can get results against top teams. The fact we came back twice each time we were down, we looked like we had the response to score. I think we could have won the game in the end. Overall, it is a positive result.

Given Welbeck’s injury, the onus will very much be on Giroud to continue his goalscoring against Aston Villa on the final day of the season, as we look to secure at least a third-placed finish.

Hopefully the striker can do just that and then we can head into the summer and reshape our squad in what promises to be a very busy transfer market.

Back tomorrow.

5th May 2016: City team news + Lauren loves south Americans

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back peeps. So City went out of the Champions League with a whimper in the end last night, as Real Madrid comfortably held onto their early lead to set up the second all-Madrid final in three years. Here’s hoping they’re just as lethargic and unadventurous when they host us on Sunday.

And as we build up to our penultimate game of the campaign, Arsene Wenger has revealed the latest team news in his usual Thursday update on the official site. He said:

From the squad that played against Norwich last Saturday, we have lost Per Mertesacker. Per is out for the remaining two matches with a hamstring injury. Everyone else from last week’s squad is fit and available for selection.

As expected then. I’m sure we’ll get more details on the selection front for the City game when Arsene speaks to the press tomorrow morning, but for now, some words from former Arsenal Invincible Lauren Bisan Etame Mayer, on where his favourite strikers tend to hail from and what he thinks Arsenal need to do to improve their chances of success. The Cameroonian said:

Sometimes a charismatic figure in the team can affect the rest of the players. I like South American strikers – Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain – players that always give full commitment. (Luis) Suarez, too. He scores goals, he comes back to defend, he’s got ambition and hunger – the player has to be charismatic so that the players in the dressing room look up to him like he’s an icon. We have to mix up technical quality with physical presence in some departments. I’ve watched many Arsenal games, I’ve been to the Emirates Stadium many times. We have to change the style of players in certain positions – centre-back, in the middle – we need more balance between physical and technical players. In the last few years we haven’t done that and it would be something that could improve the team. We need to buy a striker – I’m not saying that Giroud isn’t good enough – he’s done a good job, but sometimes you need a charismatic figure.

I for one wouldn’t argue with a word of that (not that I’d argue with Lauren about anything!). Our former right-back’s spot on with his assessment that we could do with a bit of charisma, class, brilliance – whatever you want to call it – at the tip of our attack and I share his like of south American strikers. The only trouble is, if you go through the top ones – Neymar, Edinson Cavani, Gonzalo Higuain, Paulo Dybala, Luis Suarez etc – they’re either unavailable or about to pass their prime.

Finally for tonight, Mohamed Elneny has been talking to the Arsenal Magazine about the family feeling at the club and how improving his English has helped him to settle in London. He said:

I feel like I have joined a big family rather than a football club. Everyone has been so welcoming, friendly and helpful ever since my arrival, and this has made my life a lot easier and has helped me adapt quickly to life at this club. The members of the family complete each other, from Arsène Wenger to the ground-staff. Even the club’s chairman is part of this family. I like to speak and joke with everyone and they all treat me the same. I consider them all as brothers and I am really happy about life here at Arsenal. Everybody around me speaks English and this helps me to improve my language skills. It’s completely different from Switzerland where they tend to speak German most of the time and only a few spoke English. I think people around me began to notice that I’m improving day after day. To be honest improving my English helped me a lot to settle in.

Two player of the month awards in succession offer an indication of how well Elneny’s been playing recently and given he’s still new to Arsenal and England, that’s not bad going from the Egyptian.

Remarkably, he already seems to have usurped Francis Coquelin as a first pick but with major reinforcement of the central midfield position expected over the summer, whether Elneny remains a starter longer-term is still far from certain. So far though, the former Basel man’s barely put a foot wrong and long may that continue.

Back Friday

2nd May 2016: Welbeck and Giroud on Norwich win

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. Yesterday’s post was short, today’s will be microscopic, like Jose Mourinho’s humility. So Leicester aren’t quite champions yet after only drawing at Manchester United yesterday but hopefully they will be later today because anything bar a Tottenham win at Chelsea tonight will hand the Foxes their first-ever Premier League title. I feel a bit very dirty saying this but just for today: I want Chelsea to win.

But back to Arsenal and the two men involved in creating and scoring our goal against Norwich on Saturday have been speaking about the game. First up it’s the goalscorer Danny Welbeck, who said:

When you are on the bench, you want to come on and make an impact. Thankfully I got the goal and it was a difficult game with Norwich trying to avoid relegation and they were fighting until the end. We had to win this game to get the three points. It was a good win for us. I think it is one of this things as a player where you have to focus on the match and not too much on the surroundings (protests). Obviously the fans are so important to football clubs, and it is something you have to respect. Everyone has an opinion but we just have to do our stuff on the pitch. It is down to the manager, but I want to play every single game as players do. Being out for such a long time and coming back, you have to get back into match fitness. As you can tell, I’m blowing and I only played 30 minutes. It was nice, and I want to keep on playing games and building up my fitness. I think I have been asked this 1,000 times. I prefer to play as a striker, but once I’m on the pitch I’m going to do my best and try to win the game for my team. Everyone is very disappointed (we didn’t win the league). We knew it was a great opportunity for us to go for the title this season. It is difficult to handle with the way it has ended. It has not ended yet, but the way it is ending, I think we know in ourselves and as a club we should be doing better. We want to finish above Spurs, but obviously they want to finish above us. It is going to be difficult and we want to win our remaining two games in the season.

Whilst Giroud told Arsenal Player:

It is always nice for a striker to score or assist a team-mate. I’m pleased to be back, not on the scoresheet but on the assist sheet. I’m used to playing for my team-mates and I try to help them when I can. If I cannot finish the work, I try to play for them. This one reminded me of another goal, it was like Theo’s against Leicester. I try to play with my first instinct and be efficient, but even if I didn’t score I’m pleased with that assist and I will try to keep working. I will work hard to get the confidence back and the goals as well. We are very pleased with the three points because it was not a fantastic game from the team. The thing is, we never give up and we trust in our game until the end. We could have scored more, and we played a team who are fighting to not go down. We knew it was going to be a tough game and we expected that. We are very pleased to win this game because it was not easy but we have to do much better.

Being a bank holiday in England today I’m going to leave it there, because with work to look forward to in a few short hours, I really should make the most of what’s left of my long weekend.

See you later.

3oth April 2016: Protests prepared as we welcome Norwich

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. We host Norwich later of course and although I usually wake on a match day with a feeling of excited anticipation, today I’m a little indifferent. The planned fan protests, together with the lowly opposition and the lack of title significance, has morphed the fixture into one I wouldn’t mind missing. I’m just not up for it like I usually am.

We’re nearing the end of the season and although we still need points to secure a Champions League place and could yet catch Tottenham in the league, the fact we can’t win it now has drained my interest. I must be a fair-weather fan.  Hopefully the players aren’t feeling the same way later though, because despite battling relegation, Norwich will be far from easy opponents, as Arsene suggested at his pre-match press conference yesterday. He said:

Norwich are a team who plays more so we have to stop them from combining well. For us, it is important for us to score early if possible to put them under pressure and play at a high pace. No, I don’t know (if Norwich are underdogs in the relegation fight). It is very difficult to predict at the bottom of the league what will happen because you have Newcastle, Sunderland, Norwich and it is very difficult to predict because as well it is a nerve problem.

In terms of team selection I’d bring back Francis Coquelin and Danny Welbeck and drop Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud if I was picking the team but wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the latter pair keep their starting places from last week’s draw at Sunderland. Santi Cazorla should be on the bench and Jack Wilshere’s a potential starter I suppose but elsewhere the team pretty much picks itself.

The protests planned for the 12th and 78th minutes in reference to our 12-year wait for the Premier League crown will be a side-show today of course, unless they’re so dramatic that they drown out the action.

As I suggested earlier this week, I think the protests are justified and will ideally be drivers for more ambitious transfer dealings this summer by the club but I just hope they don’t a) adversely affect the players’ performance and b) aren’t abusive towards anyone. Calling for change is fine and indeed welcome as far as I’m concerned, calling someone a c*nt is not. Unless it’s Jose Mourinho. Then it’s fine and you might want to throw in ‘massive’ as a prefix.

Right. That’s all I can muster for today.

Back tomorrow.

29th April 2016: Wenger on planned protest and Austerity Arsenal

Posted on by TremendArse

Happy Friday. With a fans’ protest planned for tomorrow’s game against Norwich at Emirates stadium, Arsene Wenger’s pre-match press conference this morning was always destined to be a little tastier than usual, as he gave his take on growing discontent among Arsenal supporters.

Having blown an unusually presentable chance to win the Premier League title this season, making it 12 full campaigns since we were last champions, calls for the boss to step aside and for the club’s ownership to show more ambition in the transfer market have grown markedly. So what does Arsene make of it all? Here’s what he said:

I think this club has special values and we care about the club and our fans as well. We try to keep everybody happy. We have to put things into perspective and see how the club has evolved over the years. I believe that it was not always easy and the quality of the work we have done has got [the club] into a strong position where the expectation is very high. The frustration is very high when we don’t get what we want.

Pretty polite stuff so far and also hard to argue with in many ways. Arsene and Arsenal are undoubtedly being more harshly judged right now largely due to them having set the bar so high in the first decade of his tenure.

Two doubles, four FA Cups, an unbeaten league campaign, the club’s first ever Champions League final, some of the greatest players this country has ever seen being developed – perhaps the only way was down from those lofty heights. Anyway, Arsene then went on to remind everyone that the construction of a spanking new stadium financially restricted the club for several years, saying:

I wish when I go that the club goes higher up and wins the Champions League and the championship every year. I will be the biggest supporter in the stand because I will feel that I have contributed to that a little bit with the basis that we have built. You have to remember that when we built the stadium, we had five to seven difficult financial years, where we had to pay back. Out of five years, we had to be in the Champions League for three years and have an average attendance of 54,000 people. We didn’t know if we would be able to do that but of course we had to sell our best players every year and survive. We survived at the top level and did not do three years out of five. We did five years out of five. I think the club is now out of that period and is in a much stronger position. Today we are in a position where we can compete again financially with our main opponents. But during that time, it was very difficult.

Despite being a big fan of Arsene Wenger (how can any sane Gooner not be) and still wanting him to be our manager at a time when even some of his most loyal supporters are beginning to waver and call for a change in the dugout, the line about going through a difficult financial period is getting a little old now.

I think the job Arsene did over that period borders on the miraculous and he deserves immense credit for it, but for the last few years we’ve had money and still fallen short in the league. We’ve splashed the cash on superstars like Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Petr Cech, yet remained as far from ending our title drought as during the years of Austerity Arsenal.

We’re still brittle, still lacking a really top goalscorer, still have too many players in the squad either not good enough or badly suited to our intended style of play and yet again, we’ve let a season fizzle out into a top four finish having led the league half-way through a campaign. Throw in the fact we failed to sign any outfield players last summer and it’s clear we could and should be doing a lot better. Kevin de Bruyne, for instance, would have been a brilliant signing in hindsight, even for the £55 million it took for Manchester City to get him.

The Belgian was available and in my opinion would have improved our attack immeasurably, yet with the likes of Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain amongst others already vying for places on the flanks, we weren’t even in the race for him. And that’s what I’m  getting at in a round-about, inarticulate way – we should be far more ruthless in replacing perfectly good players when even better ones come up.

Barcelona had Alexis Sanchez but didn’t bat an eyelid in letting him leave so they could sign Luis Suarez because they rated the latter higher and because they prioritize winning matches and trophies above any individual’s career path. Arsene on the other hand, said in an interview just the other day that in his opinion, “real respect” for his work should be reserved for the way he’s helped players fulfill their potential.

There’s a balance needed ideally, because without Arsene’s desire to give youth a chance we may never have had the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Cesc Fabregas and Hector Bellerin play for us, but perhaps we’re too patient and too hopeful with too many squad members too often.

I’ve gone on a bit of a meandering rant so I’ll call it a day I think. I’ll look at team selection for the Norwich game in tomorrow’s post.

Until then.

27th April 2016: Pep in potential pickle as Wenger talks frustration

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome to Wednesday on TremendArse. So both Champions League semi-finals rest on a knife-edge following the first-legs, after Manchester City played out a goal-less draw against a Ronaldo-less Real Madrid last night before Saul Niguez bagged a wonderful solo goal as Atletico Madrid beat Bayern Munich earlier this evening.

An all-Madrid final for the second time in three years may now be the most likely outcome, but I’d quite like to see City v Bayern, purely for the drama of Pep Guardiola’s last game in charge of the Bavarians having to be against his soon-to-be employers – and in what is the biggest game in club football. Awkwaaaaaard.

But back to us and Arsene Wenger has spoken at length to the May edition of Arsenal Magazine, explaining why he is ‘frustrated’ by his team’s failure to secure the league title in the last coupe of seasons. He said:

What’s quite frustrating for me is that I feel in the last two years, we have moved the game forward in a modern way of managing the team and the club. Maybe we have not been immediately rewarded in the championship, but we feel we are moving the club the right way. We always want to learn and to move forward, together. That’s one of the principles of the club. We want to be together but we want to move forward.

The irony that we’ve more-or-less stayed stationary in terms of Premier and Champions League finishes for over a decade can’t be lost on the manager, but to be fair to our increasingly-beleaguered boss, the club have clearly improved in other areas such as medical staff, youth recruitment and Academy structure etc etc.

Arsene also discussed his desire to keep the Arsenal fan-base satisfied and defended his team’s expansive style, saying he believes he is obligated as a manager to strive for an entertaining style-of-play. He said:

I always think that the respect for the fans comes when you have the desire as a coach to give them something on a Saturday afternoon that makes them happy. I believe that fans should always be able to wake up on a Saturday morning and their first thought should be, ‘Yes my team is playing to day, it could be great. Unfortunately we do not always manage to give them that, but at the least we should have the desire to do that. I also believe that the positive idea of a football club is to have a desire for style. If big clubs don’t have that, then I think something is missing. Throughout the history of the game, the big club sides and the big national teams always had that desire. Whether it is Brazil, or the big teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid. And I think Arsenal has a positive reputation on that front. The big English teams – Liverpool, Man United and so on – always had that as well. It is basically an obligation for you as a coach.

And finally, Arsene touched on why he thinks the ‘real respect’ for his work as a manager comes from helping players fulfill their potential, saying:

I want to help the players to achieve the best of what they can in their career. At the end of the day, we are not responsible for the talent we each have, but we are responsible for what we do with our talent. The respect I have for people is when you look back and say ‘This guy had nothing much more left within him than what he achieved.’ I would like that I am the guy today who helps the players to achieve all that they can achieve – to fulfill their potential. That’s where the real respect comes from – when you feel people have fulfilled their potential. When you think people have used 60 or 70 percent of their talent, even when they are very talented, there is something missing there that makes you think, ‘No my friend, you are wrong.’

*cough* Walcott.

*cough* Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Back tomorrow.

26th April 2016: Fans’ protest planned for Norwich

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. A quick round-up for you tonight and I’ll start with the back page of today’s Evening Standard which says: ‘Asenal fans to target Kroenke as supporters groups plot protest for Norwich game‘.

According to the report, fan-groups including The Black Scarf Movement, REDaction and the Arsenal Supporters Trust are encouraging supporters to hold up banners which read “Time for Change. Arsenal is stale — fresh approach needed” in the 12th and 78th minutes, in reference to our 12-year wait for the Premier League title.

If Twitter and the wider online Arsenal world is any kind of gauge of fan sentiment, a planned protest such as this has been a long time coming. What surprises me is that there haven’t been more. That said, I’m not sure how much of an immediate difference it will make in the thinking of those running the club but obviously the louder the fan-base’s discontent grows, at some stage, you’d hope it’ll be heard.

I also like the wording if I’m honest, because a ‘fresh approach’ is exactly what so many followers are crying out for and rightly so in my opinion. Although, given Arsene Wenger has categorically confirmed he’ll remain in charge next season and Stan Kroenke is unlikely to sell his controlling stake in Arsenal any time soon, that fresh approach has to take the form of new players and perhaps quite a few of them.

Call it blind loyalty or whatever you like, but I still want Arsene to remain Arsenal manager – providing he overhauls his squad in a major way this summer and brings in the best available players he possibly can. A protest like this weekend’s then, may just make that more likely. Let’s hope so.

After all, we’re a football club and our primary focus and aim should be on building the best team and squad we can to win football matches. What we need is obvious – more players of the quality of Alexis Sanchez for instance, and speaking of our Chilean forward, Per Mertesacker has been explaining why he thinks the south American is so special. He said:

When he was out, the statistics were not that bad for us – I think we played 10 games without him and won eight or something like that. We had quite a good record but over the whole season normally we need him healthy. If he is on the pitch, he always creates space for other players because he draws so much attention and that is key to any team. He is a key member of our side and, if he is fully fit, he makes the difference and that is always the case. He is that type of player who gives everything to the team. Those team members are well appreciated.

Another well-appreciated team member is Petr Cech of course, and the experienced goalkeeper has been telling Arsenal Player how he puts off his opponents. He said:

There are many ways you can intimidate people during a game. With your aggression is one way, but nobody likes to have no time. You press them all the time and put them under pressure. Any player that has time and feels comfortable to control the ball and play, obviously can play much better. If you don’t give them the time and put them under pressure, then it becomes much more difficult. I try to find ways not to give people the chance to feel comfortable in a situation when they face me, then it means they might not get a goal. You have to believe in yourself. You have to believe that what you are doing is the right way when you go to the game and you are ready.

Right. That’ll do for tonight.

Back tomorrow.

25th April 2016: Wenger on Sunderland + Wilshere on comeback

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. It turns out Arsenal aren’t the only bottlers in north London after all, because Tottenham hilariously failed to beat West Brom at home tonight, which means a win for Leicester at Manchester United on Sunday, or defeat for Sp*rs at Chelsea a day later, will see the Foxes crowned champions.

As far as we’re concerned, tonight’s 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane leaves the door to second place slightly ajar, when just yesterday it appeared locked, bolted and more inpenetrable than a back four of Dixon, Adams, Bould and Winterburn. It’s still unlikely we’ll finish runners-up of course, but now ever-so-slightly more feasible.

I suppose to make it happen we’ll have to be calm and collected in our final three games (as well as far more creative and clinical in the final third), something Arsene Wenger reckons we weren’t at Sunderland yesterday afternoon. Speaking to Arsenal Player, the boss said:

I think we played very well in the first half. Unfortunately we couldn’t take our chances and in the second half we dropped a little bit physically, because we played three games in seven days and our cohesion was less good. We didn’t make enough with the possession we had and the chances we created, so we have to be supportive of the team at the moment and keep going. I think we had very good opportunities. We didn’t look calm enough when we had the chances. Sometimes we gave the ball a bit late but overall I think the first half was very interesting.

That’s one way to sum it up I suppose. Another though, would be to say we were less sh*t in the first half than we were in the second, were barely threatening as an attacking force for most of the game, fielded a midfielder who can’t pass in Aaron Ramsey, a striker who can’t score in Olivier Giroud, and in the end, had Petr Cech to thank for avoiding defeat against a team who began the game in the relegation zone.

Moving swiftly on and onto rare positive from yesterday’s game – Jack Wilshere’s first competitive appearance this season. The midfielder spoke to Arsenal Player after making a late cameo as a substitute in place of an off-colour Mesut Ozil and expressed his joy at making his long-awaited return to first-team football. He said:

It’s the best feeling. All those late nights and long days in the gym, this is when it really pays off. You can do all the training, you can play for the under-21s to build your fitness up, but what really matters is playing for the first team and getting back on the pitch, so I’m really happy. I felt good. In my first under-21s game, I didn’t really feel that great. In the second I felt better and in the third I felt as though I was able to get through 90 minutes and have an impact on the game. I spoke with the boss in the week, he felt the same and I travelled to Sunderland. It’s a big week for me in training, getting fitter and sharper. Hopefully next weekend I can get some more game time and go from there. I’m not saying that I’m there yet, this is just another step on my way to full recovery. There’s a few games left and after that, hopefully I’ll go away with England to the Euros. It’s an exciting time.

Needless to say if anyone (bar poor Abou obviously) deserves a bit of luck with staying injury-free from now on it’s Jack. And given Arsene seems to have grown bored with a double-defensive bolt, benching Francis Coquelin as he has in our last two games, perhaps Wilshere might be afforded a start in central midfield alongside Mohamed Elneny before the season’s out. I hope so.

Back tomorrow.

24th April 2016: Arsenal stutter at Sunderland as title chances officially ended

Posted on by TremendArse

So it’s official. After we could only muster a goal-less draw at Sunderland this afternoon and a Jamie Vardy-less Leicester City beat Swansea 4-0 in today’s other Premier League game, we’re now mathematically out of the title race.

Given we’re four points adrift of second-placed Tottenham and they have played a game less, that’s the runner’s up spot all but gone now too. Manchester City remain third on goal difference and we’ve given Manchester United the opportunity to close the gap on us to just two points if they can win their game in hand. A disappointing season is now teetering on the brink of becoming a disastrous one and the sad thing is I’m not sure I’m that fussed.

I mean, unless we sign proven quality, and lots of it, in a dramatic overhauling of the squad this summer, I can’t see us making much of an impact in the Champions League next term anyway and the Europa League would surely offer a are realistic chance of silverware. It’s sad that I’m thinking this way I know, but my stance is the result of the complete and utter mess we’ve made of this season since the turn of the new year. Today’s game was the latest in a long line of matches that have left me resigned to a simple conclusion – we’re just not a very good team.

My main concern at the start of the season was our lack of cover for Francis Coquelin but as it’s turned out, the player who’s absence has cost us most this season in my opinion, is Santi Cazorla and today was no different. We missed the Spaniard’s passing, particularly as Mesut Ozil was off form by his standards today, guile and above all, creativity.

As I feared pre-match, Arsene Wenger decided to stick with his starting line-up from Thursday night and although I felt we had a decent opening period with Alex Iwobi firing a low shot just wide, overall, we looked as threatening as baby brandishing a balloon. Olivier Giroud was woeful upfront, but not helped by a lack of service, and Ramsey in central midfield is something I never, ever want to see again. Even if he was the only fit midfielder we had at the club I’d rather we played someone, anyone, else.

There’s been a lot of speculation surrounding the futures of Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – and you can understand why given their struggles in finding form this season – but none about Ramsey role moving forward. To my mind, he plays on the right or not at all and if Jack Wilshere can remain fit and/or we sign a Granit Xhaka or a N’Golo Kante this summer, I’m struggling to see why the Welshman deserves to get anywhere near the team next term. Which begs the question, should we keep him?

Personally, I’d rather we kept the Ox and gave him more time to prove himself as a central midfielder and instead moved Aaron on so he could play in his preferred central midfield position somewhere else. That may sound harsh but if we’re contemplating keeping Ramsey and selling the Ox, I think we’re crazy because the latter’s simply a better footballer, in any position.

That’s all for tonight folks.

See you next week.