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22nd March 2016: Ozil rubbishes ultimatum reports and discusses footballing upbringing

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. I’ll start this evening with Mesut Ozil, who today rubbished mischievous recent reports that had suggested the German schemer would push for a move away from Arsenal if Arsene Wenger remained as manager.

He tweeted:

Much like Duncan Castles’ piece for ONE World Sports telling us ‘third parties’ have sounded out Jose Mourinho about shocking football to it’s core and succeeding Arsene as Arsenal boss, the Ozil story about him giving the club a ‘me or my manager’ ultimatum is no more than made-up sh*t-stirring.

Moving swiftly on then, but sticking with our assist-king Ozil, the German has been reminiscing about how he honed his footballing abilities in an interview with Arsenal Magazine. He said:

When I was younger, if I saw something lying around, I would try to juggle with it. I would always go on vacation with my friends and we would always play games like two touch using a tennis ball, or play with a basketball, which is heavier than a normal ball. [I didn’t just play] with chewing gum or tennis balls, sometimes with basketballs or medicine balls too – even ones that are 5kg, though that is very difficult. Sometimes on the pitch if the game has finished and I see some tape on the floor, I’ll take it and play with that too. What helped me before was playing against older people. I would play against my brother and his friends and they were always five or six years older than me. When I was 11, they were already 17 or 18. It was tough to play against them and the pitch I grew up playing on wasn’t that nice, it always had stones on it. You had to be really concentrated when you got the ball. I think that kind of stuff helped me more. Juggling with tennis balls is good but I think what helped my technique was the pitch I grew up on in Gelsenkirchen.

I have to say reading that made be smile, but also left me very confused. Smile because I did most of the above; play football with and against my brother, his friends, our cousins, their friends, all of whom were considerably older than me. I too kicked tennis balls and basketballs and even tightly rolled up socks (to avoid breaking stuff in the house). Yet what confuses me is that I’m not a World Cup winner who’s played for the best club in the world and Real Madrid. Weird.

On a serious note, I’ve long held the view that talent acquisition for a footballer comes at a young age and can’t be coached. It’s self-taught and Ozil’s a great example of a player who developed his abilities in a chaotic playing environment as opposed to pristine playing surfaces in a state-of-the-art academy where physical attributes are way more valued than footballing intelligence, speed of thought and ball control. Anyway, that’s a topic and discussion for another time because I’m beat and need to make the most of what little of my evening I have left.

Laters.

20th March 2016: Wenger on Iwobi and Welbeck

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. A very, very quick Sunday round-up for you and I’ll begin with some words from Arsene Wenger on the man of the match in our win over Everton yesterday – Alex Iwobi.

The teenager marked his Premier League debut with an expertly-taken goal to put us two-nil up shortly before the interval and was hard-working and creative before being substituted in the second half. The boss told Arsenal Player:

He benefits from his talents, intelligence and attitude. He has been practising with the players since the start of the season and he has been growing in contact with these players and he is learning quickly from them.

Meanwhile, the player himself discussed his first goal as a professional, his understanding with Danny Welbeck and the mood in the Arsenal dressing room, saying:

It is not bad, I’m enjoying the moment. I’m just happy to help my team and that is a positive so we will take that into the next game. It is a dream playing with him (Welbeck). He gives me confidence, he is helping me out and gives me advice. It works, we are all confident in training. Even though we have had a difficult week, we are trying to put that aside and concentrate on the league.

And speaking of Welbeck, Arsene hailed the striker’s versatility, revealed that he gambled on his fitness by starting him at Goodison Park and explained why he thinks his team deserve praise. He said:

He can play on the flanks and through the middle, so I can play him with Giroud or [instead of] Giroud – that gives so many options. You cannot say you don’t miss a player of that stature for nine months. I believe [he can make a difference]. I had many hesitations to play him before the game because he is still not completely over his knee problem. We have to be cautious but I pushed it because I knew this was now or never [for the title bid]. I know this team has put in a lot of work since the start of the season, I know how much dedication this team has had over the last eight months and I want them to be rewarded. We have gone through a difficult period and it is a good test to see how a team survives after getting so much stick. When I see their response every day, this team deserves credit.

I’m afraid that’s where I’ll have to leave it for today because it’s late and I have sh*t to do. Besides, with the international break upon us, there’s plenty of time to talk Arsenal over the next fortnight or so before we next play.

See you next week.

 

12th March 2016: Watford stand in our way to Wembley

Posted on by TremendArse

Saturday salutations. Two goals from Romelu Lukaku helped Everton to knock his former club Chelsea out of the FA Cup earlier today and in my opinion, also provide a boost to Arsenal’s chances of winning the competition for the third year running.

The Toffees are obviously a good side on their day and boast players, in Lukaku, Ross Barkley and John Stones in particular, who are coveted by some of the biggest clubs around, but given our wretched record against Chelsea over the last decade or so, I’d rather face Roberto Martinez’s men given the choice.

So providing we beat Watford in our own last-eight tie tomorrow, the only teams that could deny us a rare Cup hat-trick are Everton, Crystal Palace and one of Manchester United or West Ham, who contest the last quarter-final at Old Trafford tomorrow. Frankly, we should be strong favourites now, even if United turned us over just a few weeks ago.

Of course, so late in the competition all the remaining teams will fancy their chances and that’s something Arsene Wenger touched on at his press conference yesterday, as well as rejecting the idea that clubs no longer hold the FA Cup in much esteem. He said:

We have always taken the FA Cup seriously and if you look at the record we have over the years, we try to do well. Everyone does. This story of the FA Cup not being taken seriously is not right – everyone wants to do well. In the [Premier League] we have not done as well because maybe some teams have done better than us in recent years. Is it fair or not [to say we are favourites for the FA Cup]? I don’t know. I look at the teams who are still in the competition and you could say the same to three or four as well. We have a chance like everyone else and we want to play as hard as we can to give ourselves a good chance to be successful. I haven’t given up on the Premier League at all and I’ve said that many times, nor the Champions League. We have to take care of the next minute and the next minute is an FA Cup game. Is it the best chance to win a trophy? It’s still far away. We must win the next game and prove that we can show consistency again. I don’t believe anyone in my side thinks about Barcelona at the moment, or Everton, they are completely focused on Watford.

So with mission ‘we need the mother of all miracles’ at Barcelona on Wednesday and a tricky trip to face the Toffees in the league next Saturday lunchtime definitely not on our minds or influencing selection for Watford at all, how are we likely to line-up tomorrow?

All three first-choice centre-halves appear to be available judging by today’s training pics but my guess would be that we’ll go again with Gabriel and Per Mertesacer from the start and keep Laurent Koscielny fresh for Lionel Messi and his show-boating amigos in midweek.

Similarly, I think Calum Chambers and Kieran Gibbs will play full-back with Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal rested for Camp Nou. That said, the Catalans have a huge pitch and Gibbs may be better equipped to cover what will no doubt be counter-attacking ground than Monreal, so we’ll see.

Further forward I think it gets a little more difficult. So far this season in the FA Cup, we’ve rested Mesut Ozil and gone with Alex Iwobi, but with all due respect to Hull, Burnley and even Sunderland, I think Watford will be our hardest test, and given our very slim hopes against Barca, perhaps we’ll see the German involved from the start this time.

Personally, I think I’d retain Iwobi, rest Ozil and go with the same team that started against Hull on Tuesday:

Ospina; Chambers, Mertesacker, Gabriel, Gibbs; Flamini, Elneny; Campbell, Iwobi, Walcott; Giroud. 

That would mean Bellerin, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Ozil, Sanchez and Welbeck – seven first-choice starters – would all be fresh for two very demanding away days to come, whilst still leaving us with what I think would be a good enough team to beat Watford at home.

More likely though in my opinion, is that we’ll see a side stronger than we played so far in the FA Cup this season, but still some way from full, available strength, which might mean a start for Ozil or Sanchez for instance. It’s certainly a tricky balancing act for the boss and we’ll only know how well he’s performed it this time next week.

Back post-match tomorrow.

COYG!

20th February 2016: No Hull breach but at least we’re rested for Barcelona

Posted on by TremendArse

Well, that was all a little familiar. Arsenal probed, probed and probed some more in the search for a winner against Steve Bruce’s defensively dogged Hull City side in the FA Cup at Emirates stadium today, but couldn’t find a goal and will now travel to the home of the Tigers for a fifth round replay.

Arsene Wenger’s team selection wasn’t far off what I guessed it would be in yesterday’s post, as he made nine changes from the Leicester game, retaining only Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker. A bit surprisingly, he chose to deploy Danny Welbeck on the left in Alexis Sanchez’s usual position and went with Theo Walcot to lead the line with Joel Campbell coming back into the side to play from the right.

The midfield three was as I envisaged; Mohamed Elneny was handed a second start in Arsenal colours and was joined by Mathieu Flamini and this season’s permanent fixture in our FA Cup starting line-ups, Alex Iwobi.

It was a game we dominated possession-wise, and did get shots off on and just wide of goal, but found ourselves facing yet another ‘keeper in inspired form and an opposition side intent on defending first-and-foremost and attacking as an afterthought. It’s nothing new as a tactic, we can’t complain at all, and with Barcelona up next on Tuesday, we’re very likely to be adopting a similar game-plan ourselves in a few days’ time.

Another fixture in an already crowded list is far from ideal but it could be worse, we could be out. As it is we remain in with a shout of winning our third Cup in as many years and considering we can play, barring injuries of course, the same side in the replay and rest the vast majority of our usual first-choice players, the extra game shouldn’t be a cause for concern.

What is a little alarming however, is our lack of goals and after the stalemate earlier, Arsene discussed the game and why we didn’t win, as well as stating Arsenal need to be ‘more efficient’ in our attacking. He said:

Because Hull defended well, because their ‘keeper played well, because our final ball was maybe not good enough and because when we could give the ball in the final third, we decided [to go for] an individual solution. The goalkeeper did well of course, but we had maybe 70 per cent possession and more than 20 shots on goal, and we didn’t score. We have to look at ourselves as well, even if you can give credit to their ‘keeper. The nightmare would have been to go out. The frustration is that we didn’t score and it’s not what we wanted, to have a replay, but between that and going out, we choose the replay. I am happy for the replay [as opposed to going out]. We need to be more efficient in the final third, because today we had more than 70 per cent possession and we will not have that on Tuesday night. That means we’ll have to be more efficient with much less of the ball.

All very true and as is often the case as far as Arsenal are concerned, it’s the finest of lines between frustration at a draw and a comprehensive victory. Walcott’s fierce strike in the first half, and Welbeck’s for that matter from a similar position on the right, might easily have found the gap between the keeper’s legs on another day. Iwobi’s left footed curler wasn’t far from caressing the far corner and there were countless other attempts at goal that were a split-second or a fraction wide away from providing us with a breakthrough.

You also have to credit Hull for great defending, throwing themselves at shots with reckless abandon as they did, much like I wish Per and Laurent had done at times earlier this season if I’m honest (Bayern Munich and Liverpool away for example). And of course, Mike Dickhead Dean officiating always meant we would be up against it, so when we were duly denied two big penalty shouts today, it was as surprising as seeing the sun rise.

After a disappointing day, we can at least console ourselves with the fact we’re still in the Cup, and we should have a fresh line-up ready to battle the footballing freaks that are Barcelona in midweek.

See you on Sunday.

18th February 2016: Early Hull team news + Oxlade-Chamberlain’s contract

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. As we prepare to host Hull City in the FA Cup on Saturday afternoon, Arsene Wenger today provided a fitness update via the official site, with the standout news being Laurent Koscielny is on course to play.

Removed at half-time in our last game against Leicester, Sky reported the defender had sustained a dead leg so to hear the boss say he’s almost ready to return is obviously a big boost as we enter a difficult run of fixtures which includes games against Barcelona and Manchester United.

Arsene also discussed the fitness of Gabriel and Mohamed Elneny, as well as what sort of side he’ll select for the visit of Steve Bruce’s men. He said:

Koscielny is doing well. He has a test this morning and he looks positive. He (Gabriel) is running outside. He is out for Saturday. I will, as always, play a team who has a good chance to qualify. The normal squad is involved on Saturday. It is a normal squad and we’ll play a usual strong team. Elneny is fit. He is one of the players who could get a run [out] there. He’s mobile, he’s a very good player. He’s adapting at the moment and I think he’s there now. We’ll certainly see him against Hull. He has a chance to start.

I’ll discuss what I think our team for the game might look like in tomorrow’s post but two players who won’t be playing against us on Saturday are Chuba Akpom and Isaac Hayden who are of course on loan at Hull from Arsenal.

Arseblog news reported today that The Tigers’ press office say ‘both players are definitely out’ of the game which tallies with reports at the start of the month that FA rules prevent on-loan players taking the field against parent clubs regardless of any agreement on the matter between the two clubs involved. It’s the right call in my opinion but having seen Sanchez Watt play against us when on-loan at Leeds during the 2010-12 campaign, there’s obviously been a rule-change.

Moving away from the Hull game now and a story that caught my eye today was one about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s alleged demands for a vastly improved new contract. I’ve seen some people losing their sh*t over the Ox wanting to double his money because ‘he hasn’t achieved anything yet’ and ‘has it all to prove still’ etc, but I’m not sure what the fuss is about if I’m honest.

He’s one of England’s best young players, an international, and despite his struggles this season, a player of huge potential. People may say potential doesn’t deserve reward but the reality is if we don’t pay him the going rate for someone of his ability regardless of age and whether he’s currently got the tangible goals and assists to back it up, someone else happily will.

If you don’t rate him then that’s a different matter, but personally I think he could develop into England’s very best attacker with a little luck and so would give him closer to the money comparable contemporaries earn. Raheem Sterling, who I don’t rate as highly as the Ox, was transferred for £50m and earns a reported salary of £180k a week for instance.

Then there’s marketability value to factor in, with the Ox being a young English starlet and all that stuff so without wanting to pretend like I know exactly how these things work, I don’t think the player deserves some of the stick he’s been getting about this. Every player on the planet tries his best to maximize his earnings and basically it’s his prerogative.

Hopefully club and player can come to an agreement over terms sooner rather than later because this summer the player will have two years remaining on his current deal which is when things can start to get more complicated. Plus the thought of us ever selling another first-teamer in, or approaching, his prime is pretty galling. Sign him up Arsenal …

Arsene should hold his pre-Hull press conference in the morning so I’ll be back tomorrow with thoughts on that, and also play Arsenal Manager again by guessing our starting eleven for the game.

See you on Friday.

4th February 2016: Thoughts on Ramsey and Wilshere

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. It was only a few years ago that Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey were being touted as Arsenal’s central midfield double-act of the future – British bedrocks on which we could build a new team following the departures of the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Alex Song in consecutive summers.

It hasn’t quite worked out that way, what with Jack being injured more often than not during that time, and Aaron, despite enjoying one superb season stationed centrally in 2013-2014, now looking more and more like a player better suited to playing further up the pitch.

In fact, despite England’s management preferring to deploy Wilshere as a deep playmaker, Arsene Wenger is on record as saying he views the midfielder’s best position as also being closer to the opposition goal, in what would be one of the three attacking roles behind the striker in our current system.

As much as I rate the pair of them, barring injuries, neither will dislodge Alexis Sanchez from the left or relieve Mesut Ozil from his no 10 duties any time soon, so in effect, Ramsey and Wilshere find themselves in competition with one another – and several others too – to be first-choice on the right.

Yet the former has been pretty open about preferring to play more centrally and highlighted what he thinks it takes to play that position in the modern game when he spoke to Arsenal Player:

It’s obviously a balance but if you do sense an opportunity to break away from your man to get into the box or to be free in the box, you have to take it because you can score a goal from it. But you have to get back in as quickly as possible and when you are, try to get a bit of a breather then. And then it all starts again. I prefer to get forward, to get on the end of things, to create things. But it’s important to defend and help the team out defensively as well. But it’s also nice when you win the ball in quite a deep position and then you can start an attack which leads to a goal. That’s quite rewarding as well. An all-round midfielder needs to have that, where you can defend, you can tackle, you can create goals, you can score goals. That’s the complete midfielder that I want to be. Your time on the ball is definitely a lot shorter now so you have to try and make your decisions and try and have options a lot quicker than before. It’s just the way the game is going. It’s becoming a lot quicker, a lot more physical, so you have to be able to make decisions a lot quicker and move the ball quicker as well. I feel really confident and comfortable in the middle. I back myself to put in performances every week. The game is always developing and the demands are always a bit more every season. Hopefully I can continue developing as a player. I think there’s definitely more to come.

Although he says you have to ‘move the ball quicker’, it’s making the right pass at the right time with accuracy, as well as speed, that is surely a key requirement for a central midfielder, because in a style such as ours, being an efficient and reliable distributor is arguably the most important skill-set to have. I mean, there’s no point being quick to release the ball if your’re clubbing it out for an opposition throw, or misplacing the simplest of five-yard passes.

Santi Cazorla is undoubtedly a cut or ten above, but although he’s a ferocious ball-winner, intelligent interceptor and great reader of opposition attacks first and foremost, Francis Coquelin is also better passer than Ramsey in my opinion. All of which is to say if Aaron wants to play in what he thinks is his best role in the middle, he needs to work on his passing big-time, as far as I’m concerned.

What would help is if he could improve his ball-control too, had better spatial awareness and had a picture of what he wanted to do with the ball before he received it, but I’m not sure those things can be developed on the training pitch. You either have them or not and unfortunately for the Welshman and us as fans, he doesn’t.

Meanwhile, Wilshere, who I think is better equipped to play centrally than Ramsey, due to being a much better passer and having far better close control and awareness, says he sees light at the end of the tunnel in his recovery from another long-term injury:

[My recovery is] going well. I’m back on the pitch and I’m just trying to build my fitness up because everyone knows how tough it is to play in the Premier League. I’m working on it and I’m slowly getting there. Sometimes it’s been difficult to stay positive, especially after the injuries that I’ve had which have been frustrating, but as the injury goes, you get closer to full fitness and you see the light at the end of the tunnel, then you start to think about coming back and getting involved in the team.

With Santi side-lined, what I’d give to have a fit and firing Wilshere right now. I think of all the alternatives to the Spaniard in our current squad, Wilshere is the one player who would compliment Coquelin in the middle and successfully take on the mantle of dictating our play from deep.

I can see why Arsene likes Wilshere further forward, and I think he could be equally good there seeing as he’s a genuinely good footballer. But perhaps, Wilshere and Coquelin, rather than Wilshere and Ramsey, or Ramsey and Coquelin, will prove our long-term partnership in front of the defence given the chance, seeing as Cazorla turns 32 in December.

In our current situation, the Wilsh-Coq combo would go a long way in rectifying our recent Santi-less stuttering in my opinion, making it all the more galling the England man’s still some way from a return.

See you tomorrow.

 

2nd February 2016: Premier League Preview – Southampton at home

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. So we resume our chase for the Premier League title when we welcome Southampton to Emirates stadium in a couple of hours’ time and after a poor January points-wise, a win tonight has become all the more important.

We secured just five points from four league games last month; losing to Chelsea, drawing at Liverpool and Stoke, and managing only to take all three points from our home game against Newcastle.

And after playing the Saints, we travel to Bournemouth before hosting league-leaders Leicester City in our other two Premier League games in February – far from an easing-looking fixture-list, but one Arsene Wenger says he feels confident in tackling:

The [coming weeks] can be pivotal but not decisive. They will give a clear indication of the strength of the teams and who can cope with the importance of the games. At the end of the day somebody will win and the team who will win has to go through the important games with strong performances. It’s a big month for us. I am quite confident, having everybody available, that we can do very well. What is important now is for us to be capable of focusing and coping with that kind of expectation level. I don’t feel that we have really struggled recently because we had two difficult away games with Stoke and Liverpool and we didn’t lose. We had a bad result against Chelsea and of course, if you put the three results together, it looks like we’ve struggled but overall the Chelsea result is under special circumstances. If you take the history of our season, we started with a defeat against West Ham and the way we responded and where we are today shows that this team has the capability of responding under pressure. I’m sure that we will show that in February.

Hopefully starting tonight. We owe Southampton a beating after they won 4-0 the last time the two sides met on Boxing Day, but if I remember correctly, this fixture last season was a very close contest and it took us 88 minutes or so to score the only goal of the game through Alexis Sanchez.

To be honest, I’d be happy to win by a similarly slender score-line tonight and Arsene says his team are eager to put right that big loss at St Mary’s in December by producing a ‘strong performance’:

They gave us a tough game last time and we have to put that right. It is a very important time in the season as we go into big, big games and have 13 matches to go. They were dominant in the challenges and the duels. We just came out of a very tough game at Man City, and maybe didn’t have the urgency to cope with that. We were a bit unlucky with three goals on the decisions of the referee as well. The message [this time] is that we play at home and we want to put things right and put a strong performance in because the strength we show at home now in the remaining games can be decisive. The defeat against Chelsea was very unlucky, because our performance was right – it was not a Southampton performance. Our performance, our energy level, our commitment and the quality of what we did was very good. It is an encouragement. Sometimes you have to raise a little bit above the result and keep the positives. In that game there were a lot of positives.

Which is right. In the loss to Southampton we simply weren’t at the races and were soundly beaten by the better team on the day, whereas against Chelsea, the early dismissal of Per Mertesacker and our subsequent display with a man less shouldn’t have affected us confidence-wise.

In terms of the team tonight, I’m guessing Mertesacker will return in place of Gabriel having served his one-match ban for that red card against Chelsea, but at the same time wouldn’t be surprised to see Laurent Koscielny given a breather with the Brazilian starting alongside Per instead.

Further forward, Aaron Ramsey should partner Francis Coquelin in midfield, Mesut Ozil will surely start ahead of them, as will Sanchez on the left, but the right flank and up front remain a little more uncertain now that we have increased personnel options.

Personally I’d go with Joel Campbell on the right and Olivier Giroud up top but the boss could conceivably select Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott in those positions respectively. We’ll see.

Right, not long until kick-off now and the line-ups should be announced soon so I’ll leave it there.

Back on Wednesday.

COYG!

14th January 2016: Arsenal remain top despite late Liverpool leveller

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. So Arsenal remain top of the Premier League tree after drawing 3-3 in a roller coaster encounter with Liverpool at Anfield last night, but now only lead the standings on goal difference after Robert Huth’s late header gave Leicester a 1-0 win at Tottenham.

Although the concession of an injury-time goal saw us drop two points in this fixture for the second season running, when you consider the hosts enjoyed 60% of the possession, forced 9 corners to our 3, and produced 22 shots at goal (albeit with just 6 on target) compared with our 14 (5), a draw was just reward for the performance of both sides in my opinion.

Weather conditions at Anfield were highly conducive to defensive errors and combined with hosts who began the game expending energy like the match would only last for 45 minutes, plus a slow start by Arsenal, it was no surprise to see Liverpool take the  lead after just 10 minutes.

It was a goal Arsenal were just as responsible for conceding as Liverpool were for scoring. First Theo Walcott was dispossessed as he tried to dribble out of our area following a Liverpool corner, Emre Can fired in a shot which Petr Cech should have parried wide and away from danger, but instead could only divert to Roberto Firmino. The Brazilian adroitly took two touches with his left foot in giving the hosts the lead.

That said, having seen the goal again just now, Can actually fouled Walcott, forcing him to stumble, so even if Walcott should have cleared the ball at the earliest opportunity, he should also have earned a free-kick. But there was no denying Liverpool were on top and we were struggling to establish ourselves in the contest, so it was a very welcome surprise to see us equalize just four minutes later.

Olivier Giroud won a header just outside the Liverpool box, Kolo Toure’s attempt at a headed clearance only found Aaron Ramsey, whose looped pass towards Joel Campbell was classily-controlled by the Costa Rican before he played a well-weighted reverse pass back to Ramsey, who rifled home first-time at the near post.

But parity didn’t last long because just five minutes later, Arsenal again heavily assisted a goal for the hosts. Mathieu Flamini shoddily passed straight to a Liverpool player in midfield, they attacked, the ball ricocheted off Campbell to Per Mertesacker, whose clearance pin-balled off Campbell for the second time in the move before it fell to Firmino at the edge of the box, and he curled an admittedly superb strike into the top corner.

Flamini’s role at the start of the move was infuriating enough but our reluctance to close shots down this season is something I’ve spoken about on this blog already this season, after Bayern Munich away I think, and cost us dearly again here. Laurent Koscielny’s half-arsed attempts at closing down both Firmino strikes were prime examples of that defensive deficiency. And it was clear the manager had brought up this very subject during the interval because after the break, not just one, but two or three Arsenal players, seemed to be breaking their proverbial necks in trying to stop shots at source.

Thankfully, Liverpool’s defending remained as abject as ours and we produced a second equalizer after 25 minutes. Ramsey nearly scored after build-up play involving Mesut Ozil and Giroud but his lobbed effort from close range was headed off the line and away for a corner. The Welshman took it himself, whipping a lowish ball to the near post where Giroud managed to apply the merest of flicks through a crowd of players to divert the ball home off their keeper.

Giroud missed an open-goal shortly afterwards, following great play by Campbell and Walcott, in one of those footballing moments so surreal you’re left rubbing your eyes and mouthing ‘how the f*cking f*ck, did he miss that?’. On second glance though, it’s quite simple – he got there ahead of the ball. So it remained 2-2 until the break but Giroud made amends for his glaring miss by producing a turn and finish of the highest standard to give us the lead for the first time in the match, ten minutes into the second half.

Hector Bellerin nipped in marginally ahead of James Milner on the right to turn a poor Flamini pass into an adequate one, before bursting forward in trademark fashion. He then played it short to Campbell, who found Giroud via a deflection. The Frenchman showed he has plenty of dexterity to compliment his physicality, as well as decent spatial awareness, by turning away from his marker and the goal with his first touch, before wrapping his left-foot round the ball to place it emphatically into the far corner. A great piece of opportunistic forward play by a striker in great form. Giroud has now scored 11 goals in 11 away games in all competitions this season, as well as four in his last four league games against Liverpool.

Arsene Wenger made his usual subs in trying to see out the win, with Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Mikel Arteta replacing Walcott, Campbell and Ozil, but the changes simply invited sustained pressure on our defence and eventually Liverpool found a leveller when Christian Benteke headed a lofted ball down for Joe Alen to sweep home first-time. Arriving so late, the goal was obviously hugely deflating but in the cold light of day, when you consider how stretched our squad is because of injury, it’s far from a bad result.

I’ve said this plenty of times previously but when a round of fixtures come to a close this season, my main concern is always our position relative to Manchester City, who I think remain favourites to win the league. So the fact they also drew last night, at home to Everton, means we’re still three points ahead of them with one game less to play, so that should temper any disappointment at two dropped points at Anfield.

In terms of individual performances last night, two-goal Giroud was rightly named man-of-the-match I thought, but Nacho Monreal was outstanding at left-back, as was Campbell on the right of the attack. In contrast, Flamini’s had better games shall we say, the Ox was typically clumsy, Gibbs typically uncultured and Walcott typically timid.

Overall, a bad showing by our English contingent but what I would say is for me, their talent is undoubted – it’s their mentality and confidence that needs work. Yet, how you get Theo, for instance, to develop his attitude from ‘after you, old chap’, to ‘get out of my f*cking way’ when he’s on the pitch, is anybody’s guess at this stage – he turns 27 in a couple of months. At Aston Villa recently, he was aggressive in winning a penalty but last night he reverted to looking like a kid playing with adults at times. But I’ll reiterate, it’s a confidence and conviction thing in my opinion – and that can be remedied.

Right, this post has tuned out longer than intended so I’ll leave discussing the confirmation of Mohamed Elneny’s move to Arsenal until tomorrow. In the meantime, this is a good read on our new number 35. Needless to say though, another central midfield option in the continued absence of Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin is very welcome indeed.

Back on Friday.

4th January 2016: Giroud has confidence in team-mates

Posted on by TremendArse

With the January transfer window open for business and Arsenal inevitably being linked with new names everyday, Olivier Giroud has suggested our squad is strong enough to win the title as it stands.

Speaking after the win over Newcastle on Saturday, and reportedly in response to Alan Shearer’s opinion that we need a new central defender, defensive midfielder and striker, Giroud said:

Tell me where (Arsenal need strengthening)! Just tell me where! I will explain the opposite judgement. We have very good players as well on the bench, young players waiting to come in. They are very talented. I am not worried about it. Danny Welbeck will come back in a month and a half. Theo Walcott can play up front, Joel Campbell is doing well with his national team up front. If I am less good or get injured, we still have a solution.

Whilst it’s great to hear the big striker being so complimentary about his team-mates, I think if the opportunity to buy a Luis Suarez, a Robert Lewandowski or a Gonzalo Higuain presented itself, we’d be all over it.

Perhaps it was the Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang-to-Arsenal rumours doing the rounds on Saturday that played a part in Giroud being so adamant that we’re sufficiently-stocked up front, seeing as he’d likely lose his place in the starting line-up to such a big-money arrival, but I’m not sure I agree with Oli to be honest.

It was nice of him to provide a time-frame for Danny Welbeck’s return, but as he says, that’s six weeks away and given how long he’ll have been out, it’s unlikely we’ll see the best of him until next season. Theo Walcott has shown he can play upfront this season but Joel Campbell is unproven in that position for us, even if he does play there for his country.

All of which means if Giroud or Walcott pick up an injury, we’re a little bit f*cked up front. So if we can snare an Aubamayang mid-season, we should definitely be looking to do it in my opinion. Giroud also admitted Arsenal would be signing a new player – “an Egyptian one” – referring of course to Mohamed Elneny’s imminent arrival from Basel.

And our number 12 then spoke about the experience in this Arsenal squad, including his own of winning a league title in France, and suggested we have the right blend age-wise. He said:

To be a champion, I know [what it takes] because I was a champion with Montpellier. You need a bit of luck and sometimes you cannot play a fantastic game [but you need to win] and even more so because Manchester City are doing well. If I can advise the young players I will do it. We have a couple of experienced players like Mathieu Flamini, Petr Cech and people like that. We have a good mixture of experienced players and young players and the older ones bring confidence to the youngest and lead them. That is what I try to do sometimes – always encourage and in a nice way show them the best solution. It is very important in a group to say things to carry on with what we have. We are really pleased with the [Newcastle] win and it shows we have that mental strength and character.

Nothing to disagree with in that at all and again, it’s great to hear that the older pros in our squad are seemingly relishing the role of guiding along their younger team-mates.

Something so many of our squads have lacked since we moved to Emirates stadium is the right level of maturity and it’s widely considered the single biggest factor in our relative lack of success in that time. We’ve always had the talent, just not the ‘know-how’. Our performances so far this season, most of them anyway, suggest we’ve finally found the right mix. But we still have to prove it …

And on that note, I’ll leave it there.

See you on Tuesday.

2nd January 2016: Koscielny shoots down Magpies

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. So despite playing very poorly, Arsenal have pulled two points clear at the top of the Premier League after Laurent Koscielny’s winner gave us a 1-0 win over Newcastle, whilst Leicester City were held to a goal-less draw at home by Bournemouth.

The result was also our 100th 1-0 win of the Premier League era, yet there can’t have been too many  in which we were as bad performance-wise as this afternoon. We made Steve McClaren’s side look like Barcelona, as we struggled for fluency in our passing and to create meaningful goal-scoring chances.

That said, how often have you heard the old adage that ‘champions pick up points even when they play badly’? Loads of times, that’s how many, so let’s hope today was more evidence we can indeed win the title rather than a sign some of our players just aren’t very good.

Arsene Wenger made three changes to his starting line-up from last Monday’s win over Bournemouth; Koscielny replaced Gabriel in defence, Nacho Monreal was restored at left-back with Kieran Gibbs dropping to the bench, and Mathieu Flamini came into midfield at the expense of Calum Chambers.

At a rain-soaked Emirates stadium, the visitors enjoyed the better of the first half in terms of scoring opportunities and not for the first time this season, we had Petr Cech to thank for making crucial saves with our back four beaten.

But the stop that sticks out came in the second period, when Mesut Ozil gave the ball away in midfield, Newcastle broke forward and as our defence parted with worrying ease, Ayoze Perez threaded a pass through to put Georginio Wijnaldum one-on-one with Cech.

Thankfully, by the time the Dutch midfielder composed himself and shot, Cech had already raced off his line to close down the target and the ball ricocheted off his body and to safety. It was an intervention as valuable as a goal at the other end and illustrated, yet again, the value of having a truly great keeper between the sticks.

Yet despite being horribly off the pace and off our game, we managed to take the lead with 17 minutes left on the clock. Ozil swung in a corner from the right and the ball was headed upwards by their left-back. Olivier Giroud managed to get his head on it first as it dropped and send it towards the far post, where Koscielny ghosted infront of his marker to volley home, on the stretch, with all the six-yard-box prowess of Gerd Muller in his prime. It was more than harsh on the visitors but who cares? Not me.

Aaron Ramsey should have then added a late second but having beaten two defenders inside their penalty box, he club-footed a great chance wide when he had Joel Campbell and Hector Bellerin free to his right begging for a tap-in. The pair of them threw a little strop and who can blame them? If you shoot in that situation you better score and Ramsey didn’t. But we held on for the win and moved clear at the top. It was just a shame Manchester City scored two late goals at Vicarage Road to turn defeat into victory against Watford and take the cherry off our New Year cake.

After the game, Arsene discussed the game and sympathised with Newcastle, telling the BBC:

We were not at our best but we had to dig deep and we can do that when needed. If you are down there (in the table, like Newcastle) then those are the matches you lose but they will not stay down there – they are a good team. It was about solidarity, tired legs and taking a chance from a set piece. We were not at our best today, but over Christmas in four games we took nine points so we can look back and say we did 75% of our job as we lost at Southampton.

Which is just as well when you look at our remaining fixtures in January. After the FA Cup tie at Sunderland on Saturday, we travel to Liverpool and then Stoke, before entertaining a rejuvenated Chelsea in our next three Premier League fixtures.

So to have emerged two points clear from the festive period gives us some room for error over the next few weeks, even if nine points from nine is obviously what we’ll be striving for.

Til tomorrow.