10th March 2016: Positive injury update + Sanchez reveals restlessness

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. Some good news to begin with today after Arsene Wenger revealed both Gabriel and Per Mertesacker will be fit to face Watford in the FA Cup on Sunday and referred to Aaron Ramsey’s injury as ‘a small alert’.

Given widespread reports were ruling the Welshman out from anywhere between 6 weeks and 6 years following the knock he picked up as a substitute against Hull on Tuesday, Wenger’s words sound promising. Here’s what he had to say about his sidelined stars when he spoke to the official site:

We had a few injuries at Hull – Gabriel, Mertesacker and Ramsey. Mertesacker and Gabriel are very positive, there is nothing wrong there, they are both good. There is a small alert (about Ramsey), we don’t know how bad it is. He (Laurent Koscielny) is not far, he will have tests until Sunday, but it could come too soon. He has a little chance. They (Petr Cech, Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla) are all progressing nicely, but this week and next week they have no chance.

Let’s hope that ‘small alert’ remains just that and doesn’t morph into a ‘deafening drill’ because despite not really rating Ramsey as a central midfielder myself, if he is ruled out for a sustained period, we’re currently one injury or suspension to Francis Coquelin or Mohamed Elneny away from having to play Mathieu Flamini or Mikel Arteta  – and that scares me.

Elsewhere, Alexis Sanchez, who has struggled for goals and form since recovering from a hamstring injury sustained late last year, has been telling the official site that he feels ‘guilty’ when he fails to score and suffers sleepless nights as a result. He said:

I think that I’ve adapted really well in terms of fitting into the club and it’s been very good. But at the same time I’m not the kind of person to become complacent or think, ‘That’s it’. I always want to improve and give my absolute all to the team. The truth is that I do enjoy [the responsibility]. When I don’t score goals I feel like I’ve failed the team and I feel guilty. I go home, can’t sleep and I just think I have to play better.

Hopefully his goal against Sp*rs last Saturday will have boosted his confidence and will kick-start a prolific last portion of the campaign for him because if the Chilean can rediscover his best form, I’d feel confident of beating any team in the Premier League.

He’s one of those all-too-rare match-winners who can fashion a goal from nowhere and given how we’ve been struggling for fluency in our overall play these last few months, having that kind of individualistic ability in the team can become even more of an asset to a side.

Finally, from one Arsenal attacker who’s recently ended a goal drought to another, and Olivier Giroud has revealed he nearly missed Tuesday’s win over Hull, in which he bagged a brace, after becoming a father again earlier in the day. Here’s what our Gallic goal-getter told Arsenal Player:

I could have missed the game actually, so I was glad that he arrived during the night. I could have a little rest [after he was born]. I travelled to Hull and I wanted to dedicate these two goals to him. I’m very happy to score. We scored four goals, so that’s a good efficiency up front and at the back, so we can be happy with our performance tonight. It’s always hard for a striker not to score but you have to keep the confidence as high as you can and work hard at training. I’m very pleased to get back on the scoresheet and to smell the first goal. After, it was a good assist from Theo [for the second]. I succeeded to put two in the net and it’s nice for the team. It’s nice for me obviously and now it’s Watford. If we go through, we go to Wembley.

So the big arch awaits Arsenal for what would be the fifth time in three seasons if we can secure a win over Watford. Make it happen lads…

The boss holds his pre-match press conference in the morning so we may find out the full extent of Ramsey’s injury and get a better idea of who will start on Sunday.

See you on Friday.

9th March 2016: Arsenal crush Hull to make FA Cup last eight

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. A hat-trick of consecutive FA Cups is well and truly on for Arsenal after we breezed past Hull City last night, to confirm a quarter final at home with Watford on Sunday. Lovely.

A brace apiece from previously out-of-form forwards Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott secured a comfortable 4-0 win over Steve Bruce’s men but the celebrations were soured a little by injuries to Per Mertesacker, Gabriel and Aaron Ramsey.

The 7pm kick-off gave the game a sense of strangeness and the first half action only added to the surreal feel. Arsene Wenger picked a side very similar to the one I had guessed would play in yesterday’s post, with Kieran Gibbs’ inclusion at left-back instead of Nacho Monreal being the only difference.

In a very forgettable opening 45 minutes, Mertesacker and Nick Powell clashed heads when contesting the ball and with both players needing treatment, the game was stopped for a sustained period. After carrying on for a while, the German defender’s swelling eye caused him to be substituted for Monreal who slotted in as left-sided centre-back.

Then out of the blue, with the game as lively as a wake, on a pitch as smooth as sandpaper, one of Hull’s players decided he’s spare the stadium any more tedium and casually flicked the ball with outside of his left foot across his own six-yard box, where Giroud was waiting to gratefully strike home his first goal in about four years. It wasn’t so much a helping hand, as it was an aiding arm, but given the striker’s recent struggles in scoring, he dispatched the gift with the minimum of fuss.

I have to admit, and this is very, very rarely the case with me, even when we’re getting battered, but I was giving serious consideration to doing something else with my time at the break. Thankfully though, I resisted the urge and was rewarded by three further goals.

Before our second arrived, Ramsey replaced the injured Gabriel which meant Mathieu Flamini filled in at right-back for Calum Chambers, who shifted across to partner Monreal in the middle. Walcott got the assist this time, with a left-wing cross that deflected off a defender straight into Giroud’s path for a near-replica of his first goal.

I thought it was telling Gibbs immediately embraced Walcott, who for all his frustrating qualities as a footballer, is still human and therefore not immune from the considerable criticism he’s taken in recent weeks. And not just from fans either, becasue even if Arsene hasn’t taken Theo to task for his lack of form verbally, by dropping him to the bench for the last two games before last night’s he’s made clear Theo’s far from first-choice at the moment. Plus the fact that for 70 minutes or so again last night before claiming that assist, Walcott’s performance was pretty woeful.

Considering all that then, his last 20 minutes last night will hopefully provide the spark he needs to rediscover some sort of form and confidence beacuse he grabbed a brace of his own. First, Joel Campbell, who must be one of the most enthusiastic attackers I’ve ever seen in chasing back and helping out defensively, played what’s becoming a trade-mark reverse pass, having cut in from the right. His perfectly-threaded ball found Theo on the left and he took two touches in calmly passing it beyond the keeper.

With two minutes of normal time to play, Walcott completed the scoring, when his low strike from the right was deflected in at the near post. Scoring two heavily aided by deflections and one handed to us on a plate by Hull City, would indicate our luck was in last night, but in terms of injuries, karmic balance was redressed.

Thankfully Arsene revealed Mertesacker and Gabriel’s injuries are nothing serious but the news on Ramsey is not so good. I’m sure we’ll find out the extent soon enough but it looks like Mohamed Elneny and Francis Coquelin will get more games to develop their partnership and hopefully, Campbell will continue on the right beacuse having dropped him once already this season when he’d barely put a foot wrong, I can’t see Arsene culling the Costa Rican when he’s so consistently impressive.

Back tomorrow.

8th March 2016: Arsenal head to Hull hoping to keep hat-trick hopes alive

Posted on by TremendArse

After a couple of weeks of hell, tonight we head to Hull, looking to keep alive our hopes of winning the FA Cup for the third year in a row.

Victory would confirm a quarter final tie at home against Watford next weekend, so with all due respect to the Hornets, if we can tame the Tigers we’ll have Wembley firmly in our sights yet again.

For all our troubles in Europe and the Premier League recently, the Cup again provides us with a genuine opportunity to secure some silverware this season and even if fans are feeling a little ‘been there done that’ about the oldest cup competition in the world having tasted success twice in two seasons, completing a hat-trick of triumphs would still be a superb achievement and one no other club has managed for over 100 years.

And Arsene Wenger discussed the possibility of such a rare feat when he spoke at his pre-match press conference yesterday, saying:

If we were able to do it again, it would be absolutely fantastic. There’s no country where the national cup is bigger. In Spain and France, nobody neglects it: not Barcelona, not Madrid. Everybody plays for it 100 per cent, with a top team always. I personally rate highly the FA Cup. I think it’s a fantastic, prestigious competition. I believe it is treated like that because when I listen to people, should we lose a game in the FA Cup, it would be a disaster. You cannot say on one side it’s undervalued, and on the other side if we lose, it’s a disaster. We won the FA Cup twice in the last two years. We will try to do our best again in this competition.

It’s no crown-topped Premier League trophy and it certainly doesn’t match up to it’s big-eared European cousin, but the FA Cup is still a competition to be celebrated as far as I’m concerned and I’d love us to win it again. Chelsea in the Final with Petr Cech heading home a last-minute winner to complete the third Double of Arsene’s tenure would be perfect, but given our league standing at the moment, I’d settle for just the first half of that sentence.

In terms of how we’ll line up, based on the teams we’ve selected so far in the competition this season, my guess is Mesut Ozil will be rested but may make the bench unlike in previous rounds, and Alex Iwobi, an FA Cup ever-present this term, will start in the German’s place.

David Ospina will no doubt be in goal and given Laurent Koscielny is still injured, I guess who we play at the back depends a little on whether the boss feels Hector Bellerin needs a rest. If he does, then we play Calum Chambers at right-back with Gabriel and Per Mertesacker in the middle, but if not, then one the latter two can get a breather and Chambers can play centrally. Left-back also has a question mark hanging over it because usually Kieran Gibbs would deputise for Nacho Monreal but the Spaniard was rested in our last game so who knows.

I think Aaron Ramsey will also be left out, along with Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck, and considering we’re pretty short of options at the base of midfield, I think we’ll line-up something like this:

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

As for our opposition, they’re flying high and sit in third place in the Championship but similar to the first game in this tie, are expected to rotate heavilly themselves.

It’ll be a tough game regardless, but it’s one we really ought win on paper and given how close we’d be to winning the competition again were we to triumph tonight, the players should need no extra motivation to make it happen. Let’s see.

Back tomorrow.

COME ON ARSENAL!

7th March 2016: Wenger on team news and growing pressure

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. Arsene Wenger held his pre-Hull press conference this morning, revealing the latest team news, as well as discussing the growing unrest among Arsenal supporters following a feeble run of form that has seen us fall eight points behind Premier League leaders Leicester City.

But first to availability for tomorrow’s FA Cup replay against the Tigers and the boss hinted at a strong selection for the game, whilst providing updates on the fitness of Laurent Koscielny and Petr Cech. He said:

We lose Coquelin from his bad tackle on Saturday and everyone else looks available. I have to see how everybody has recovered today but overall we should have the same squad that went to Tottenham plus Alex Iwobi will certainly be added to the squad. Petr’s scans were better than expected, but it will still be four weeks for him. So after the international break. Laurent will be short for Hull. he has a chance to be available for the weekend, but I think even for then he will be short.

Nothing surprising in all of that and considering the Cup now appears our most realistic opportunity to secure silverware this season, I suppose the game takes on added importance. But more on that in tomorrow’s post when I’ll be playing Arsenal Manager again and trying to guess our starting XI, so tune in.

On to the swirling sh*tstorm engulfing London Colney at the moment and particularly the manager’s office. There have been numerous stories over the last week or so about Arsene’s future, with one paper going as far as to say the boss will be asked to leave if we fail to beat Hull tomorrow.

Then there’s rumours of legendary ex-players like Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Dennis Bergkamp all supposedly being lined up to step in if the club decide to make a change, ignoring the fact all three of them have zero experience of top-level management (New York City doesn’t count). Anyway, the boss was inevitably asked about his future and pressure from irate fans and here’s what he said:

I feel privileged to have the confidence of the club for such a long time. On the other hand, I work seven days a week with full commitment. I’m not part time and since I have been here I have given full commitment and that is all I can do. I always have the same pressure, which is the same pressure I apply to myself. After that, people talk and you have more people talking than 20 years ago and more opinions. That doesn’t change the pressure. The real pressure comes from your desire to win the next game and that is the only one that matters really. I do my job and one day someone will replace me. That is part of life and as long as you have done well and given your best [that is what matters]. That is what I try to do. I try to do my best and leave this club in the best shape so the guy coming after me will have good potential to work with.

I’m sure this isn’t the first time we’ve heard these words from Wenger and they probably won’t be the last. He’s in charge and he’ll make the call on when to call it a day – that much is pretty clear. Whether that’s healthy or not is up for debate but it is what it is and unless results continue to disappoint, nothing will change at least until the summer.

If I were to guess though, I’d say nothing will change at least until the end of Arsene’s current contract which expires in May 2017, at which point, we may have just won the treble. Unlikely of course but the point is that trying to guess what the world will look like so far down the line is a fool’s errand. Just look at Leicester.

A bit short but I’m afraid that’s where I’ll leave it.

Back pre-game tomorrow.

6th March 2016: More on the draw at Tottenham

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. So where was I? Oh yeah, Harry Kane being an annoyingly lethal striker, but just like the majority of attackers in today’s game, far from shy in ‘buying’ fouls.

Anyway, after losing Coquelin, I was hoping we’d regroup quickly and keep Tottenham at bay for at least 10 to 15 minutes or so because I thought they’d start to get frustrated, fatigue would begin to set in and perhaps we could grab another goal at some point.

In the end, we could only hold out for five minutes because Toby Alderweireld got an equaliser for Sp*rs on the hour mark, firing home a loose ball low and hard past David Ospina at the far post following a corner. Just two minutes later, the hosts completed the turn-around in the score-line with what can only be described as a stunning long-range strike by Arsenal and Freddie Ljungberg fan Kane.

The chance came about because of some slack defending by Per Mertesacker, who in hindsight should either have committed a tactical foul on Alli as the pair chased the ball near the corner-flag, or slid and put it into touch, but instead he allowed Alli to get ahead of him and back-heel the ball to Kane. The England striker cut inside and unleashed a curler into the far top corner, to leave David Ospina with no chance.

As Kane celebrated wildly, I’m sure I wasn’t the only Arsenal fan filled with dread and anticipating a heavy defeat. But what followed was a gutsy response by the Gunners and an equaliser 15 minutes later. Arsene Wenger threw caution to the wind by replacing Mohamed Elneny with Olivier Giroud and we fashioned our second goals moments afterwards. Mertesacker intercepted the ball, turned neatly and found Ramsey in midfield.

The Welshman picked out Hector Bellerin on the right and he produced his second assist of the game, perfectly measuring an angled pass into Alexis Sanchez’s run so the Chilean didn’t have to break stride and could shoot first time past Lloris. It wasn’t the sweetest of connections but he got enough on it to see it bobble past their keeper and restore unlikely parity to proceedings.

After that, both sides had chances with the best one falling to Ramsey very late on after his brilliant run into the box was serviced by an equally impressive through ball by Sanchez. But as Ramsey tried to get a shot away, their defender slid in and nicked the ball away.

Spoils shared then and an impressive achievement by us to secure a point under the circumstances. Yet regret at another two points dropped and perhaps a little frustration that the referee didn’t issue a second yellow for Eric Dier when he clearly deserved one for pulling Olivier Giroud’s shirt. That would have evened up the numbers and given us a great chance to win it, but it wasn’t to be and the incident gets filed in the same draw alongside ones with Diego Costa, who also somehow escaped dismissal against us this season when it was clearly warranted.

The negatives from the game are obvious in that we picked up another totally avoidable red card through our own lack of discipline, which in effect cost us two valuable points. On the plus side, we functioned far better as a team, with Mohamed Elneny impressive in midfield, Ramsey playing far better from the right than he has recently in the middle and grabbing a goal, Gabriel solid at the back, Ospina shining in goal, and Danny Welbeck working hard and being a constant threat up front.

Add in a confidence-boosting goal for Sanchez and things are definitely looking up as far as I’m concerned. We look much more like team with yesterday’s selection of starters so hopefully they can stay fit and firing until the likes of Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere are ready to return from injury.

Looking ahead, we play Hull in the Cup on Tuesday and then depending on the outcome of that game, next weekend we host either Watford in the quarter-finals or West Brom in the league. Whoever we face though, after yesterday’s showing at White Hart Lane, I’m feeling far more confident that we can actually string a few wins together now, having failed to get even one in our last five games.

See you next week.

5th March 2016: Arsenal find form in draw with Tottenham despite Coq-up

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. Despite only managing to draw against Tottenham, I felt our overall performance today was much improved following three defeats on the bounce.

The 2-2 full-time scoreline at White Hart Lane, combined with Leicester’s win at Watford and Manchester City’s comfortable victory over Aston Villa, means we’re now eight points off the Premier League summit and will fall a point below Manuel Pellegrini’s men into fourth if they win their game in hand. In terms of the title race then, the point we earned today could be vital, just as the two dropped could prove fatal – only time will tell.

But for the immediate future, we have to be encouraged by our display today, particularly seeing as we had to play the final 35 minutes or so with a man less following Francis Coquelin’s second-half dismissal for a second yellow. That we managed to grab an equaliser with ten men, after two quick-fire Sp*rs strikes within seven minutes of Coquelin’s red card had cancelled out Aaron Ramsey’s exquisitely-taken first half opener, was as pleasing as it was surprising.

After all, this was a much-vaunted Tottenham team, proudly sitting a place and three points above us in the table at the start of the match, boasting the best defensive record in the league and the healthiest goal difference. Their team contained the media-hyped hybrid of Zinedine Zidane, Garrincha and Eusebio that is Dele Alli, and were managed by the man with the Midas touch in Mauricio Pochettino.

They fielded a core of oh-so-honest English lads who will no doubt conquer the Continent at this summer’s Euros, and who help form a team that plays in an innovative high-intensity style that will never ever waver as the season progresses. They’re destined for the title and there’s never been a a team quite like them. They’re one of England’s own …

And yet, they couldn’t beat an Arsenal side in their worst run of form of the season, missing key players and playing with a man less for almost half the game. Tottenham will always be sh*t, no matter how this one-off title-chasing campaign ends for them.

Back to us though and after a difficult first 30 minutes or so when the hosts piled on the pressure without creating many clear-cut chances, we went one-nil up with a goal owing as much to the composure and vision of Hector Bellerin as it did the magnificent improvisation of Ramsey.

Danny Welbeck, who played up front and put in a non-stop shift in his just his second league start in almost a year, picked up possession on the left, cut inside, looked up and squared it carefully to Bellerin. Our Cockney Catalan played it first-time to Ramsey in the middle who pulled off a brilliant back-heeled shot at goal, somehow generating elevation in guiding it past Hugo Lloris.

With six minutes of the half to play after that goal, we turned the screw and launched a couple more attacks as Sp*rs froze a little and the realisation appeared to dawn on them that they’re actually nothing special at all, and that they’re only in the title race because of a freak set of circumstances. At that point, we had them – they knew it and we knew it.

What we also knew at half-time though, was that Coquelin had been cautioned and would therefore need to be extra careful in the second half to avoid another booking. Arsene Wenger said as much after the game in revealing he reminded his compatriot at the break that he was treading a tightrope. Unfortunately, within ten minutes of second half action, Coquelin recklessly slid in on Harry Kane on the by-line, inevitably earning a second yellow and a red.

No qualms, no complaints, it was a mindless rush of blood and we were now up against it. What I would point out though, is that Kane, for all his striking qualities, and admittedly, as his goal later in the game highlighted, he has them in abundance, purposely made contact with Coquelin in that way all shameless divers do, when he could easily have hurdled the challenge and continued his run.

The striker jumped, left both his airborne legs trailing to ensure connection with Coquelin’s and I thought I’d point it out because I haven’t seen anyone else do it. Of course, it would be a booking 99 times out of a hundred, but a truly honest player with nothing but trying to get forward and score a goal on his mind would have left Coquelin trailing and without contact, they’d have been no caution. Sadly, they’re aren’t too many of that ilk around in football, even English ones, and we were left facing an uphill task to keep our lead.

A bit abrupt but I’ve run out of time. I’ll pick this up tomorrow.

See you on Sunday.

4th March 2016: Premier League Preview – Can we find the right recipe to topple Tottenham?

Posted on by TremendArse

Friday greetings. We face Sp*rs in the early kick-off tomorrow of course and after three defeats on the bounce, I suppose the big questions are: who will Arsene Wenger choose to start the game? And can we put a stop to our recent rot by winning at White Hart Lane to make ‘power-shift’ proponents think again, whilst hauling ourselves right back into title-winning territory?

In terms of team selection, we know that David Ospina will come in for the injured Petr Cech, who Arsene confirmed today would be out for up to four weeks with the calf injury he sustained against Swansea on Wednesday, and Gabriel will retain his place in central defence alongside Per Mertesacker, as Laurent Koscielny is still sidelined.

You would assume Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal will remain at full back but given the latter’s made 33 starts in all competitions so far this season, which is exceeded only by Mesut Ozil’s 34, I do wonder if Kieran Gibbs’ fresher legs may be a way the boss feels he can add some energy to his side – particularly against Mauricio Pochettino’s hard-running outfit.

I do view Monreal as our undisputed first-choice at left-back, but this will be his fourth game in 12 days were he to start. The former Malaga man’s not the only one who’s endured that demanding recent work load though, so I’ll guess we’ll see. That said, even with all the effort and determination in the world, if we don’t come up with a game-plan that works better than ours have done in our last two games at least, we’ll be in trouble.

I think Arseblog hit the nail on the head in his post this morning, when he suggested that we don’t know what we’re doing as a team. We have no discernible style of play and in my opinion, that’s down to our central midfield area, as regular readers will already know and possibly be a tad bored by.

At risk of sounding like a broken record then, with Aaron Ramsey and Francis Coquelin as a midfield pair, we have nobody to dictate our play. In that duo, Coquelin is the specialist ball-winner, but what role exactly is Ramsey fulfilling?

Now I have no idea if Mohamed Elneny will be good enough to hit the ground running as adequate cover for Santi Cazorla’s sublime distribution from the middle of the park, but with Jack Wilshere also injured, he’s our only candidate. Unless you drop Mesut Ozil in there, which is not as bad an idea as it may sound at first in my opinion.

In fact, I’m torn between Ozil and Elneny as to who should partner Coquelin, but if we went with the former, the fact we would then have nobody obvious (don’t say Ramsey – he’s even less a number ten than he is a deep-lying play-maker) to fill in for Ozil further forward, makes me lean towards the Egyptian.

The only alternative I see is to contain and counter, like we attempted against Barcelona last week, and like we succeeded in doing at home against Bayern Munich earlier this season. I have no doubt at all that our lack of cohesion in this area of the pitch is adversely affecting out performance both in defence and in the final third. A lack of control, composure and coordination in our midfield spreads to both ends of the pitch and to my mind, if we remedy that issue, we’ll start looking and playing like a team again and the wins will follow.

So with all that in mind, I’d go with: ‘play Elneny, look to control possession and take the game to Tottenham’, over, ‘stick with Ramsey in the middle, and either produce another disjointed display, or sit back and hope to counter them’. And as such, my starting selection, fitness permitting, would be:

Ospina; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Gabriel, Monreal; Coquelin, Elneny; Campbell, Ozil, Sanchez; Welbeck.

I think with that XI, we would be fielding the strongest defence we have available, on paper our most complimentary and functional deep-lying midfield duo, the best goal-creator in the league in a free role, two industrious wide players boasting both a goal-threat and defensive diligence, all topped off with the best all-round striker at the club. A player who can stretch a defence with pace like Theo Walcott, and hold the ball up and link play like Olivier Giroud – our two other striking options.

But crucially, without Ramsey, Walcott and Giroud, we have ten outfield players, with the possible exception of big Per (although he is usually a very reliable passer), who are comfortable in possession and collectively, should much more easily find a common wavelength. It’s all in the chemistry and too often recently, our pH levels have been aimlessly sliding the scale.

It feels like every game we play at the moment is billed as a must-win, despite there being over a quarter of the league season yet to be played, but you can understand the sentiment.

By the end of tomorrow’s Premier League action, we could be any one of nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, or three points behind the leaders. So not only is tomorrow’s game a north London derby with a title-contesting difference, in a way, it’s potentially also a nine-pointer, in the countdown to the crown.

Back post-match.

COME on Arsenal. COME. THE. F*CK. ON.

3rd March 2016: Swans come (to our) home to roost

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome back. So last night Swansea City – a relegation-threatened Swansea City – arrived at Emirates stadium, home of supposed title contenders Arsenal, resting several first-choice regulars including three of their back four, yet still managed to come from a goal down to secure what was ultimately a comfortable 2-1 win.

On a night when Tottenham lost at West Ham and Manchester City were beaten emphatically by Liverpool, this was our chance to both close the gap to the two teams above us, and put some significant distance between us and fourth-placed City. But once again, we came up short, clutching defeat from the jaws of victory.

We’d all speculated about how we might line up after Sunday’s similarly shocking loss to a mish-mash Manchester United team comprised of squad peripherals, utility men and unknown embryos, and there was a surprise when the teams were announced – there was no sign of Laurent Koscielny.

Injury ruled the Frenchman out so Gabriel retained his place and Per Mertesacker partnered him having sat out the defeat at Old Trafford. Further forward, despite many hoping Mohamed Elneny might be given his first-ever Premier League start, Aaron Ramsey retained his place alongside Francis Coquelin in midfield, Joel Campbell came in for Danny Welbeck on the right and Theo Walcott, unsurprising, vacated the striker’s role for Olivier Giroud.

We actually started the game pretty brightly but considering this was a much-changed Swansea line-up, in hindsight our opening wasn’t as impressive as it seemed at the time. Nonetheless, Joel Campbell was by far our liveliest player and duly marked his return to the starting line-up by giving us the lead on the quarter-hour mark, skilfully and cleverly half-volleying home from a tight-ish angle following a brilliant pass by Alexis Sanchez.

It was just the start we needed after two defeats in a row. But instead of building on that promising start, we conceded an equaliser just after the half-hour mark when Mesut Ozil was fouled in Swansea’s half and our defence stood still. Unfortunately for us, the referee didn’t view the challenge on Ozil as a foul and by the time we realised that, one of their players sent a straight-forward ball through the middle of our defence for Wayne Routledge to saunter onto, take a touch, give Petr Cech the eyes, and roll it past him effortlessly.

That was that until half-time and you’d have thought they’d be a strong response from us after the interval, what with us wanting to the win the game and challenge for the title and all, but if you did think that, you obviously didn’t watch us at Old Trafford because we got another lackluster second-half showing, which after Sunday’s shambles, this time, I was wholly expecting.

Arsene Wenger then went full masochistic-mode in the second half, withdrawing our best performer on the night in Campbell and replacing him with Welbeck, who to put it kindly, looked off-the-pace when he came on. The boos that greeted the substitution made the fans’ feelings deafeningly clear and when Walcott later replaced a struggling (by his standards) Sanchez a minute after we’d conceded the winner, strangely, both the team and and the terraces appeared resigned to the result. Never mind there were still fifteen minutes to play plus added time, it seemed the whole stadium had decided 2-1 is how the game would end. And so it did.

There were no ‘come on Arsenal’ cries, no meaningful response from the players, just a limp last portion of the game that ended with Cech going up for a corner and injuring himself as he sprinted back –  the turd cherry, on the dog-food icing, on the rubbish-dump-salvaged sponge.

The full-time whistle blew, one (probably a number) of irate Arsenal fans near the dug-out seemingly aired their views and a clearly devastated, but defiant until the death Arsene, sarcastically gave them the thumbs up as he left. It was so sad to watch.

A man who ought to be feted for his work at the club is reduced to receiving vitriolic ridicule on a regular basis from an increasing section of his own club’s fan-base. I’m not saying Wenger’s faultless – far, far from it. The Campbell sub was weird, his faith in Ramsey as a central midfielder is, for me, as baffling as it is infuriating, but I still think he’s the right man for the job. Just my opinion mind – don’t have a baby about it.

We’re obviously in dire straights results and performances-wise, but in terms of the title, it’s not over until Frank Lampard sings. And I can’t hear the c*nt just yet.

Until tomorrow.

2nd March 2016: Thoughts on selection for Swansea

Posted on by TremendArse

Evening all. A very, very brief post for you today because kick-off is fast approaching as we prepare to welcome Swansea City to Emirates stadium in a few hours’ time, when we’ll be looking to reduce the gap to the top of the table to just three points after Leicester could only draw with West Brom last night.

When you consider we play Sp*rs in the early kick-off on Saturday, with Leicester travelling to Watford in the 5.30pm game, we could actually be joint top of the table as early as Saturday afternoon. Despite all the doom and gloom after a disappointing week then, Arsenal still have it in their hands – providing the Foxes lose just one of their remaining ten games.

Tonight’s starting selection should be interesting, because not many players covered themselves in glory in our defeat to Manchester United last Sunday and there are a few who weren’t involved from the start at Old Trafford who will no doubt be strongly urging the boss to give them a go.

I think Per Mertesacker for Gabriel is an obvious change in central defence providing Laurent Koscielny is fit and I do wonder if we could see one or both full-backs rotated for Kieran Gibbs or Calum Chambers with the trip to White Hart Lane in mind.

Further forward, I would love to see Aaron Ramsey replaced at the base of our midfield by Mohamed Elneny or even, Alex Iwobi, if we want to go gung-ho and play just Francis Coquelin as a defensively-minded midfielder in the trio in the middle of the park.

Although Alexis Sanchez has struggled for form, I think Arsene will expect him to play his way back to sharpness rather than take him out and hope a rest will help him rediscover his mojo, and I think that would be the right call. The Chilean had a lengthy period out of action due to injury recently and I think the more minutes he can get right now the better he’ll perform.

On the right, I think we’ll see Ramsey if Elneny or Iwobi come into the middle, otherwise my guess would be Joel Campbell, with Theo Walcott dropped to the bench. Again, I think that would be the right call because Walcott was woefully lacking in impact against United and Campbell should count himself unlucky to lose his starting place in the first place having performed consistently well after breaking into the starting line-up.

My preference for tonight would be the following: Cech; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Elneny, Coquelin; Ramsey, Ozil, Sanchez, Giroud, but I think Arsene will persist with Ramsey in the middle and bring in Campbell on the right. We’ll see.

Finally for today, after some reports that Santi Cazorla could miss the rest of the season (!) through injury, the player himself today mercifully took to social media to reassure fans he was still very much on course for a comeback at the start of April.

Of course the boss had spoken about Santi having an Achilles problem at his press conference yesterday, which is where those reports were obviously rooted, but it appears what the boss said had been exaggerated in the press. Who’d have thunk it?

Right. That’s me done. I told you it would be short.

Please win tonight Arsenal. Please?

COYG!

1st March 2016: Wenger urges solidarity as we prepare for Swansea

Posted on by TremendArse

Welcome to a brand new month on TremendArse. Here’s hoping March will be more successful for Arsenal than February was, and January, December and November for that matter, because if we want to ‘defy all odds’ and win the Premier League, as Arsene Wenger said today, it has to be.

Speaking at his pre-Swansea press conference, the boss stood firm is his belief his side are still very much in the title race despite a run of just seven wins from their last 16 Premier League games since the end of October, which has left the Gunners five points adrift of league leaders Leicester City, and sickeningly, three behind a grossly over-rated Tottenham. He said:

What we want to do is defy all the odds that are against us at the moment. The best way to do it is to fight together for that. We have come out of a bad week so we want to have a good week now. It’s as simple as that and that’s why you love competition. A bad week is not permanent, it’s what you make of it and how you respond. That’s the beauty of sport. Things change quickly one way or the other. That’s beautiful as well. We are professional and we want to focus on how we respond to the defeat. It can happen. We lost 3-2 at Manchester United, we are not happy with the result but if you analyse the game we had two lapses of focus that we paid for. That made the game difficult for us after. We gave a lot against Barcelona and the disappointing outcome certainly had an impact on our belief against Manchester United, but we want to focus on the positives and recover from it. We want to give our best from now until the end of the season.

That defeat against a severely-weakened Manchester United team on Sunday has inevitably led to an outpouring of anger, criticism and ridicule alike, but Arsene seemed unmoved today, suggesting his longevity as Arsenal manager means he’s seen and heard it all before. Funnily enough, that’s what a lot of fans and pundits would throw straight back at him.

Anyway, adding that he wants fans to get behind the team between now and the season’s end, he also stressed that the contest for the crown is still a very close one, saying:

I’m never surprised by the criticism that comes – that’s part of the media today. Part of the opinion is always a bit excessive and emotional, but we have to deal with that and I don’t complain about it. Yes, that’s what we want to do [and use criticism as motivation]. We want to transform the negatives into positives around us and create even more solidarity. Let’s not go overboard, we do not play to be relegated. We are playing to fight for the title. That’s why we have to put criticism in the right place. After 20 years I’m used to it. We have built this club, and it has been built before me, with values. What we try to do is respect these values and when we are disappointed we need to show these values and clarity to fight together. What you want from your fans is to fight together until the last game of the season. What we have learnt from the league is that it is very tight, that everybody can drop points, and the teams – and the fans – who can show togetherness and solidarity until the end, might come out of it in a positive way. That’s what we want, to fight together until the last game of the season and not give up when you have a bad game or a bad result. That’s what fans and players and teams and clubs are about.

As always, Arsene fronted up and said all the right things; the title’s far from lost, the team and fans need to remain united, criticism can be emotional and excessive. The problem is we’ve been here so often these last 12 years or so, fans are sick and tired of words and just want the wins that secure silverware.

I’m not one of those fans. Yet. We may be on a level financial footing to our rivals now, or at least more level, but it’s only been a season or two that that’s been the case. In that time we’ve won back-to-back FA Cups and signed some of world’s best players in Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Petr Cech. I see improvement and reasons to be confident of future success even if it feels like we’ve been enduring Groundhog campaigns for years now.

‘Project Youth’ failed to deliver trophies in the time we were financially handicapped and perhaps some bad habits set it. The winning mentality of our 2004 squad was lessened in direct correlation with our average age, but that’s now reversing and has been for a few years.

For me it’s not 12 years without a title, it’s about three. All of which is to say whilst even the most staunch supporters of Arsene over the years are beginning to contemplate a change in manager, I’m not there just yet. I think the boss has earned a year or two more to build the team he wants rather than one he has to fashion on a relative shoe-string and that he knows will sooner or later be broken up by enforced player sales.

I know I’m in an ever-diminishing minority among our fanbase but for now at least, I’m backing our manager to ‘defy the odds’ and make us champions again before his time runs out, whether that’s this term or in the next couple.

As for Leicester’s rise and Spurs’ challenge being evidence of why we’ll ‘never win the league again under Arsene, I think that view is bordering on ridiculous. Those clubs are enjoying freak seasons as far as I’m concerned and I have little doubt they won’t finish in the top four next season, even if one of them go on to win it this year.

Whatever your view though, surely we need to see how the rest of the season plays out before we solidify our stance.

Back on Wednesday.