So another interlull break is underway, I’d be lying if I hadn’t checked who Holland were playing (11th vs Switzerland and vs Germany 15th!). I’m sure our other players also have tough friendlies but I just happened to check the Dutch ones first, no idea why!
The media are already clearly bored in the interlull break having already published transfer stories including; M’Vila to Arsenal or Real, RVP to Inter, Javi Garcia to Arsenal.. *Yawn*. There isn’t any real point about talking transfers yet at the beginning of November and also no one ever has a clue about what the transfer policy for any window is going to be. I’m still waiting for the ‘imminent’ arrivals of Samba and Cahill from the summer.
What I will comment on is the team’s steady improvement back to acceptable performance levels and the weeks ahead.
Repeating what I said a week ago, the Marseille draw was a typical ‘after the lord mayor’s show’ performance and the team got back to ways with a comfortable win against WBA. The fact is the journey from 15th to 7th will be far easier than the journey from 7th to 4th due to the consistency involved to move the form teams above us. Just have a look at the weekend results around us to demonstrate this. While Arsenal picked up a comfortable win, other winners included Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea and Spuds. The losers of the weekend were Liverpool who were only able to pick a point. Arsenal will need to provide a base of three point consistency to take advantage of drop points around them to climb closer to the top four. Three point consistency does not always require top performances but the ability to get the points by hook or by crook.
The next five fixtures; Norwich (A), Fulham (H), Wigan (A), Everton (H), City (A). 13 points anyone? Yes please. We need to look at the season as small battles rather than a marathon with dreams of titles and cups.
To win these battles we’ll need character on the pitch to lead the team and one partnership is forming on the pitch that I discussed with my sister (@averz86) a few weeks back. The conversation came from ‘is RVP a better captain than Cesc?’. My opinion was not necessarily but what RVP has is the chance to have his cake and eat it too. The partnership I meant was that of RVP and Vermaelen. On Saturday I kept an eye on this partnership, RVP leads the forward line by example by scoring and setting up goals while Vermaelen could be heard from the stands screaming at the defensive line to pick up their players and get back into position. To top it off RVP set Vermaelen for his goal too. For me the leadership and spirit of these two, either end of the pitch, will form the basis to how the team performs through the upcoming battles.
Enjoy your Wednesday.
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