Archive for the ‘Match Reports’ Category

Title too dreary? Too pessimistic? 3 losses and 1 draw means 1 point from 12. Relegation form in my opinion. The team and substitutes yesterday were definitely good enough to beat Bolton (without Cahill), so the 0-0 draw is footballastically unacceptable. Before I comment, let me print what Arsene said post match:

We feel we have dropped two points because we had chances to win the game. But we produced a decent game against a difficult opponent who gives you the ball, marks tight and waits for their chance. We took all of the risks and we were a bit unlucky as well because we hit the bar, the post and missed some great chances. In the end we took a gamble to play four strikers and we nearly got caught in the last five minutes from a Bolton chance. But I cannot fault the effort, the commitment and desire to win the game. On the positive side we haven’t lost and we haven’t conceded a goal. Of course we have regrets because we did not take our chances tonight.

You have to expect the manager has to say that. He can’t really come out and say that we’re not good enough. But you have to look past this game and take a look at the last four games and of course generally at the season. Have we been good enough? I don’t think so – not off the pitch and not on the pitch. Right now, I have two options – either I launch full depth into a critical analysis of the team, the players, and the management or I take a step back and figure out where it’s all gone wrong.

The stadium shouldn’t be an excuse, but it’s the only viable excuse that we’ve got.

A whopping £400m debt to figure out is a huge deal. Add in extra banky-type things and you’re probably looking at £500m. No matter how you put it, which way you structure it, paying £500m from somewhere is going to take a toll on your finances. However, Arsene Wenger has known that for a while and therefore put in the youth policy that we have at the moment. More on that later – but whereas we’ve spent £500m of our own money (well self sustainable money), Man City have spent £500m of someone else’s money to get where they are.

The difference between Arsenal and Man City has been £1 billion.

Because we’ve decided to spend £500m on the stadium, in a way, it’s like deciding NOT to spend £500m on transfers. So our transfer spending has therefore taken a £500m hit whereas Man City’s has taken a £500m bonus. It makes sense. And for that matter, some may say it’s admiral where we are considering. Out of the top 7 teams, of which, yes, we are now 7th, the others, have millionaire / billionaire owners. The top five biggest spenders in the Premiership are Man United, Sp*rs, Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool. So with more money, more spending, does come a degree of success, of course. Sp*rs have been spending shed loads for the last 15 years, but it’s only the last two that there signings have actually come together. Liverpool have also spent a hell of a lot of money under Hodgson and then Daglish, but are pretty much on level with us.

Why are fans finding it tough?

Well two reasons.

Firstly, we’re used to caviar, we’re used to challenging for titles, since George Graham and Arsene Wenger (in my lifetime), challenging for titles is all we’ve known. We’ve won so many titles and cups under Arsene. We’ve played good football, had great games, and basically always been on top of the pile. Arsene did warn us that we wouldn’t be challenging for quite some time after the stadium was bought – but soon after, we still were – we’ll up until March anyhow and we were still playing good football. But as we’ve lost the edge, we’re now playing worse, and that results in worse results. So what am I trying to say? Well, it’s all about expectations. And we expect to be finishing in the top two every year, but accept finishing in the top four – the problem is that it doesn’t look likely that we will finish in the top four.

Secondly, we think we could have done better in the transfer window. When you see Arsene splash the cash on players who we don’t rate, or we don’t think can cut it – cite Park, Benayoun, Mertersacker etc from this summer – or insist on playing (or paying) players like Denilson, Bendtner, Vela, Almunia, Diaby etc – it’s makes you think, could the manager do better? It’s dangerous territory for us to think we can do better, but surely looking at players like Demba Ba, Gary Cahill,

But with every singing comes an issue – for example, Demba Ba has been plagued by injuries, in fact, has failed a plethora of medicals in his career, not someone worth taking a gamble on. Especially when you have players at the club such as Chamakh who you don’t think are necessarily as useless as they have been. Gary Cahill has commanded a salary of £120k – something we have not been prepared to pay and something that other clubs such as Liverpool and Sp*rs have baulked at.

Give Arsene some flack, surely?

But surely, if you look at it from Arsene’s point of view, he’s had it tough – in fact, he did say that summer was his hardest summer. Losing Cesc and Nasri so late on in the transfer window and not actually knowing that they were both going until very late on, did not allow Arsene to buy before and then had to buy in a hard market. The desired replaced for Cesc was Mata, but instead we had to promote from within. And then late on in the transfer window, we found out that our best remaining midfielder (Jack Wilshere) was going to be injured for pretty much the season, which led us to the hurried transfer of Mikel Arteta.

From Arsene’s point of view – Cesc, Nasri, Diaby and Wilshere all removed from the first team and only Arteta brought in – why? Surely it’s down to the fact that it happened all too late in the window? Yes, we’ve had the transfer window come and go, and no further action was taken, but again, Diaby and Wilshere were supposed to be back and Eisfeld and Henry have supplemented areas of the pitch that were lower. Yes, I know I said Eisfeld but he’s actually tipped to play in the second half of the season having been named in our Premier League registration for the second half of the season.

Can we finish in the top four?

Where we are now, it’s tough. We are 5 points off fourth and we’re in race with 4 other teams. It doesn’t sound great. But there is always hope. There is always hope that we go on a run of winning games. Arsene, I am sure, is keen to fix what is wrong. Against Blackburn, we suddenly have two fit full backs in Gibbs and Sagna, on either side of Vermaelen and Koscielny. Throw in the excellent talent of Oxlade Chamberlain, who has proved that he is now first choice and replace Ramsey with Rosicky and we can win on Saturday. A win can inspire a win which can surely perpetuate?

Where do we go from now?

Back the team. What else can we do? Arsene out isn’t the answer. More funds from the board isn’t the answer. Releasing available funds from areas around the club coffers perhaps could be an option. There is more money to spend, and there are options of making money. The club need to re-address the balance of the squad. At the moment, we’re not good enough and even if we do manage to correct the first eleven, we have to look at the rest of the squad.

But back the team.

We have to back the team – we have to stop booing and give the team support – cheer when we win, but cheer the team on when we’re not winning. The talent is there, but there is too much self doubt and it comes from within, it comes from lack of support, it comes from booing.

We are the Arsenal. The only team with a “the” in our name. We are united together in our efforts – it may not be going to plan, but never wane in your support. We will be back. We are the Arsenal…

Yesterday’s game was one of those “it’s all over” games, one of those “heat in mouth”, one of those, “we’ve blown it” games, and also it was a comeback game! Basically, it had all the emotions under the sun. The delight of Oxlade starting and the excellent start turned into disappointment when we couldn’t score, which then turned into more disappointment when Villa scored, and then again when the scored again…

Disappointment turned into frustration, which turned into booing at half time, booing at the team and at the manager. Should we boo our team? Personally, I think not, but the debate after the game was focused on whether people should be allowed to vent their frustrations, how do fans show their thoughts? How do they express to the team that they’re not happy. Recently, the desire, the commitment and the individual mistakes have made the fans upset, and the booing at half time, was probably a cultimation of the last 3.5 games. I’m not a booer myself, but can see why some fans have resorted to booing.

Arsene spoke about the booing and said:

“I’m sad we can’t always keep them happy. The only thing we can do is to show the spirit we showed today. I must tell you I just want to do well for this club that I love.  I understand that people question my decisions. I wouldn’t understand they question my commitment and dedication to this club. I understand they’re unhappy sometimes with the decisions I make.”

Going 2-0 down at half time, having lost three games on the trot, has created a sense of crisis amongst fans and the media, and the belief, faith and hope  is very fragile at the moment. The line up yesterday did please the majority of fans – with Arteta, Henry and Sagna all named on the bench and Oxlade Chamberlain named in the starting line up.

Szcznesy

Coquelin – Mertersacker – Koscielny – Vermaelen

Ramsey – Song

Walcott – Rosicky – Oxlade

Van Persie

The line up also saw the return of Coquelin, who does generally seem more suited to the right back role than the hapless Djourou. The second half was going to be one of the biggest tests of the season. 3 losses, 2-0 down, potentially out of the cup. And the second half delivered exactly what we needed. 7 minutes, 2 penalitues and a rather peculiar goal from Theo Walcott and 0-2 turned into 3-2.

The penalties were deserved, the peculiar goal too, a reward for our change of desire, change of style and change of attitude in the second half. For me, one change more noticeable was the improvement of Aaron Ramsey, who didn’t have the best first half in the world, but then really did step it up for the second half. Arteta’s return on 71 minutes, Coquelin’s return to the team and Rosiscky’s recent run of games means that we may afford to rest Ramsey a little more now – I think he could do with less minutes, perhaps some sub roles – he always does look tired.

For the manager, the comeback was amazing:

“It was a good test to show that we had the mental qualities to come back. On the other hand it was important that we didn’t panic [at half time]. To concede a goal just on half time for 2-0 was a difficult blow, but we responded very well against Manchester United here [last week] and we did it again today. Overall it was a classic FA Cup tie, 2-0 down and we came back. We had to fight to score three goals and we did it well. I felt it was harsh to be 2-0 down at half time, but Aston Villa are a good counter-attacking team and unfortunately we couldn’t score in the first half. In the second half it was all us.”

But for me, the fact that we went 2-0 down and stuttered over the line still makes me worry, it still gives me a sense that we have not yet turned any corner. Optimist or pessimist, this current Arsenal team doesn’t really allow you to really ever think anything or rest on any laurel.

The major plus was the return of Sagna – having him back in the team, back in defence, will add a lot of balance to our back four. There is also news that Gibbs will return too, and perhaps it won’t be too long until we see two full backs, Vermaelen & Koscielny in our back four. That will be pretty darn good.

There is a bit of debate on Van Persie and whether or not he did one on Cuellar – both players jumping in the air for a head and the Dutchman’s elbow connecting with the Villa defender. It’s a bit of rubbish and nonsense from Alex McLeish and personally very annoying to see such press and noise around it – if you want to read more, click here.

I really do hope that this is our comeback, our turning point and will push us onto turning our season around. We play Bolton on Wednesday at the Reebok and they’re currently enjoying some decent form – having beat Liverpool last weekend 3-1. We’ll need to be on top of our game, and the return of a few key players may be the catalyst we need.

Stay positive, stay Goonerish. Til tomorrow.

What a world-wind weekend that was. The Oxlade Chamberlain debacle has overshadowed the whole weekend. A weekend where Man City beat Sp*rs and Man United beat us to make it a two horse race at the top of the table and make it a massive up-hill climb for us, now in 5th and needing a miracle to finish in the top four. Our performance against United in the first half was woeful and the missing Arteta is a player who we can’t function without. Which, in itself is worrying. Tactically, things weren’t right, and the players do not seem to be on the same page.

For the first time in a very long time, most AKB’s are now questioning our performances, our transfer activity and of course, after Oxlade was substituted on the weekend, are questioning our manager’s ability to make substitutions. A few people who wouldn’t say a bad word against Arsene – ever – are now doubtful about whether he’s been on top of his own game for the last 6 months. Whereas I am still a fan and don’t believe it’s entirely the manager’s fault, there are questions about signings and subs which can’t be ignored.

After Arsene subbed Oxlade, we went on to lose the game. Whether or not we would have won the game if Oxlade stayed on is debatable, but the reaction of Arsene post game… stating that he’s made over 50,000 substitutions in his time and the one line:

 ”If I’ve made a mistake, I’m sorry.”

Sums it all up for me – he made a mistake. Following that issue, he did then go on to say that the player was injured… whether or not you believe it. His former coach at Southampton did speak tot he player and confirmed that there was no problems with Alex continuing…

“He said, first and foremost, that he was super happy with his first match from the start, while he was pleased to have played well. I also got confirmation from Alex that he was neither tired or injured.”

Should we trust the manager? Or did he make a mistake? Did he then lie about it? Are we right to question the manager?

Van Persie certainly questioned him Ox was substituted, but since then the captain has released this statement:

I was not having a go at the boss on Sunday — I was just sad to see Alex leave the pitch as he just gave the assist for our only goal. I was not questioning his judgment — I know it’s not my place to challenge what Arsene Wenger does. He is the boss, he makes the decisions and that’s it… end of story. I have worked with the boss long enough to know there’s always a good reason behind his decisions — and there was again on Sunday. When Arsene makes a decision, it is based on a lot of information that everyone else might not know about and he will never betray. I admire him so much for that. As he said after the game, he doesn’t have to explain his substitutions to anyone. He was right to remind everyone that he has been in the job 30 years and made 50,000 substitutions — why on earth should he have to justify each and every one of them? He has all the information, he knows when a player is carrying a small injury, or has been ill, or is tiring. Arsene’s remarkable success in the game is proof enough that his decisions are made from knowledge and experience. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had a calf injury. We did not know that but the boss did and brought Andrey Arshavin on. I have a lot of respect and admiration for Arsene Wenger. He is one of the best football coaches in the world, with a brilliant record of success here at Arsenal. I wouldn’t be here or the player I am without him. The manager and I are fine and my relationship with the club is good. I don’t want anyone misunderstanding the situation here for a moment. There is no problem, there is no conflict and there is no controversy. The boss knows that, I know that, the players all know that. But it’s important the Arsenal fans know that and that people in the game know that. We are all committed to doing the very best we can to bring success to The Emirates. We are not giving up on a top-four finish, no way. Losing to Manchester United was a setback — but it is not a knockout blow. The way this season is going I think it’s pretty safe to say there will be a lot more surprises before the Premier League season is over. There’s plenty of games still left, we have recovered from reverses like this before and we will win again. So anybody writing us off is making a mistake. This could still be a good season for us. We have the FA Cup to look forward to and the Champions League. We will all be giving 100 per cent to make sure we bring one of those trophies home, hopefully both of them.

Let’s all stick together and fight

Quite excessive for a substitution right?

Although Van Persie is correct in a few points, I wonder the real reason for sending out this message is – your guess is as good as mine. The worrying thing is that we’ve now lost three games in a row – to Fulham, to Swansea and then to Man United. It leaves is a very dangerous position and the reality is that we have a serious chance of finishing 5th or 6th. The captain goes on to say that we’re still in two competitions – the FA Cup and the Champions League – but will Arsene prioritise attempting to finish 4th ahead of the two trophies…

We do have Arteta back in time for the game this weekend against Aston Villa and we’re hearing that Jack Wilshere is also on his way back to full fitness. Both players will add a lot of depth to our squad – when both fit, will both start ahead of anyone else – and if Oxlade’s cameo’s are anything to go by, then he is a player in the making. Keep the players fit, get some full backs back and there is no reason why we can’t have a better second half to the second that the first. But, without any signings, the risk to Robin Van Persie and / or other key players is still very high.

We’ll do what Robin says, stick together and fight – but it is extremely hard to do so when you don’t see the players doing so themselves… or the manager for that matter.

But victory through harmony is what we’re all about… let’s back the team for the rest of the season. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. I am sure there is more & better to come.

Until tomorrow, stay goonerish.

Seven losses this season before the end of January makes it a very worrying time for Arsenal at the moment. Having never been out of the top four in the Arsene Wenger era, we’re very very close to it happening this season, without doubt.

The 7 losses this season have been:

1. Swansea 3 – 2 Arsenal
2. Fulham 2 – 1 Arsenal
3. Man City 1 – 0 Arsenal
4. Sp*rs 2 – 1 Arsenal
5. Blackburn 4 – 3 Arsenal
6. Man United 8 – 2 Arsenal
7. Arsenal 0 – 2 Liverpool

Despite having injuries to various left backs and right backs, the core part of the squad – the likes of Van Persie, Walcott, Song, Koscielny, Szcznesy and Ramsey are all first choice and good enough to make the team tick. That was the negative part about the result – that we do have talented players, but they are not good enough.

Out of all the missing players, I think Arteta was the key one – Song is used to having the Spaniard next to him and today, it was clear that Benayoun and Ramsey weren’t working as well with him as Arteta would have. We lost the calmness in our midfield and that caused us problems throughout the game.

Our line up was:

Szcznesy

Djourou – Mertersacker – Koscielny – Miquel

Benayoun – Song

Walcott – Ramsey – Arshavin

Van Persie

The missing players, just in case you’d like to know were:

Fabianski, Sagna, Jenkinson, Vermaelen, Santos, Gibbs, Coquelin, Arteta, Wilshere, Diaby, Gervinho, Chamakh

For the goals, Van Persie’s was excellent – the little Russian putting him through and the Dutchman opened the scoring with a sublime right footed shot – but we got instantly complacent which let the home team back into it – and a very strange decision to award Swansea a penalty saw then equalise from the spot – Dyer actually stamped on Ramsey and then was awarded a penalty. Swansea went ahead in the second half when some very good play saw Dyer in and free and he smashed the ball past Szcznesy. We equalised with half an hour to go, through Theo Walcott, good finish and good through ball from Djourou – but seconds later an excellent run from Graham saw Swansea go 3-2 up. Having put Henry, AOC and Rosicky on, we did look much better, but were unable to find the equaliser.

Losing this game was a game we could simply not lose. Arsene needs to have a deep look at the squad and if decide how we can improve. Whether it’s more players, or whether it’s a different approach on the pitch, formation, style, design. We need to do something different. We’re battling it for a Europa spot at the moment with Liverpool and Newcastle and that’s not exactly where we’d like to be.

Arsene seems to be lost at the moment to understand how we’re not performing and spoke after the game:

“I still don’t understand where the referee found the penalty [for Swansea's equaliser], then we defensively made some mistakes that we should not have done. When it was back at 2-2 we knew we could score a third but it was important not to make a mistake. But in the last games we have made mistakes that are difficult to explain. It is unbelievable, it happened at Fulham the same and again today.”

It’s a little worrying when the manager doesn’t quite have the answers.

We’ve got United next week and it’s important to focus on getting our injured players back and looking at our defensive organisation. There are 7 days until the next game, which will leave plenty of time for discussion.

Stay positive.

Til tomorrow.

Today’s blog is a little late… but as Thierry says… better late than never.

It was an amazing night for all Arsenal fans, and a night to be remembered for a hero’s welcome, the return of a legend and a great inspirational night. Thierry Henry loves the club, he was a quality footballer, and still is. He may have lost some pace and patience, but he still has the class that he developed at Arsenal and still has the va-va-voom that made him the player he was. His movement and goal was reminiscent of the old Thierry and showed he still has talent.

He spoke in length after the game and it’s very much worthy of a read…

“I guess it was always going to be surreal. It was one of the best moments because it is the first time that I wore the Arsenal shirt being a fan.  I became a fan when I left the club so now I know exactly how it feels to score for the club that you support. So, great emotions. As I said earlier on to some of the guys in the dressing room, two weeks ago I was on holiday in Mexico on the beach and here I am scoring the winner against Leeds. Obviously I am going to grab some headlines and stuff like that but Nico Yennaris and Ignasi Miquel at the back, along with some of the other guys, played really well. I was at the end of a great move but as I said many times, it is all about the team. We went through and that is the most important thing. I always want more so I don’t know if it is going to be a goal, a pass or a tackle. I said so many times, I am not here to be a hero. I am here to be another player, to help the squad and that is it to be honest. I didn’t plan a comeback.  I didn’t plan to come on, I didn’t plan to score! That, maybe I did! But joking apart, I never thought I was going to be here, talking to you after a game so scoring a winner for the club that I love, I am actually dreaming right now. It was the first time that I played for Arsenal being a fan. Before, I would have died out there for the club, but now I am a fan it was mixed emotions. It was almost unreal.”

It was very surreal for myself, and I’m sure for all Arsenal fans. Thierry is a true living and playing legend…

Yesterday, I was very happy with what happened, as Thierry’s emotional celebration summed up his love for the club. But on a slightly negative note, it does sum up the lack of strength in depth in the squad and the lack of quality. Chamakh is the player that most papers targeted showing how bad he is in comparison to Henry. Chamakh has 1 goal is something like 429 minutes, whereas Henry has 1 goal in 22 minutes. Interesting stat, but there is much more to the equation than meets the eye. We’ve been lucky to have had a lot of attacking options previously – players like Henry, Bergkamp, Van Persie, Reyes as well as quality reserves & youth. Where we are at the moment is worlds apart – we don’t have a plethora of attacking talent. And the existing squad is quite young and inexperienced. Theo Walcott has been with us for a lot time, but he is not an Henry, a Pires or a Ljungberg.

The fact that Henry, aged 34, can come back and immediately go to #2 in the striking pecking orders basically sums up what I am trying to say. Personally, I believe we need an injection of players, and we’re one Van Persie injury away of being very average. It’s a risk that a club like ours shouldn’t take. The reason that Man City have Aguero, Ballotelli, Dzeko and Tevez is because they need options. If Aguero gets injured, then there needs to be someone who can come in a do a job. Arsene needs to invest in a striker, in a proper player. Theoretically, he should have significant funds available considering our budgets and then sales of players.

Looking at the team that played on Monday – I was surprised to see Benayoun miss out and was also very surprised to see Alex Song and Mikel Arteta play 90 minutes – the latter being an ever present in our team and for me, he was the man of the match. He was good going forward, excellent defending and he link play was amazing. Let’s hope he can stay fit the rest of the season!

We’ve got Swansea on Sunday and that is a huge game for us – it’s away and I don’t think it will be that easy – Van Persie will be back – Theo will start – and Henry will be on the bench…

You’ll get your weekly dose of Tottz82 tomorrow, in the meanwhile, watch this again and again:

Two games in 48 hours is a usual part of the festive period and we saw over the last few days that this period comes with a few upsets – Sunderland beating Man City and Blackburn beating Man United – two results I didn’t see coming.

The goal that won us the game came through that man, Robin Van Persie, who got onto the end of an excellent ball by Arshavin and slotted past the keeper with what looked like a simple finish. The result at the weekend put us into fourth place in the league and we have been strivimg to get there from the beginning of the season. The job is not done… Chelsea and Liverpool are just 2 points behind us.

Koscielny spoke about the performance:

“It was very important to win [against QPR], because we drew against Wolves and we wanted to win this game and we did. It is good for us that we are fourth, so we need to stay in fourth spot and maybe even get to third. We work every day to get stronger. We know we [still have to] play at home against Chelsea, Manchester Utd, Manchester City and Tottenham, so we have the cards in our hands. We can go higher in the table [if we win at home].”

That’s true, but the real points are picked up against the smaller clubs. The Wolves game was a disappointment of course, but the festive period has brought about the strange results, with Chelsea also losing, at home to the out of form Villa.

Arsenal vs Fulham

Today’s game is vital, Fulham have also played a lot of games, so it will be tired squad versus tired squad. It’s unknown how the manager will play today’s game. We don’t have a lot of players that we can rotate. Injuries to Sagna, Jenkinson, Santos, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Diaby and Wilshere doesn’t leave us with a lot of options to maintain a fit XI other than sticking with the team we have. Of course, with the FA cup coming up next weekend, there will be some rest for the first team.

My predicted line up is:

Szcznesy

Djourou – Mertersacker – Koscielny – Miquel

Arteta – Song

Walcott – Rosicky – Gervinho

Van Persie

With a bench of Almunia, Coquelin, Squillaci, Ramsey, Benayoun, Chamakh, Oxlade

Fulham away is always a tough game, so we’ll need to be at our best… come on you Gooners!

Morning Gooners,

In the end there was an inevitability of Arsenal’s inability to take advantage of the Christmas gifts presented to them after yesterday’s results. I have just arrived back from the game and I can honestly say that result has tarnished my Christmas break.

We went into the game knowing that a win would put us into to fourth given Chelsea and Liverpool drawing at home on Boxing Day. Those that follow me on twitter will have seen my pre-game comments stating that this was by no means a home banker and players like Javis and Fletcher would be a threat.

After a tough few games against Man City and Villa, Le Boss rightly rotated bringing in Rosicky, Yossi and Djourou. The team was:

Szczesny, Mertesacker  ,Vermaelen, Koscielny, Djourou, Rosicky, Arteta, Song ,Benayoun,Van Persie, Gervinho

After both teams getting in behind each others defences, Arsenal broke awake from a Wolves attack through Rosicky who brilliantly carried the ball into their half, squared it to Yossi in space who cut the defence open with a ball to Gervinho was beat the keeper and fired it into the net.

A goal in the opening 8 minutes, time to kill the game off early on right? Wrong. We created chances in RVP, Vermaelen and Arteta but Arsenal slowly became more casual / tippy tappy in their play, Wolves picked on these mistakes and eventually got their equaliser during a period of sloppy Arsenal play. A needless corner was headed away but the second ball was picked up by the misspelt Hunt who floated a deflected ball back into the box where Fletcher’s header crept passed Szcz. Much of the crowd screamed for offside but news soon filtered round that Song was strolling out of his right back postion and played Flethcher onside.

Thinking back about the second half right now, it’s a blur of frustration, disbelief and aggression toward Stuar Attwell the referee. I can not remember Szcz having anything to do at all in the second half however it was a different story for his opposite number, Hennessey was continued to have the game of his life. The keeper saved brilliantly from a RVP freekick (twice), Mertesacker point blank header, Vermaelen shot, and a variety of other shots but Arsenal just couldn’t stick the ball into the net.

It was not only the Wolves keeper in the spotlight but Stuart Attwell wanted to make sure everyone knew his name on the way home too. Simply put, the referee lost total control of the second half and this affected both teams. A few of his moments:

• Incorrectly positioning a wall for a free kick then trotting back demanding Arteta to hurry up and take it only to be told by RVP to get out the way as he was taking it.
• Penalty incident number 1 – A very obvious handball and booking Veraemlen for protesting.
• Penalty incident number 2 – The Wolves players hauls down RVP preventing him getting near the ball from a corner. Ref is in line and gives nothing
• I’ve not seen the replay but it looked like the ball spun away from Milijas who then took ball and man trying to win it back, the ref saw it has a red card, Harsh.
• 3 subs in a minute. Instead of demanding all happen at once, the ref stopped and started the game 3 times in order of the subs to happen. Both sets of players and benches were furious.

We threw everything we had at Wolves but in the end they held on for their first ever premiership point at Arsenal.

With 17^th shots on target there is a fine line between being unlucky and poor finishing but tonight we’ve got to be fair sportsman and credit Hennessey for his top keeping.

Wenger was also in reflective mood after:

It is frustrating but I am more frustrated by the result than the performance and the spirit. You cannot fault the attitude or the commitment or the desire to win the game. We missed a great opportunity but we just have to keep going and take the positives out of the game today.

Their keeper had a good performance, they saved a few on the line, they did fight like mad. It was more important for us to go in 1-0 up at half-time because I know with the way they defend they would not survive like that for 90 minutes and we would have much more space in which to play. At some stage they would have had to come out. But I felt we lost our way a bit between 30 and 40 minutes and on that occasion we were caught. The only thing we can learn today is to keep the spirit and when you’re 1-0 up to keep our level up.

Two massive points dropped at home make no mistake. After the hard work at Villa Park we should have finished the job off in the first half. Instead we took our foot off the pedal and became worryingly complacent. However, this is nothing new; we’ve seen Arsenal teams of recent years do exactly the same.

If the newspaper reports are true and Le Boss is giving himself a week to decide whether to sign Henry or others, then surely this result should make his mind up. Do you think the Wolves defence were at all intimidated or worried at the sight of Chamakh coming on? I very much doubt it. We crossed in ball after ball in the final 15mins without ever looking like we were going to score. If Bendtner was coming on, maybe a different story.

A worrying stat I also read yesterday was that Arsenal have only scored 19 goals in their last 15 home premiership matches and have only scored more that once 4 times in that run. For a team known for their attacking football that is a very worrying stat.

The good news is we don’t have to wait long to right our wrongs, QPR (with Barton and Warnock) are up next on Saturday.

Enjoy your Wednesday Gooners.

Feedback welcome – @Tottz82

What a goal… What a beautiful goal…

If any goal was going to win the game, then that was the goal. Was it better than the one at Charlton, no, probably not, but was it fitting for Robin Van Persie to score it? Yes, for sure…

Sweet, sweet and sweeter every time you watch it. The winning goal. But it shouldn’t have really been a winning goal, we really should have put away of of the 12 chances at goal we had before that strike. One thing this game reminded me of is “that” game that last season we would either not scored or conceded a goal afterwards.

The line up was: Szcznesy, Djourou, Mertersacker, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Song, Arteta, Ramsey, Walcott, Gervinho and Van Persie.

Vermaelen playing at left back due to the injury to Andre Santos, and if you haven’t heard, you may be a little shocked, but Santos is out until March now with an ankle injury. Announced the Arsenal.com on Monday:

Arsenal Football Club can confirm that, following investigations and subsequent medical opinions by Club specialists, left-back Andre Santos will have surgery to repair ligament damage in his right ankle sustained in the game against Olympiacos last week. Andre will have surgery in Brazil this week and is expected to be out for around three months. Everyone at the Club wishes him well.

It was a massive mistake from Arsene to play Santos – our only fit full back – against Olympiacos. The players were dis-interested and we had no momentum or reason to win that game. Yes, hindsight is an excellent attribute to have after an event, but even before the game all, if not all fans did question not only his inclusion but that of Vermaelen. It could have been worse, the vice captain himself could have got injured. But this injury to Santos, as Gibbs is also sidelined, means that Vermaelen will move out to left back, thus meaning we lose him out of the centre of defence for a significant portion of time too.

I was talking to a friend of mine and commenting on the loss of Rooney for Man United and how they struggle without him, which led nicely onto the topic of Robin Van Persie – his quality and how we’ve missed him over the years. He is flying at the moment, and our season turnaround is much connected to his goals. 32 goals in 31 games. If he were to get injured, then who would take his place. Chamakh isn’t good enough – that we know for sure. Park? Can he come in and do a job? Chamakh is off to the African Nations Cup with Morocco, so very soon, it will be Park only as the back up.

Chamakh may not last until the end of the ACN, with PSG rumoured to be interested, the player said:

“I am 27. I need to play. I cannot stay like this forever. If I played more, of course I would have more confidence and score more goals.”

The January transfer window should be our opportunity to ensure we rectify the situation, to buy another striker who can make a difference. If we don’t, we will pay the price. Arshavin playing left and Gervinho up front just won’t cut it. But January is a long time away, and between now and then we need to win win win… starting this weekend against Man City, who fell to this first loss against Chelsea where ex-Gooner Clichy got sent off…

We’ll have 4 or 5 days of build up to that game, so until tomorrow, my friends, until tomorrow…

After the dropped points against Fulham, there was a midweek rest for some of our key players. Against Fulham, our team looked absolutely knackered. And what a difference a week’s rest makes to the performance. Yesterday, our players looked much better all round, in attack and in defence. The line up was:

Szcznesy

Koscielny – Metersacker – Vermaelen – Santos

Arteta – Song

Walcott – Ramsey – Gervinho

Van Persie

With a bench of Fabianski, Djourou, Coquelin, Arshavin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Benayoun, Chamakh

Koscielny being the only player than remained from the the starting line up mid week, and as previously, deployed at right back with Jenkinson and Sagna. The result itself was emphatic, but Wigan gave us a bit more difficulty than the scoreline suggests. In fact, it was the home team that started the game the better, with our defence being asked questions early on. Szcznesy was called into action early on and we were lucky for the home team not to score.

With Vermaelen back in the team, he gives us an attacking option from the back, and for our first goal, his run into midfield drew a Wigan player into cover him, and his pass to Arteta meant that the the Spaniard was unmarked and with space to run into – a smashing shot from 20+ years, and into the back of the net. The Wigan keeper should have done better, but a great strike from Arteta none-the-less. And Vermaelen, having assisted one, then got onto the score sheet himself from a Van Persie corner – another assist from the Dutchman. Vermaelen rising at the far post to head into the net. Van Persie has scored so many goals this season – but at the same time, how many assists does he have? A phenomenal contribution from our captain.

The second half continued the same way as the first half,  Wigan coming out with some fire in their belly, but the Arsenal defence stood strong and showed some good football on the counter attack. Ramsey really (really really) should have had a penalty when he was pushed and pulled to the ground by a Wigan defender. We’ve been 2-0 up against Wigan before and go on to lose 3-2, so we needed the third – and it duly came, through misfiring Gervinho – some great play, great one twos, great skill from Van Persie to check onto his right and shoot – save from the keeper and then a rebound shot from Gervinho – very happy that he got onto the scoresheet – he deserved to, his play in the last few weeks has been very good, but he just hasn’t coverted.

And what game could be complete without a goal from Robin Van Persie. Some great play by Walcott down the right saw him one on one with the keeper, but he had the composure to look up and singled out Van Persie who finished well to make it 4. The overall link play between the front 4 of Gervinho, Van Persie, Walcott and Ramsey is improving game by game and it’s very exciting to watch at the moment.

Arsene was keen to praise the quality of the football and said this after the game:

We know we can do that, and we can do that at a good pace. Today we have seen some outstanding combinations. I must say as well that the pitch is better here than it was years ago. That helps us as well.

And then went on to talk about the game:

Wigan started well, created some dangerous situations and surprised us at the start. After that 15 minutes we took control of the game and never looked like losing that. Maybe a bit in the first five minutes of the second half. But overall we had a good team performance defensively and offensively. The confidence is there and you could feel that in the way we played today. I can only congratulate the team. They are growing and they are getting better and better. You could see there is something there to work on.

We have a mid-week game against Olympiacos and it looks like we’re going to play a young team and a team mixed with fringe players, as win, lose or draw, we go through as 1st in the group. Our win against Dortmund made that happen, so I expect to see a team very similar to last week’s Carling cup outing – but with Koscielny completely rested and perhaps a few more kids in and around the team.

Earlier today, the FA Cup third round draw was made, and in an exact repeat of last year – by pulling Leeds United – at home – out of the hat. It’s the same as last year, although we failed to win the home leg last year, but with a few extra players in Frimpong, Coquelin, Oxlade and Park – and perhaps a few returnees in Wilshere, Jenkinson and maybe another return for Diaby… we may just have enough players to rest the first team and win at home against Leeds.

That’s all from me today. I’ll be back tomorrow with my take our squad before we take on Olympiacos!

Ciao for now…

Morning Folks… 2-1 to the Arsenal, Van Persie scores two… three points on the board, now top of the group with 11 points and a game to go. This is what we call “job done”… Job done to the point where we can send out the youth to Greece in the final game, win, lose or draw and still finish top. Arsenal were supposed to be the team that wouldn’t be able to make it through to the next round… after the away draw to Dortmund, questions were raised about whether we’d be able to make it through, whereas Chelsea, Man City & Man United were supposed to make it through at a canter. Now we’re through and the other three could all be kicked out by the time the group stages are over, suggests the media didn’t quite get their prediction right – but it also suggests that we are quietly carrying on with our business of winning games.

Yesterday’s line up was:

Szcznesy

Koscielny – Mertersacker – Vermaelen – Santos

Arteta – Song

Walcott – Ramsey – Gervinho

Van Persie

And on the bench was the returning Abou Diaby, who replaced the injured Rosicky – along side… Fabianski, Frimpong, Benayoun, Chamakh, Djourou and Arshavin…

With Robin Van Persie in such great form, he just seems to score and score and score. Another two goals yesterday for the Dutchman means he’s scored a whopping 38 goals this calendar year. All that I can say on that is………. wow…….. and also… just imagine if we’d had him fully fit for the last five years….

Arsene spoke on Robin’s form and said:

He is in a period where of course he doesn’t have to look for goals – they just come naturally for him. He is always in the right place at the right moment and he got two goals again tonight from positions that look easy but they are not. He just understands the game so well.

Arteta joined in with the praise:

“We all know how good he is. Robin keeps performing and scoring goals, making the difference. At the moment he is level with any striker in the world, his numbers are unbelievable in the past eight or nine months. For me, it is just a natural talent. Sometimes he looks as if he does not try, but beats players and scores and unbelievable goal. Robin is on fire, he is making the difference. Hopefully he can continue to do that and people can talk about him all the time, because that means we are winning.”

We did get a little sloppy in the final few minutes of the game, and conceded a goal we didn’t need to – I got a little bit worried, but the ref blue the whistle very quickly after their goal, which didn’t allow for another attempt… phew…

All in all, I really felt the performance was a very professional and disciplined performance. The defence was shaky at times, but it stood strong and did well – Dortmund are a very good side, let’s not forget that. Alex Song played very well throughout the game and at the moment, he is becoming one of the first names on the team sheet outside of Robin. Arteta, too, as a partner has been a good compliment to the Cameroonian. Thank God Cameroon didn’t qualify for the African Nations Cup… Koscielny looked very good at right back again, and it’s clear to see that he’s really making a name for himself at the moment. He tired by the last ten minutes and we put Djourou on for him, but overall, he has really impressed me this season…

On the other side is the mercurial Gervinho, who brings so much to the team in terms of skills, pace and pressure on the defence. However, in the last few games, he has had a lot of one-on-ones and good chances to score, but he seems to fluff his chances a lot. We all know that if Van Persie got injured, we’d most likely move him into the middle and have Arshavin on the left (as we did in pre-season) but his inability to finish his chances is very worrying at the moment. Let’s hope he starts maturing in front of goal soon, goals from him could be vital from left mid or from the middle…

There is a bit of a feel good factor about our team at the moment, and that’s very good. I’ve been waiting for this moment all weekend, and we need to continue our good form this weekend by beating Fulham… as they say, as we say… come on you Gooners!

Fog is horrible.

Well, fog is something that you don’t really care for, don’t really have a clue why people fuss about it or why it even exists. That is, until you get stuck at an airport for 6 hours waiting for a 40 minute flight from Paris to London… Apart from a horrible time shift from landing at 9pm to landing at 3am, it’s not the best use of your time… Missing the evening slot at home to watch Match of the Day and write my Sunday evening blog post was the major loss… so as things stand, I still haven’t seen the highlights! Work today and ATP tennis at the o2 tonight, makes me wonder when I will be able to see the match…

But, in my absence, Arsenal managed to secure a fifth successive win to make it 15 points out of 15… which takes us to level on points with Chelsea, Liverpool and Sp*rs – which in all fairness, I couldn’t see happening after our incredibly bad start to the season.

Our line up was “the usual”, with the only difference being Koscielny to right back and Mertersacker to centre back.

Szcznesy

Koscielny – Mertersacker – Vermaelen – Santos

Arteta – Song

Walcott – Ramsey – Gervinho

Van Persie

The game itself, was open and it was an individual mistake from Mertersacker that allowed Norwich to go ahead, when he misjudged the flight of the ball and failed to clear his lines. That issue aside, he had a decent game. But for us, we have a level of confidence and the mercurial Gervinho was the culprit who missed loads of chances… but created two for Van Persie to score, taking the Ducthman’s tally to a million goals this season… but more vitally, the three points were ours!

Last week, Robin Van Persie was full of praise for Theo Walcott and this week, post Norwich, Theo has been talking about the captain and the synergy between the two players:

“We just love playing together. Over the past few years I have had my injuries and he has had his so we have not been able to sustain a run of games together.  But this year you can see signs that we just know where each other is going to be on the pitch. To be honest it makes it is easier for both of us. Robin is one of the best strikers in the world right now and a great leader too. But then the whole team is gelling now. On the second goal you could see there was a lot of movement not just with the ball but without it. We were creating space for players and a lot of us are in form at the moment. And of course it is easier when we are winning. If we want to climb up the table then, no disrespect to Norwich, but we should be coming to places like this and winning,” he said. “I did not think we deserved to be 1-0 down but they closed us down well. It was important to get the goal back before half time and we played some beautiful football.”

We have three home games next – Dortmund on Wednesday and Fulham on Saturday. Personally, I don’t care about the Carling Cup – despite the insistence that it could be our only chance of winning a trophy… we can’t compete in four competitions – we found that out gruesomely last season. We need to concentrate on the league, the Champions league and the FA Cup… so the third game, Man City at home in the Carling Cup can be one for the kids.

Dortmund on Wednesday and Fulham on Saturday are two games that we just must take maximum points from. The destiny of both those competitions is still in our hands…

Til tomorrow, adiós…