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Morning Gooners,

The frustrations still rumble on after the Fulham defeat. For someone who made the trip across London, I’m still replaying a lot of the game in my head and asking plenty of questions. Make no mistake it was a bad defeat that was very avoidable. Going into the game I had said that we needed to have an undefeated January, 3 away games, home to United and the start of the FA Cup. Game 1, defeat. Great.

How? Why? Who to blame? What now? Where from here?

How?

A game of two havles (sort of). Arsenal were in total control in the first half. Some great passing play and ball control meant goals looked inevitable. After a number half attempts, Arsenal did get one from an unlikely source when Koscielny nodded in from Ramsey cross after our corner wasn’t properly cleared. 1-0. Arsenal continued to push but they rarely troubled Stockdale in the Fulham goal. There was a strong penalty appeal when Senderos tripped Gervinho. The referee waved this and many Arsenal freekick appeals throughout the game away.

The second half was a different story. Arsenal either took their foot off the gas pedal or they ran out of gas after a tough schedule, either way Arsenal were a pale shadow of the team in the first half. While we huffed and puffed, the Fulham team grew in confidence and sensed at least a goal. Their confidence grew further when Djourou, who had been booked, was sent off for persistent fouling. Still one nil up, Arsenal then folded like a house of cards. The first goal came from Ex-Gooner Sidwell who simply ran into the area to head in on the 85^th. I then saw the 3 minutes on the board for injury time. By the time I considered taking a point; Zamora took advantage of a vacant left hand spot in our area and volleyed in the winner.

Why?

Everyone’s got an opinion for why. My opinion is that we didn’t rotate enough and an element of complacency kicked in along with the fatigue. After a gruelling few weeks, a few changes would have freshened up the team and given players the opportunity to stake a claim for a spot in the team. We didn’t and this lead to a leggy second half performance. I’m not going to sit here in hindsight and pick out who I would have played instead of whom but if they’re in the squad we should trust them.

Also, this result and outcome has been on the cards for a few weeks. We drew against Fulham and Wolves and got tight victories against Villa and QPR. We have not been our fluent footballing best for a  number of weeks.

Who to blame?

Well this is the part that everyone seems to enjoy these days, pointing the finger of blame. Ultimately the buck stops with the manager but I’ve always felt he’s ‘damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t’. To explain my point I take you back to the game against Wigan last season where Wenger made 8 changes and we were undone by an own goal in the last minute. The fans were furious with the boss for making so many changes. Fast forward a year and many were furious for the lack of rotation.

What now?

Well it’s January so we can expect signings right? I wouldn’t hold your breath. Henry is set to sign on loan, this will definitely bolster the squad and morale but he must not be the only signing. The next game is Leeds in the FA Cup, rotation is a given. The Swansea game comes almost 2 weeks after the Fulham game. That game now takes on great significance. The main first teamers rested, a tough 3 points is a must.

Where from here?

We need to focus on our results and don’t worry about Chelsea, Liverpool, City, United or Spuds. Let’s get to February with as many points as possible on the board, welcome back Wilshere, Vermaelen, Sagna, Jennikson, Gibbs, Henry and take the rest of the season from there.

There’s nothing else really to report, just keep calm and carry on Gooners.

Feedback welcome on twitter – @Tottz82

I know that all of the WOA writers are busy with New Year plans, so this is possibly going to be the shortest ever blog on here, but I thought it was important enough to step out of the sunshine here in Melbourne to say on behalf of everyone at World of Arsenal, WELCOME HOME THIERRY. The King has always said he would return to the club in the future in some shape or form, but who in the world thought it was to play for us again? There are arguments for and against this signing, which I’m not going to go into now, but I think everyone who claims to be an Arsenal fan loves this guy, and it is going to be amazing seeing him wear the red and white shirt again. Happy New Year to everyone, normal serivce will resume next week.

It has been a while since I last blogged for Dev, but I am pleased to provide you with my review of the season up to Christmas. I have been busy with a temporary relocation to Australia and, I must admit, too upset to write about Arsenal for the first part of this season. Anyone who makes the effort to write about this great club on a daily basis deserves a lot of credit. The same goes for all the bloggers out there who share their views and opinions with us every day. I have been at Dev’s flat late at night after a game, ready to go home to bed, only to see him open his laptop and start writing a blog for the next day. We are blessed with a team of smart and dedicated writers at WOA and they deserve a special Xmas congratulations for providing yet another year of good reading.

August

I have found a bit of time, and distance, to gather my thoughts on the ups and downs of the season so far. It started badly. Late in the transfer window we saw Cesc and Nasri depart, leaving us with a squad lacking in depth and quality going into the new campaign. And we paid the price for that. In our opening fixtures we lost Gervinho and Frimpong to suspensions, which rubbed salt into a very sore wound. Looking back now you can see that we never really stood a chance in our games against Liverpool and Man Utd. The only positive note in August, results wise, was the victory against a good Udinese side. As disappointing as our results back then were, the two games against Udinese gave me confidence we would come good.

August culminated in ‘that’ defeat against Utd, which I was unlucky enough to witness in person. Utd were on fire back then. The champions always have a strong start to the following season, tending to thrive off the buzz of the last. And we played them on one of those days where everything they did turned to gold and everything we did resulted in a red card, free kick, or goal conceded. It was a terrible result but, as I will explain below, possibly a blessing in disguise.

A few days later came the end of the transfer window. After the Utd game it was clear that we needed reinforcements desperately. Would a draw or win at Old Trafford have convinced AW otherwise? We’ll never know. By now though, what we do know is not to assume that he’ll make any signings in a transfer window. The defeat at Utd made sure of it though, and in the final days of the window we signed Mertesacker, Park, Benayoun, Arteta and Santos. All of whom, perhaps Park aside, have impressed highly since.

Mertesacker, while painfully slow on the turn, is an experienced international who seems to have found a great understanding with Koscielny and Vermaelen. Benayoun is another experienced player who will prove to be important for us this season. His work rate is excellent and AW clearly trusts him enough to bring him on late in games to seal a result. The OX was signed in early August and is going to be a gem of a player, waiting to explode on to the scene. Arteta is a top, top class footballer who should have been at Arsenal a few years ago. His play is more subtle than Cesc’s but he has formed a formidable partnership with Ramsey and Song in the middle. Santos was unfortunate to have been injured recently. After shedding a few pounds he made the LB position his own, driving forward at every opportunity and prodding a leg in when it was needed defensively. To Arsene’s credit, his signings at the end of August were top draw, and yet again he paid reasonable fees for all these players.

September

The problem with signing players that late on in the window is that they still need time to settle and gel. Going into September this was an Arsenal side I hardly recognised. We hadn’t bonded with our new acquisitions and it all felt a bit strange. Fast forward to now and this team is one we can really identify with. We have our boys in red and white back again.

Still, we needed time to gel and our defensive instabilities were not yet rectified. We lost at Blackburn, undeservedly, but due to frailties at the back and an infuriating inability to convert four or five golden opportunities in the last few minutes. Despite this defeat, we won every game in September apart from the draw in Dortmund, which came courtesy of a wonder-goal conceded in the last minute.

October

October started with a defeat to Spurs which I was unable to watch due to the death of my grandfather. From what I was told by biased and unbiased friends, we were unlucky to lose this game. They scored with a possible handball and a goal which Chezzer ought to have saved, I thought. We also had spells where we tore them to pieces. Nonetheless we lost and it represented a bad start to the month. We more than made up for it though.

The remaining five October fixtures returned victories. A last-gasp goal by Ramsey in Marseille was a sweet one, only overshadowed by a stunning victory at Stamford Bridge. Going into this game we had had a great run of form. However, this was our first real test since losing to Spurs and the whole nation was ready to write us off. We went behind twice. Arsenal teams of old would have crumbled. This team was brave and fearless. The celebrations at the end of the game reflected the importance of the result to the club and its supporters. It was the moment that made us realise we had healed our wounds from the summer, and were ready to fight until the season ends in May. I knew we had it in us, that level of character was there in our result in Italy against Udinese. The rest of the nation did not, however, and a result and score line like that was always going to make the world take notice.

November

November is normally a disaster month for Arsenal, but this one was relatively fruitful. We were the first English team to qualify as group winners in the Champions League, and our fine league form continued as we remained unbeaten for the whole month. Even in a lacklustre display against Fulham we had it in us to pluck a draw out from a game we would have lost in seasons past. The only sour note came in the defeat to City in the Carling Cup. Not the worst tournament to go out of, but you never like losing any game as an Arsenal fan, especially to a side like City who fielded a strong team against an inexperienced Arsenal side which matched them for 83 minutes or so.

December

I must admit that I missed a few games in December due to the 11-hour time difference between London and Melbourne. I did not watch the Olympiacos game because we had already qualified. It seems that was a good decision. Our performances against Wigan and Everton were efficient and professional and both resulted in victories. I watched the game against City (despite the 3.10am Monday morning kick-off!) and was thrilled with our work-rate and bravery. People continue to expect us to bottle these big games but we held our own, and can feel unlucky not to have taken a draw against an overwhelmingly more resourceful opponent. Our final pre-Christmas fixture was against Villa in which Yossi Benayoun grabbed a late, but vital winner for the club. It was important to bounce back from the City defeat and to get back into that winning habit again.

RVP

The whole team has really come of age since August, and they continue to do us proud week in, week out. However, it would be impossible to write a review on the first half of the season without dedicating a few lines to Robin van Persie. We have always had world-class players at Arsenal under AW but this guy is the best striker in the world right now. I wouldn’t swap him for any other striker in the Premier League. He has everything you ask for from a player in his position. Aerial ability, goalscoring free-kicks, tap-ins and wonder goals. The strike against Everton is, at the moment, the goal of the season. If you study his technique in the replays of this goal, it is simply breath-taking to watch. Every time I see it, it gets better and better, and the replay from behind the goal shows how his body-shape changes to adapt to Song’s lofted pass. Watch it and imagine how difficult it must be to execute in real time, in fractions of a second. Pure class.

2012

As vantastic (sorry I couldn’t resist) as RVP is, he continues to be our main goal-scoring threat. I am hoping that a clinical striker is signed in January as we lose Gervinho and Chamakh to the ACN. Arsene has hinted that King Thierry might be coming home on a two month loan deal. Could we ask for a better Xmas present?

We have drawn AC Milan in the Champions League round of 16, which will be played out in February/March. We could have faced easier opposition but they are not Barcelona, and we have beaten them before, so we have nothing to fear. With Sagna, Wilshere, Jenkinson, Diaby, Gibbs and Santos all to return to the side, we can hope to have a formidable squad heading in to the final straight.

When asked where I thought we would finish the season in the depths of our August misery I never flinched in replying ‘top 4’. I thought we would be in the top 4 again by Xmas and we are one point off as things stand. We have a favourable-looking Christmas/new year schedule in which we can hope to take at least 10 out of 12 points (3 already taken including Villa). If Santa is kind this year maybe he’ll let us have all 12.

Where the season goes from here remains to be seen. For now, I hope you all have a great festive period and New Year, and here’s to a Red and White 2012.

JAT (you can follow me on twitter @j1mm7t)

Morning Gooners,

A quick fire blog from me today, a number of reasons why:

1)      There’s no a lot going on in the World of Arsenal

There seriously isn’t. We found out yesterday that Santos will be out for 3 months with ligament damage, leaving us with zero fit full backs, yikes! It’s a real pity for Santos as he’d started to show signs of improvement on the pitch and on his waistline. A 3 month absence will open the door to almost fit but not there yet Kieran Gibbs. I know what you’re all thinking, but that’s the only option we’ve got as buying another left back will leave us with 3 left backs when they’re all fit, unnecessary. Vermaelen, Mr ‘All action hero’ himself had a fantastic game at left back against Everton and he will deputise in the short term. As the first defender to score 10 goals in under 100 Premiership games, we have an able deputy.

Le boss has joined in the pantomime season by teasing the papers (and fans) in a game of ‘will he spend in January?’ … Oooh yes he will, oooh no he won’t..

“We lose players like Chamakh and Gervinho to the Africa Cup of Nations so hopefully, touch wood, we do not get any injuries to our strikers. But if an opportunity turns up in that department then we will buy,”

“Economically the whole environment has changed and people suffer more. The clubs will suffer more financially and it’s much more difficult. Maybe we will have some opportunities because we are in a good financial situation.”

Those that read my column regularly know that I won’t be drawn into all the rumours as the transfer window draws nearer because we will never be able to accurately call it. The media will attempt to know what we’re up to behind the scenes but I doubt we even know what’s going on behind the scences ourselves!

They say a picture speaks louder than a 1000 words so all I’ll say is this:

2)      I’ve lost the lead to my SLR camera.

I’ve been itching for a reason to take my SLR camera to the new stadium and the 125^th birthday gave me one. With new statues, fans in a celebration mood, legends on the pitch and the always beautiful stadium, I was able to get some lovely shots but only to find out I can’t upload any of them as I can’t find the lead. I, like any male in a relationship, have to blame my missus as she was the last person use the lead! Sorry Gooners, I wanted to share them with you but I can’t.

However a friend of mine and a far better photographer, @Jummy_cliff was not only able to capture the moment but upload them too. Check them out > http://t.co/3uzPHlTu

3)      All roads lead to Sunday

Man City’s defeat to Chelski brings an end to their 15 game unbeaten start, not exactly 38 games of invincibility is it?! On the surface it’s not the best result as Chelsea leap frog us to 3^rd but I believe we’ve not only got enough to match Chelsea but better them over the course of the season. Avoiding defeat on Sunday to Man City is our first task. More build up to the big game over the next few days…

Have a great day Gooners.

Feedback welcome – @Tottz82

Morning Gooners

Arsenal went into the final group game in a rare situation, qualified and top of the group. With this being the case Le Boss rightly rotated the squad and the team selected was close what we’d call a Carling Cup team. It was never going to be an easy game as Olympiacos needed a win to keep up their hopes of qualification.

Team :

Fabianski, Santos, Vermaelen , Squillaci, Djourou, AOC, Coquelin, Frimpong, Benayoun, Chamakh.

I was quite shocked to see Vermaelen starting given he has only been back for a few weeks and his current form is up there with RVP.

The first Arsenal chance came from Chamakh running onto a wide through ball and cutting back for Arshavin who was thwarted by the keepers legs. Soon after Frimpong curled an effort just wide but the worry was always the shakey defenders sticking us in it. And what we all feared when we saw the defensive line up happened. The Olympiacos goal was classic Arsenal at their sloppy best. Arshavin lost the ball in typical Arshavin fashion and under pressure Squillaci managed to nutmeg Djourou who’s leg it deflected off to fall into the path of the striker who rounded Fabianski in no mans land.  Poor stuff.

Fabianski was then injured in a collision with Veraemlen and the keepers back luck continued as he was forced off injured. Unfortunately Vito Mannone, his replacement, had a nightmare introduction. Vito came out to head a long ball out side his area, the ball fell to an Olympiacos player who composed himself , shot and Mannone who was rushing back lost his bearings and chose to air volley the ball instead of catching it. A goal you’ll see again and again on football blooper DVD’s. Truly awful stuff.

The second half started in the same way the first half did, Olympiacos pressed our defenders, ready and waiting for a mistake. The tactic was working as we lacked any sort of compsure from the 5 at the back. To compound the misery, Santos pulled up injured and was stretched off to be replaced by Miquel.

Arsenal got themselves back into it through the substitute Miquel who sent a cross into Chamakh who teed it up for Yossi to hit beautifully on the volley.

The game started to open up as Arsenal fancied their chances to nick a draw. The running was coming from Yossi, AOC and Rosicky. If Arshavin and Chamakh has shown the same intent as the former 3, we would have scored at least one more goal. However they didn’t and a goal always seemed unlikely.

Olympiacos pressed for the 3^rd and in keeping with the rest of the goals, Arsenal were happy to present them with this. A free kick was floated in and the header hit the base of the post leaving their player best placed to tuck it in. We appealed in vein for the offside flag but the blame lay directly with the 4 defenders who rushed out carelessly.

As the Greek’s wildly celebrated their 3^rd goal and probable qualification, their party was cut short as news was filtering through that Marseille has scored 2 goals in 5mins, sending Marseille through at the expense of the Olympiacos. The stadium was filled with silence and shocked players as the waited for the final whistle. In the end their victory was in vein.

I never for one second thought we would win today and frustratingly, I can’t say I was shocked to watch Fabianski (then Mannone) Squillaci, Arshavin and Chamakh do little to improve their battered reputations. I see little point in sitting here and player bashing when the game was built up as a ‘nothing’ game. I am frustrated, along with the majority of you, in many of the performances but what the City and Olympiacos games have shown us who is ready to support step up when required in the first team and who should be no where near the first team. Playing away in the Champions League is never easy (ask City and Chelsea). There is little point in over reacting to the result or performance. I hope Santos and Fabianski are not seriously injured and will look forward to seeing all the rested players looking fresh on Saturday.

Bring on Everton!

Comments welcome @Tottz82

Morning Gooners,

On paper and in the bank Arsenal faced an extremely tough challenge in the quarter final’s of the Carling cup against Man $ity. The night started with a minute’s silence / appreciation for the late and great Gary Speed. He never played for us, I’m not Welsh but I really liked Gary Speed as a player, person and a manager. When I heard the news on Sunday morning I was surprisingly upset and am still asking the question ‘why?’ For the man that made Ramsey the Welsh team captain, I hope he rest’s in peace.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone that Arsenal stuck to their guns and brought in the fringe players.

Team versus City:

Fabianski, Djourou, Squillaci, Koscielny, Miquel, Frimpong, Coquelin, Benayoun, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Park, Chamakh

The City team cost over £119m (Arsenal £33m) to build plus a lot more on the bench.

The game kicked off for Nasri as it was going to continues as he was booed in every touch. I’m no Nasri fan and while I was pissed off with him for the entire summer his performance against Liverpool when the team was severly depleted was extremely professional. To the point the fans even sung his name. He’s said a few things afterwards but I really didn’t listen or care.

Things they make on Blue Peter now

The first chance of the night fell to Arsenal after a brilliant passing move leads to Park shot saved well from a Coquelin cross. On second viewing, Park’s shot seem to hit both his feet before the keeper did well to save.

AOC, who had a exciting first half pop up with a first time shot 30 yards out and the lanky City number 2 keeper saved brilliantly as it was dropping into the top corner. A stunning strike but an equally stunning save kept it level.

City flattered to threaten our goal but their moment of the first half came as City brought on one of their youth academy graduates (honest!), Aguero for Kolorov but Nasri trotted over to the touchline, shook hands as he was going off only to be bemused to why Kolorov is going off. Same ol’ Nasri, ready to leave.

The worrying sight of the night was Park and Chamakh huffing and puffing but their games were not suited together. Both are not the fastest and both want to link up play rather than beat the defender. I know they cost a few bob more but Aguero and Dzeko complimented each other very well on the night, could the ever improving AOC have played upfront? Potentially.

The breakthrough goal, in the 83^rd minute, came from an Arsenal corner unfortunately. City picked on a stray ball when Yossi and Kos both went for the tackle which led to a lightening break to let Aguero tuck in the goal. A real sucker punch for the team and City’s FIRST shot on target.

We only really had one chance after that. A cross was flashed across the box and how Chamakh didn’t throw himself at it like an old school number 9 I’ll never know. Van Persie’s ‘Come on’ reaction from the bench summed this up.

City won 1-0.

However, even though I write this after expecting to be beaten I’m gutted for some young Gunners that really stepped up against 10 internationals out there. Frimpong, Coquelin, Koscienly, Djourou and Chamberlain were simply brilliant. They wanted to win every 50 50, they wanted to drive forward and they wanted to win it for the The Arsenal. Their performances, not only tonight but against Bolton and Shrewsbury, justify our Carling Cup policy on and off the pitch.

We’ve got nothing to be ashamed of tonight, the positives by far out weigh the negatives. We do need striker with a cutting edge to back up RVP, the world can see that. I think we will sign someone in January but that’s not for now.

Sometimes you have to step back, take stock of what you’ve witnessed and put it in perspective. Last night is one of those nights and we have to take pride in a defeat that does hurt.

Bring on Wigan, some well rested first teamers and a bench of younger players who have shown they can step up if needed.

Come on The Arsenal!

Follow yours truly on twitter – @Tottz82

*sigh*

I should mention that I didn’t watch or listen to the match, neither did I follow it live on twitter, although I followed the BBC live text somewhat. I’ve just watched MotD highlights, so at the moment, that’s all I’ve got to work on, so apologies if I miss anything glaringly obvious, or if the highlights didn’t capture the real nature of the match.

Coming into this match, we had high hopes. Fulham had never beaten us at home, in any competition, so even though it was a London Derby, we didn’t have too much to be worried about, other than ourselves, and what sort of performance we put on. And with a flying Dutchman in our ranks, scoring goals is nowhere near the top of the list of things to improve on. Actually, it should be the top of the list for Gervinho, as his finishing of late… Anyways, I digress. We came into the match with reasonable expectations of winning, continuing our amazing run.

From what I’ve gathered, the first half pretty much was a snooze-fest, with someone even saying something along the lines of it being the worst half of football they ever watched. We did have one or two chances in the half, though. Arshavin had the ball in the net, but the flag had already gone up. Don’t know if that counts as a chance technically… It was mainly half-chances, Ramsey blazing over one time, but Fulham defended resolutely. I doubt they ‘parked the bus’, as that doesn’t strike me as a Fulham thing, but they did try to make it difficult for us to score, as they should! And they had their chances too, with Szczesny having to pull of a top save towards the end of the first half.

But all in all, it was a pretty drab first half, and luckily for some, the half time whistle eventually came!

As usual, and to be expected, after a dodgy first half, we turned up in the second half a bit better than the first, although nowhere near our fluent self, so it didn’t come as much of a surprise to me to find out that Fulham took the lead. Courtesy of an own-goal. By Vermaelen. You know we must have been playing nowhere near our best for an own goal to be scored by Tommy V! The own goal didn’t surprise me, but the scorer did, although like most of the own goals we’ve conceded, it was pretty unfortunate.

But I like what we did afterwards. We piled the pressure. It might not have been working before their goal, but as soon as they scored, we somehow found it in us to up the ante. You’d argue that we should have done this BEFORE they scored, but we could easily have put the towel in and gone, “oh we’ll, today’s not out day”. After the goal, Arsene made couple of subs, Per and Ramsey going off for Diaby and Gervinho. And with Kos still on the bench, Song had to go into CB duty. Chamakh came on for Arshavin less than 10 minutes later. The goal though, had sparked us into action, and Mark Schwarzer really had to earn his corn, making good saves! There was a really good one from a Djourou header. That would have been a very good goal. Someone needed to tell him that the auditions are over, we are no longer in the market for a goalie!

The pressure eventually told, and we equalised, through none other than Tommy V! Eventful day eh, Tommy? I always love it when players make costly mistakes, but find a way to make up for it before the end of the match. Could easily have sulked, but he put in even more effort than usual- and you can’t accuse Tommy of never giving enough- and got another goal, this time at the other end of the pitch. Wasn’t a flashy or spectacular goal or anything, just a downward header from a Theo cross, 8 minutes from time. Mistake rectified.

More pressure on the Fulham goal, but we couldn’t make it count, and we eventually ran out of time. Full time, 1-1. I was really sure we’d win, before kick-off, then at some point during the match, I was really worried we’d lose! But we ended up in between, with a draw. 2 points lost or 1 point gained? I guess time will tell, but I take the view that it could so easily have been 3 lost, so I’ll take the 1 point, thanks. Would have proffered all 3, obviously, but you can’t win all of your matches, so I draw will just have to do, sometimes. And like I tweeted, we didn’t lose. I don’t remember what a loss feels like anymore, and I’m glad the team didn’t remind me today. We’re unbeaten in how many games now? Let’s keep this run going, please.

I wish I could talk about stand-out performances today (other than Tommy V of course!), but I really can’t. Shout-out to Song though, having to play 2 different positions in one match. Aren’t you glad that Cameroon didn’t qualify for the African Cup of Nations? No need to worry about losing Mr Versatile-Awesome for an extended period. Fingers crossed the injury-gods don’t get to him! I heard Ramsey was delivering some gorgeous balls today. Shame no goals came from any, but at least they led to chances. Always a good thing. Oh, and Jack, too. He might be out of sight on the pitch what with him being injured, but he’s ensured that he’s not out of mind, whether it’s having a bet with Spurs fans that he’ll donate £3,000 to charity if they finish above us this season, or asking for donations outside the Ems with a charity bucket. Top lad. Future captain? Definitely got it in him.

Moving on from today though- there’s really no point in being negative about not managing to beat Fulham at home, and almost giving them a helping hand in beating us- massive game coming up on Tuesday. Not in terms of the competition- it’s the Carling Cup, and although it’d be nice to win it, I won’t shed a tear if we got knocked out- but in terms of the opposition. We’ve got City at home, in case you aren’t aware. The match is sold out, so should be a good atmosphere. Will probably be the Carling Cup team with a bit of first-teamers, but let’s give them a game, shall we? Can’t wait for it to unfold!

Gotta go to bed now, though. Be safe guys, and here’s hoping our unbeaten run continues past Tuesday!

Writing blogs during the International break is a difficult task most of the time – but this season has been a whirlwind season, starting very badly down at the Arsenal, dropping to 17th in the league, but then turning it around to win 9 out of 10 in all competition to end up 7th in the table, closing the gap, virtually through in the Champions League and into the quarters of the Carling Cup… And after such an eventful start to the season, I’ve taken a mini-break from the blog to reflect on season so far…

Over the course of this week, I’ll take a look at certain players for club & country and how they’ve faired and where we are this season. For the moment, for today’s blog, I’d like to talk a little about England and the future of the England squad. For many years, I’ve been quite annoyed at the England national team. The quality of players hasn’t been the best in the world, but the way we’ve played has been the biggest let down of all.

Yesterday’s performance showed a different type of England team, a more cohesive and more trusting team. We didn’t see a fast flowing attacking performance and of course, we wouldn’t against Spain – but what we did see what a number of players who had confidence in themselves and confidence in their team mates. Players like Adam Johnson and even Stewart Downing know their potential and can come onto the pitch and make a difference. First team choices of Walcott, Lennon, Milner and others show a different level of strength in depth – something that Spain have shown in the last few years. With players like Wilshere and Gerrard still to come back to the squad, the depth is definitely evident now.

Theo Walcott spoke about the England team and echoed the thoughts of the squad depth…

“A lot of players got who came in all took their chance. But that’s what we’ve got in this England team. We’ve got so many great players in each position now. Tournament football, it’s very important to have 23 very physically fit players and the players that came in did that and everyone’s got to stay on their toes now.”

Rodwell, Henderson, Lansbury, Cleverly and Oxlade Chamberlain offer a group of young talented players that have a lot of potential too. And the difference between the England squad now and that of previous generations is that all of the players in the squad play at a high level of football, in the Champions League, in the Premiership and they play in a better style than previous squads.

The style of long ball has gone and now the play is more expansive. The only area that the I feel is weak, is the striking area – apart from Rooney, there is nothing obviously world class – but we have players like Bent and Ashley Young who are currently doing it for their clubs and also performing well for their country – Young a prime example of how hard work and tenacity can pay off. And on another note – maybe not in time for the current England squad, but Frimpong will be a big player for club & country very soon – and in Kieran Gibbs, we have a natural replacement for Ashley Cole at country level.

For the first time in years – and not because we won against Spain – but genuinely looking in from the outside – we look like we have a decent squad.

Til tomorrow, over and out…

So another interlull break is underway, I’d be lying if I hadn’t checked who Holland were playing (11^th vs Switzerland and vs Germany 15^th!). 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 15^th to 7^th will be far easier than the journey from 7^th to 4^th 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.

Follow my twittering’s @tottz82

After the highs of Chelsea on Saturday, it would have been great to back it up with a win against Marseille on Tuesday in the Champions League, but alas, it was not to be! I bet we all expected to knock millions (what, just me!?) past them, but it was tough going when we played them at their home ground, so it definitely wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. We didn’t win, but more importantly, we didn’t lose! It feels like it’s been forever since we last lost a game! Long may it continue.

One obvious positive from Tuesday ofcourse, was Tommy V playing 90 minutes. And as far as I know, he didn’t pick up any injuries! Almost better than scoring a goal! I initially thought it was interesting that Arsene chose to play Mertesacker, as opposed to Koscielny, but Dev made the valid point that Kos was probably being rested! We didn’t concede, so I guess the defence did well. I really hope Vermaelen gets a proper run in the team , no injuries, so we can actually have our first-choice centre-backs playing for once! Shame we can’t have our first-choice defence play a game, what with Sagna out for a bit.

Marseille was a bit of a reality check, though. It’s all well and good thrashing Chelsea, but are we really back to where we want to be? I win against Marseille, although brilliant that would have been, it might have masked our deficiencies, and it was a timely reminder that we’re not quite there yet. Robin’s been a star in attack, but the others need to be, too. Theo was great against Chelsea, but we need that type of performance every game! And Chamakh, where do you start with him? I’m not sure whether it’s just a case of him needing a shot of confidence, but we just haven’t seen the real him in AGES! I’m not even sure I know what that is.

Ramsey’s been a revelation last few games. More of the same, please. There are signs that we’re getting back to being a fabulous team- 8 wins in the last 10 matches, anyone? Gotta keep it up, though. No slips, no mistakes. Don’t want to go back to our early season form, with every mention of us in the papers being all doom and gloom. Having said all of that, though, I’m not worried! To me, the storm is over, it’s just a matter of convincing others, and possibly some of the players, that that really is the case.

In other news, *surprise* *surprise*! Guess we won Player of the Month for October? I really though whatshisface would have won it, but Robin did! Very surprising! A measly 88.2% of the votes, too. Not sure he deserves it, really. He didn’t do anything this month, other than score pretty much all our goals and drag us out of the doldrums! He really needs to up his game next month!

Also, Silent Stan finally spoke! I guess we can no longer call him that… Here’s a link to the full transcript, and although I’m loathe to refer you to the Mirror, the Mirror it is!

Next match- West Brom, at home. Saturday. Sounds easy? ‘Course it does! On paper that is! Remember last season? Sorry to remind you, but they beat us. 2-3. At the Emirates. They were bloody leading 3 nil at one point! I really hope Arsene reminds them about that match (they better not have forgotten!), because I want revenge! I’ll be at the Emirates on Saturday, and nothing other than a win- a humiliating one at that- will do! (I’ll take 1-0 to the Arsenal, to be honest, but you know what I mean!). Should be a good game, though, but it’s be nice to keep a clean sheet. Two clean sheets in a row? It hasn’t happened since August! Oh, I just remembered Tottz reminding (haha) us that we’re in November. Historically our worst month of the year! I really would snatch 1-0 out of your hands, just for that mere fact! Not that I believe we are cursed or anything, but it’d be great to break the ‘jinx’. Other matches in November are Norwich away, Dortmund at home, Fulham at home, and City at home (Carling Cup). Seriously, how badly can we do in these games!? If it all goes wrong, we know who (or what?) to blame- NOVEMBER!

Okay, I’m beginning to run out of things to say, and I think my brain is yelling for sleep!

Have a good Friday people, and hopefully we’ll be celebrating another fantastic result in the league, come full-time on Saturday!

Come on you REDS!

First of all apologies for the quick fire blog this morning. My night was somewhat prolonged last night after a friend offered me a lift to save me time leaving the stadium but then made both of us waiting outside an hour after the game for our golden chariot. Sometimes it’s just easier to stick to your original plan in life… lesson firmly learnt. Never the less I did meet Giles Grimandi and give that Spuds player Benoit Esso-ekotto (or whatever) a good stare out as he walked away from watching our game.

Anyway enough of my life, back to The Arsenal . After the amazing scenes of Saturday afternoon, it maybe wasn’t that surprising that we came down to earth with a small and sobering bump. With Marseille getting back to some sort of form in Ligue 1, with 3 wins in a row, their confidence was higher going into this game.

The team from last night was:

Szczesny, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Santos, Song, Arteta, Ramsey, Walcott, Gervinho. Park.

It was Marseille that started the brighter with a couple of shots whistling past the post and curling over the bar from the latest new Henry, Remy. They immediately showed more attacking threat than they did for the entire game in Marseille.

Arsenal did eventually create a clear opening when Theo was put through on the right but his shot was saved low by their keeper.

The entertainment of the first half was the ever uber confident Szcz deciding to do a Cruyff turn not once, but TWICE on a Marseille player on the right edge of his box after a back pass. The guy has confidence/cockiness like I’ve never seen before but I do love it. He will soon get caught out and drop a clanger but he’s almost earned the right to do this and learn from it. In other words I’m saying he’s earned one f*ck up!

The first half was an end to end battle with both defences being opened up through the pace of the attacks. Next to spurn an opening was Ramsey, who got underneath a cross 3 or 4 yard outside of the goal.  Remy went close again and Ramsey has the best chance of the half but seemed to wait an eternity before shooting it into the defender when clean through.

The second half was nowhere near a classic and my notes on the 2^nd half are nonexistent. Marseille seemed full of energy and determined not to give us any room in midfield. As soon as a red shirt picked up the ball, they were surrounded by 2 players cutting off the options. Frustrating to watch if you’re an Arsenal fan but encouraging if you’re a fat looking water carrier. The only event of note for me was from the substitute RVP who tried to lob a standing keeper (a la Bergkamp) but it was comfortably saved.

In the end Arsenal and Marseille shared the spoils with a point a piece with a 0-0 draw. Not the worst result in the world but not the best. In my opinion, 4 points home and away to Marseille is acceptable. Some will say we should always win this kind of game at home but having picked up all 3 points away, a point at home is just about tolerable.

The boss said:

We defended very well and tried very hard but lacked the quality in the final third to finish off our chances. We had a few in the first half. Aaron Ramsey had two and Robin van Persie in the second half as well. Overall it was a very difficult game. Marseille were physically very impressive and closed us down at every opportunity. We lacked match sharpness after our performance at Chelsea on Saturday.

Leaving Robin on the bench was a gamble that did not come off, but he was very tired after Saturday’s efforts. I took the gamble to rest him although he had the chance to score when he came on, which would have been the perfect play. Now we want to win the Dortmund game at home, but overall we are in a good position. It was also important that we kept a clean sheet tonight.

RVP being on the bench was no surprise to anyone in the pub beforehand.  After Park’s goal last Tuesday and RVP’s miracle work on Saturday, it was sensible change. If Ramsey and Gervinho had converted their chances in the first half, the gamble would have paid off.

For me there were two standout players, Song and Vermaelen. Song had his work cut out against an extremely combative and determined Marseille midfield. He was a very effective screen for the defence and won more 50 50’s than lost. He is often given a hard time for taking the ball forward and losing it but he wants to help the team create when they need it, I’m sure there were no complaints when he set up Santos’ goal against Chelsea.

Vermaelen looks like he’s ready to make up for lost time. He clicked very well with Mertesacker and was willing to close down Marseille attackers while Pers held the line. TV won countless 50 50’s and a couple of key last ditch tackles. With Koscielny on the bench too, our centre back options don’t look too bad.

I really don’t think we need to over analyse this point today, yes it could have been more but after the buzz of Chelsea , a slightly lacklustre display shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. We are still in complete control of our group and have Dortmund at home next. A win against Dortmund and we’re through as probable winners.  Next up is WBA in the league; let’s concentrate on getting 3 points at home.

Have a good Wednesday and mind you don’t fall over like John Terry.

Follow me if you really really want @Tottz82