In fact, I have to say, I didn’t expect us to beat Bayern. I didn’t expect us to get anywhere near them. When I heard that we’d dropped Szcznesy completely, relegated Vermaelen to the bench and that there was no Podolski or Diaby in the squad, I feared for the worst. But the team did something great. They did what they should have done in the first leg and defended valiantly against a very good Bayern side.

As far as stats go, the home team had the possession, the shots and were more dangerous – but hats off to the back five who played their hats off – Fabianski’s best game by far, without a shadow of a doubt, pulling off great save after great save. Koscielny gave his all and Jenkinson and Gibbs showed why they are the future of the Arsenal.

The game ended 2-0 with an early goal from Giroud who looked so much better than he did in the first leg. If he could play like that every game, then we’d be slightly higher up the league than we are now and probably still in the Champions League. It’s great that we won and I believe it will be very good for us moving forward for the rest of the season. But why can’t we play like that all the time – well, the stats don’t lie, we weren’t very good – but at least we fought with passion!

Our very own Super Totti was out there in Munch supporting the team…

And he witnessed a great victory… a victory which ended the game at 3-3, meaning we go out of the Champions League on away goals.

The best thing we can take from this is the spirit and fight we had. If we can take an ounce of that into the weekend, when we play Swansea, and pick up the three points we desperately need in the league, we could close the gap on Sp*rs and Chelsea and revive our last possible chance of getting into the top four.

It was a bold move by Arsene to drop Szcznesy and I was very happy with his deputy – Fabianski showed that he can challenge Szcznesy and perhaps should be in the sticks against Swansea. Another interesting move to relieve the captain of his duties. Vemaelen hasn’t been the TV5 we all know and love, he’s been out of sorts and Koscielny stepped in and showed why he should in the team.

Yes, we’re out of the Champions League, but today was full of positives – so let’s focus on them – and get behind the team – this weekend’s game against Swansea is our biggest of the season. We need Champions League football next season. Simple as.

This is probably the worst time to choose to write my first blog on the new look WOA site… but nevertheless, it is time… I’ll start by reflecting on today’s game against Sp*rs… the game was typical of the team at the moment, and three points sum up the game:

1. Slow start
2. Conceding silly goals
3. Second half come back

Typical of a lot of games this season, and we fail to pick up the three points again…

At points in the game, it was very clear that we have a better team, but for the first half, our mental state was not in the correct zone and we really didn’t grab the game by it’s horns. We had a lot of possession, and to be fair the better chances in the first half, but we weren’t quite at the races until the game was out of our sight. Why? Let’s take a look and the key reasons – not just for this game, but I believe the undercurrent to our whole season.

Szcznesy’s Form

The keeper definitely got a great future ahead of him, but he’s a bit erratic and a little too cocky. He is capable of world class saves, and he’s won us quite a few points this season – Sunderland away comes to mind, when we could have easily conceded if it was not for the Polish stopper – but at the same time, he has no real competition and lapses of concentration mean that he undermines himself. His form is a Jekyll and Hyde and you have to think that this happens because he has too much license to roam around and do Cryuff turns. A better discipline from management and a serious threat from anther goalkeeper would be exactly what he needs.

The Central Defenders

We have three very good defenders in Mertersacker, Vermaelen and Koscielny. I say “very good”, but not excellent. Starting with Mertersacker – he is a great reader of the game in a one on one or long ball situation, but he doesn’t quite like the ball with pace and for some reason seems to not quite understand the offside trap. His lack of pace is a thorn in our defence sometimes – but having said that, he’s probably been better than the other two. Koscielny is having second seasons syndrome, he is generally excellent – he is actually one of my favourite players – but at the same time, a little clumsy and he seems to have a mistake in him at all times. And then you have our captain and unfortunately, I think the pressure of being captain is too much for him. He was Mr Reliable, but I don’t think anyone would disagree if I were to say that this is his worst season in an Arsenal shirt. A no nonsense defender with a strong mentality, a defender that no-ones likes to play against is what we need, and then one of the current three to compliment him.

Too much expectation from Jack

Without of a shadow of a doubt, there is way too much expectation on Jack at the moment. You could see against Sp*rs that there was an expectation for him to create something out of nothing and to carry the team and if he can’t then we don’t seem to be able to do anything… we need more personalities in the team.

Giroud

He’s our main striker but unfortunately for me, he just isn’t the number one we need up front. He’s miles behind the likes of Van Persie, Eduardo, Henry and even Ade… I watched the Real Sociedad game and Carlos Vela was so much better than Giroud, it was crazy. He doesn’t seem to ever stamp his authority on a game. Today he had the ball in very good areas and he just seemed to play like it was a training game. There was no fire in his belly, no desire to be the best and win the game for his team.

Tactics

Now this is definitely Arsene’s fault… playing the wrong players against the wrong teams. Today, Podolski, Rosicky and Koscielny should have started ahead of Giroud, Ramsey and Metersacker – yes, easy to say in hindsight, but I think most people agreed that before the game too…! Taking off Jenkinson and moving Ramsey to right back is just bizarre. Not just today, but most games, there is a weird surprise in the team selection. Every year their is a weird selection of personnel, a weird recruitment and selling policy which has resulted in a very unbalanced squad and a really laboring to achieve anything.

Can we scrape into the top 4? It’s going to be hard…

We’re fifth now and 5 points behind 4th. It’s not impossible, but baring in mind the above, it won’t be easy. We do have a series of winnable games, but when you lose to Swansea and Norwich, then you can’t consider any game as winnable unless we actually go out and try and win and bring home the three points.

The remaining league fixtures are:

• Swansea (a)
• Reading (h)
• WBA (a)
• Norwich (h)
• Everton (h)
• Fulham (a)
• Man United (h)
• QPR (a)
• Wigan (h)
• Newcastle (a)

We have a better squad than every team in the next 10 games except Man United. We can go on a run. Will we? We’ll have to wait and see. We have to wait for 13 days until we take on Swansea. And that game won’t be easy at all…

Welcome back to WOA and from now on, we’ll be blogging once per Sunday and once midweek, around Weds or Thurs… and instead of mini-blogs, we’re turning into more of a digest, a summary and a discussion…

Let’s discuss!

The first concern is over ticket pricing and it has reared its ugly head again after Man City returned 800 tickets from their allocation for this weekend’s game, with some of their fans refusing to travel to away games in London due to the prices being charged from clubs in the capital. Good on them, I say. However as one blogger pointed out recently some 20,000 Arsenal fans have bought tickets in the same price category (£62) for this fixture. Football supporters as a whole are suffering from overpriced tickets. Arsenal fans in particular are feeling less and less convinced that such prices represent value for money. The quality of football on display at the Emirates has deteriorated in the last few seasons, and many feel that the money the club is receiving from ticket sales is not duly being reinvested into strengthening the squad.

The quality of football certainly is not what is expected. Gone are the days where we routinely break away from a corner with pace and devastation to score a goal of our own. The counter attacks of old just don’t seem to happen anymore. Also gone, are the frightening passes in between the lines, carving defences open in the Barcelona-esque dismantlement that used to see us create goals out of nowhere. Now it seems as though most of the game we play the backwards/sideways passing game, waiting for an opening to appear. With most Premier League teams now able to play a disciplined defensive game, we find ourselves frustrated at a lack of creative openings and opportunity.

The bottom line is that we have suffered immensely from not being able to fill the void left by Cesc. His ability to find the pass through the eye of a needle is missing in midfield. Arteta is a great footballer, but he doesn’t seem able to add those passes to his game. Santi Cazorla has shown he can be capable, but he lacks the consistency that we had with Cesc in the side. Jack Wilshere is undoubtedly going to become an important component in our midfield. But he is not there yet, he is still young and learning the game. We rely on him too much to perform a task he is not quite ready to perform.

Which leads me to the second concern – transfers. As stated above, many if not all of us are fed up with a lack of activity in the transfer market, especially given the amount of money we spend to support the team. The manager has come out with the predictable ‘we only buy top, top quality’ line once again and us fans are left scratching our heads. He has said this for the past few seasons, and the signings we made include Gervinho, Squillaci, Bischoff, Chamakh and so on. Top, top quality? The bottom line is we refuse to spend on players at market value. Yes, £20 million is an absurd amount to fork out on a transfer fee. But ambitious clubs at the top of the league spend that kind of money on players, and if they are willing to spend that money then it must be considered ‘market value’.

I am a supporter who is prepared to stay quiet and see what happens when FFP comes in. Gazidis promises a brighter future in and around 2014, when FFP takes full force and when the club can realise its true commercial potential, something it has been unable to do since moving to the new stadium. I am prepared to offer my support to this cause because, on the face of it, it seems like a feasible objective. However, the club needs to go into that new phase in a healthy position. Not just financially, but ‘footballistically’ too. We need to, at the very least, be a champions league team going into this phase. It would be a shame to spoil the chances of things going to plan because we dropped into the Europa League just before we head into this new era. A Europa League team does not attract the type of player needed to challenge at the top, and it would be a bad idea to start the age of FFP in a worse position than the one we are in now.

However, if we do not strengthen the squad now, we are playing with fire when it comes to finishing in a top-4 berth come May. We have been here before in January. The season has shown familiar inconsistencies.  Moments of attacking brilliance overshadowed by inadequate defensive frailty. In the past, we had the players to pull us through. Henry, Cesc, Nasri, RVP. Now we look at a squad where a contract rebel is being tasked with the job and we wonder if, finally, the task at hand is too much for the players we have at our disposal. It’s too much of a risk to rely on this squad without reinforcements.

Please Arsene, for the love of God, make a couple of big signings.

JAT

@j1mm7t

We face a mixed bag Southampton today who on their day can do anything, but can be equally bad… for us, it doesn’t matter how they play, it matters what we can do… Theo and Oxlade are very much looking forward to this game and when asked about the game, young Theo was literally giddy with excitement…

“It will be a very tough occasion against Southampton, but it is one I am really looking forward to. I am probably going to wrap myself in bubble wrap for the next few days! It will be a very special moment for me and Alex [Oxlade-Chamberlain], and also for some of the fans to see us come back to the club.”

It will be an interesting one tonight, as Theo has seized his opportunity as the main striker, through the middle, which is preventing the on-form Giroud from re-gaining his spot. With us in good form at the moment, you don’t want to change what’s working, which means I think we’ll see the French striker on the bench.

The injury news is Fabianski (ankle), Diaby (match fitness), Santos (match fitness), Mertesacker (doubt – sickness)… and therefore, the predicted line up is:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Koscielny – Vermaelen – Gibbs

Arteta – Wilshere

Oxlade – Cazorla – Podolski

Walcott

I don’t think it’ll be another 7-3 but I do think this game has goals in it… The team is starting to gel, and having a relatively consistent back four / five (give or take) does help us a lot.

There is of course, the worry that Theo hasn’t signed his contract yet and he is now available to sign on a Bosman for a club outside the UK. BUT, let’s not worry about that until tomorrow…. we have a very important game today and that’s all that matters right now!

Come on you Gooners!!

The good news for us is that we’re at home, we’re rested and we’ve got Giroud and Rosicky back in the fold. Apparently Diaby and Santos are about a week or so away too, so that’s good news for us. It will be interesting to see what happens if we ever do have Rosicky, Cazorla, Wilshere and Diaby in the same team – that would be one seriously talented group of players.

My line up is:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Mertersacker – Vermaelen – Gibbs

Arteta – Wilshere

Oxlade – Cazorla – Podolski

Walcott

Cazorla has been in the papers talking about his partnership with Wilshere and has been very positive:

“He has amazing potential,” Cazorla told Arsenal Player. “I did not know him well when I arrived because he was not at the training sessions due to his injury, and everyone was already talking about him, saying that when he returned, the team would improve, and that has been the case.

“Every day he is gaining more confidence, he is forgetting about the injury, and he is a key player that can influence the result in a game, and thus, we are all very happy to see him 100 per cent again.

“He was out for a long time and it was an injury that takes time to heal. It is always hard to come back from injury, especially if it is very long. You always have that fear up until you start getting your confidence back, and you start getting back to your old self, and he has done that quickly.”

Rosicky has also shown glimpses of great football since he’s been back. Something to very much look forward to. Newcastle are no rollovers of course, with Cisse and Demba Ba, they will always have a goal threat.

Tomorrow’s game is BIG, and it’s up to us to ensure that we take it as seriously as we can and take home the three points…

With no games until the 29th of December… when we take on Newcastle at the Emirates, I’ll be off the blog for a few days to spend it with the family.

Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all and a very happy new year!

It was Theo Walcott’s first game up front, and it seemed to work well, with the England International very lively – pulling the ready defence apart at every opportunity… the line up was:

Szcznesy

Sagna – Mertersacker – Vemaelen (c) – Gibbs

Arteta – Wilshere

Oxlade – Cazorla – Podolski

Walcott

Walcott’s movement was a problem for the Reading defence and there was a good level of interaction between the front four. It was eventually Podolski who opened the scoring with a good finish from close range when he controlled a cross and tucked it in with a great left footed finish…

It was then Cazorla’s time to steal the limelight – with Walcott as a foil, Cazorla was afforded more space and the Spaniard took full advantage, making it 2-0 from a header, 3-0 from a swivel and shot and his third and Arsenal’s fourth from a great overload on the hour mark. Reading got one back and then two, but Theo scored our fifth with an acute left footed strike after some good build up from that man, Cazorla.

It was a great game and a great team performance, and the manager was delighted.

The target was to win and we won in a convincing way. You can only give one answer – on the pitch. Success came with the quality of our game. We played and didn’t bother about the rest. We focused on the quality of our game and played. I think it was in continuity of the game we played gainst West Brom. That’s what we did again tonight.

We’re up to fifth now and it’s important we concentrate on getting better and better and better each game. We can’t rest on our laurels and think we’ve done anything good yet – this was just one game – we need to ensure we can push on and beat Wigan on Saturday. The club is on a knife edge, the fans are on a knife edge too and right now, we have no room to go wrong.

Short blog today, more analysis tomorrow…

A Saturday afternoon blog from yours truly as Dev is away for the weekend. The good thing is that Arsenal do not play until Monday so we can enjoy a weekend without having to go through the recent match day trials and tribulations. However the bad thing is Arsenal don’t play until Monday, so after what has been an extremely trying week, we need to wait until Monday to ‘move on’.

Dev has covered and reviewed the Bradford game so I won’t recover that old cold ground but I will say one thing, it has become the final straw that broke the camel’s back. Eleven internationals ended that game against a league 2 team. We had players that have captained their countries on the pitch but no one could inspire or lead the team to a routine victory that needed just little bit of graft. For me, this summarises the current problem from the board through to the players on the pitch.

I’ve purposely avoided the paper’s this week because the press have enjoyed jumping on the ‘sinking ship’ bandwagon that is currently Arsenal FC. The press have gone out of their way to get interviews and sound bites from those ready to criticise the team, the sacked Stewart Robson, now rich former board member Nina Bracewell and gobby Ian Wright just to name three.

Nina Bracewell Smith:

“If making money was the motivating factor, surely there are better ways?”

“”[Kroenke] shows he cares very little. Why he wanted to be part of AFC I do not know””

“Football is a business of passion. SK (Kroenke) has no passion for AFC.”

Didn’t Lady Nina sell her shares to Kroenke for a healthy lump sum? Odd to then critise him for looking to generate cash when you forget your own stake and passion at Arsenal.

Stewart Robson, who is a bitter ex-Arsenal player who was sacked by the club for his analytical work on .com, couldn’t wait to have his say:

“No structure, no disciple, they’re petulant”- factors which Robson blames on Wenger, as “[the players] take their lead from their manager”.

“ Wenger doesn’t coach [the players] and doesn’t allow anybody else to coach.”

“Arsene Wenger has put too many players on such big money that they won’t be able to get rid of the players they don’t want.”

Ian Wright, who always ready have his say to get his name in the paper:

 ”I wouldn’t say ‘surely he has to go’, but it is a unique position he’s in because I think any manager in any country in any world with a record like this and no prospects of light at the end of the tunnel, they would’ve been gone.

“People are holding onto the fact to what Arsene has done, and people are saying he is going to tarnish what he has done, but I don’t think that will ever happen.

“I feel there are a lot of deluded Arsenal fans who are out in the wilderness still saying ‘in Arsene we trust’ and stuff like that.”

There is a saying that I think fits in well here;

‘When the grass is cut, the snakes will show’

However, Martin Keown bucked the trend of former’s at the club and offered his support to the manager and called for patience.

“Now is not the time to judge this team, and it would be unfair to pin all of the blame on this current squad. There is this feeling that the defeat to Bradford leaves them at this crossroads, but I don’t subscribe to that.

“They should be given the chance to prove they have the ingredients to overcome their current difficulties.

“This is a new team, let’s see how they can cope. Wenger is hugely loyal to his players. He will stick by them through thick and thin.

“But trust me, you will only get so long under Wenger. Once that belief gets switched to another player then it is very difficult to regain it.”

Over the course of this week many of you would have had friends and colleagues very keen to talk about the state of the club and what happens next. Some will have been telling you Wenger’s going to get the sack, with a big smile on their face. Wenger is one of the biggest names in the history of the premier league, sadistic fans would see it their benefit to watch one of the elite managers get the chop. Others have said ‘it’s time to spend now’ as if that’s will be the solution to all our issues. I can’t totally agree.

I completely agree that this squad needs some fresh faces to boost morale and also fresh legs to allow effective rotation, there’s more to the current issues than splashing the cash will fix.

The club through the board, the manager and the players need to create a single direction, a single message that the fans fully buy into and back. The board are on one hand telling the high paying fans that ‘Arsenal are not only about winning’ and how healthy our bank balance is but then we see the manager skimping and buying budget players who aren’t good enough for the club. The result is that that players give limp and uninspiring performances due to poor personnel and fans vent their frustration.

A united message can go a long way to rememdy the frustrated feeling in the club. For example at Everton, a club I have a lot of respect for, have a message from life long bluenose Kenwright that money is tight so any buys will be funded from sales, the manager then goes out and picks up shrewd signings (like Jelavic, how good is he!) and the fans fully commit to getting behind the team regardless of if they are fighting relegation or Europe. The difference in the mentality of the players at Everton is that they fight with their every being to ensure they attempt to with the game for the club, manager and fans. A united message and the fight for a common goal.

Arsenal can sign players that are needed but if the board and manager do not have a unified message about their direction, then the problems will continue and the frustrated voices will just become louder.

Enjoy your weekend, bring on Monday.

~ Tottz

Feel free to follow my ramblings on twitter @Tottz82

Szcznesy

Sagna – Metersacker – Vermaelen (c) – Gibbs

Coquelin – Wilshere

Ramsey – Cazorla – Podolski

Gervinho

Wenger rested only Arteta, but made the same mistakes as he’s done before – the same mistakes that saw us lose against the likes of Norwich and others…

• Don’t play Ramsey on the right
• Don’t play Gervinho up front
• Don’t play so many central midfielders (Ramsey, Cazorla, Wilshere, Coquelin) in the same team
• Don’t play Podolski out wide

It doesn’t matter who the opposition is, but if you play round pegs in square holes, then you’re going to have a problem. By playing reserve squads in the past, it was a fail safe mechanism. If we lost, it was because we played a reserve side. If we won, it was great because we rested our main players and our reserves / kids got a run out.

However, today we played our best team and lost (albeit on penalties) to Bradford.

Examine anything you wish, but this is unforgivable. I don’t think any other team in the top ten in the Premier League would have lost to Bradford if they played their top side.

I’m not going to start battering the team or the manager, but this season is a massive turning season. I’ve heard more anti-Wenger than ever before and people who were pro-Wenger are now doubting him. With the exception of Jack Wilshere, I don’t think any fan really “loves” any player…

The stats were eventually amazingly in our favour, but with players playing in different positions and all sorts inability to play, it doesn’t really matter. Normally I’m not one for talking about players, but this group is the worst under Wenger and we has to seriously figure out who will fight for the cause and who will won’t.

The answer is to buy. We won’t get anywhere with this group. I don’t know how we got to this stage and the problem is, I don’t think Arsene does either.

According to Arsene, credit to Braford…

“We had many, many chances, their keeper had a great game and we could not convert out chances,” Wenger told Sky Sports. “When you go out it is never good enough. We lost on penalties against a team who defended well. We have to give credit to Bradford. I cannot fault the effort of the team, they gave everything for 120 minutes.”

Ouch, right?

Til tomorrow…

Arsene has Thomas Eisfeld in the squad for tonight’s match and he’ll be joined with a fullish squad. Which is great news, as it looks like we’re taking the game seriously… well, as seriously as we can with resting our main players. Arsene spoke about the team available and said:

“The only new player who is not available is Olivier Giroud. He got a kick on his back on Saturday. He has not recovered and he will be out. We will have an experience squad at Bradford. We have a good recovery time ahead of the game at Reading on Monday. So we can use the players we want to use. Theo is still out. Along with Diaby, Santos, Koscielny. Vito Mannone is back in the squad. Nico Yennaris has a back problem and Ignasi Miguel has a thigh problem.”

Based on manager’s verdict, I think we’ll be looking at the following line up:

Szcznesy

Jenkinson – Mertersacker – Vermaelen (c) – Meade

Coquelin – Ramsey

Gervinho – Rosicky – Arshavin

Chamakh

Not a bad line up and it will see the likes of Wilshere, Arteta, Cazorla, Sagna, Oxlade, Walcott, Podolski, Giroud etc all rested ahead of the important league game with Reading next Monday. The likes of Mertersacker and Vermaelen will have to play as far as I can see Miquel, Djourou and Koscielny are all injured and Squillaci is, well, Squillaci. Eisfield is in the squad and although I don’t think he’ll start, I’m pretty sure he’ll be on the bench…

“I heard they beat Wigan in the last round, so it should be hard if they’ve beaten a Premier League team. In Germany we say that cup games have their own rules, because anyone can beat anyone. At the moment, I’m very happy. I don’t know what the coaches think. Of course I hope I get the chance to play in the game, it would make me really pleased.”

We’ll see what we have in store for us tonight, but a win would go a long way to getting some confidence back into the squad.

The Weekend

The weekend has finished, the games have been played. We’re now only 2 points behind Sp*rs, 5 points behind Chelsea and the battle for fourth is truly on…

Man United are a whopping 15 points ahead of us, and in all reality, no title this season… but the season isn’t over – we can still salvage fourth or possibly third if we go on a run, and we are still in three other competitions, which perhaps we need to start focusing on.

The game with West Brom was a little controversial as we were awarded a penalty that looked like it shouldn’t have been awarded. I’m not going to dwell on that right now, but the victory was much needed. It didn’t matter how it happened, it was needed. We will need to now build on this win and add some consistency to our game and our results. In actual fact, we played better than I thought, we passed the ball around well and we really got in and around them.

Le Boss spoke today and said:

“I am very pleased because the team has shown a resolute attitude, determination, togetherness and quality in our game going forward and we defended well. It is good to see your team when their backs are to the wall. You can see that the players turned up, like Arteta – who missed a penalty [against Fulham] – he took two penalties today, so that is very positive. You could see that they had decided to win the game and nobody else could do it, that is what pleased me the most. The only decision I have certainly made is to leave Sagna out because he played with a bad ankle [against West Brom]. We will put a team out with experienced players who have quality and who have a chance to win the game.”

Reading away, next Monday, then Wigan away, games we should win follow that, I really hope we can start putting a run of games together very soon…