Email Arsene.Wenger@arsenal.com. Infiltrate and accost the manager at the London Colney training ground. Dial every possible combination of phone numbers until you are answered by a Frenchman who only seems to want to talk about “sharpness” and “enormous personality”: the emergency transfer window is open. And boy is this an emergency.
Quite whether the FA will agree or not is another matter. They ought to, mind: if you have no goalkeepers you’re allowed to break the boundaries of the transfer window to make a signing - why oughtn’t it be the same if you have no strikers?
“We tried to sign players, but it didn’t work and we have to accept that.”
I suppose if we make a real effort and people turn us down there’s not much we can do. Take the case of David Villa at Valencia, for example: we offered them £2m + Season 7 of 24 on DVD + Mikael Silvestre in exchange, but it turns out that a) they’re West Wing fans, and b) they’ve seen Silvestre play.
It has become accepted wisdom that we made a deadline day bid for Thomas Sorenson, but although he was once a target during his Sunderland days he is not one of the names I heard last Monday. I was told of late loan bids for two strikers - both, unsurprisingly, Frenchmen.
Perhaps the reason we didn’t move for a striker is the possible arrival in the summer of Marouane Chamakh for a fee of zero pounds. Whilst that would doubtless be a bargain, it does leave us extremely light in the short-term - especially with the news this morning that we won’t catch sight of Eduardo until the Porto game.
Sorenson might be someone who, like Chamakh, we come back to in the Summer. In the meantime, it is very frustrating that the club’s best goalkeeper probably plays for Brentford. Check out our future number one:
As I finish writing this up, I’m watching Arsene in his pre-Liverpool press conference. He is absolutely fuming - perhaps because he knows Michael Ballack is right - but more on that tomorrow.
I couldn’t back Chelsea to win. I didn’t bet against my own team. That would open me up to all sorts of accusations: a possible lack of faith - even a conflict of interests.
I did, however, place what looked like a very sensible bet. What looked like a bet in which I couldn’t lose:
I backed a team that took to the field without a recognised striker to fail to score.
Had we managed to find the net, I would’ve considered the loss money well spent. As we all now know, I won.
Something about Arsene’s strategy doesn’t add up. If you pick a style of play that is designed almost entirely to score goals, a vital component is that of a ‘goalscorer’. If you accept that by freeing up the creative talents of Fabregas, Diaby, Nasri, Arshavin & Co that you will leave yourself likely to concede at least a goal, you must have a player on the pitch who is capable of cancelling that out that at the other end. If your principle hope of victory is dependent on out-shooting your opponent, then you need a great marksman as your spearhead.
Robin van Persie’s injury did not need to be the death knell for our title hopes, but Arsene’s refusal to replace him has made it a fatal blow. Poor defending is a huge part of the problem, but let’s not forget that this is not a side set up to a defend.
It’s a side that is ostensibly set up to score goals. Yet, paradoxically, one that contains no strikers.
It’s foolish. The “nil” next to Arsenal on yesterday’s scoreboard was entirely predictable.
I’ve spent the past week in Manchester. Taking in to account our result against United last week, you’d think that’d be a painful experience. Fortunately, however, there aren’t all that many United fans in Manchester. It’s actually trickier to be in the South.
Should we lose today against Chelsea, there’ll be no escape. Not only am I committed to being in London for the next seven days, but I’m related to a good many Chelsea fans. The pain of our 0-3 trouncing back in November is still strong - today is a chance to overturn that.
Team selection will be interesting today. Last week’s performance suggests changes ought to be made, but there are two problems with that: 1) the likes of Bendtner and Diaby are not yet back to full fitness, and 2) it’s almost too big a game to throw more inexperienced players, like Fabianski and Ramsey, in to the fray.
Of those two the Welshman is more likely to start, with Denilson the man who seems the most probably absentee. Upfront Andrey Arshavin will struggle manfully against Chelsea’s centre-backs, but it’s going to take some rather special attacking play for us to score today. Either that, or Andrey disguises himself as a French lingerie model.
The players know the score today. Winning would be fantastic - avoiding defeat is essential.
A short while after Robinho arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu amid much fanfare, Spanish sports daily Marca left readers under no illusions about just how underwhelmed they were with their much-heralded signing.
“LA DECEPCIÓN” screamed the headline - “The Deception”. Madrid had been promised a superstar and ended up with a spoilt baby - a player who’s character off the pitch was as inconsistent as his performances on it.
Arsenal only just dodged the Robinho-shaped bullet: in 2005 we gave him a tour of the training ground before he opted to sign for Madrid instead. Six months later, just as the Brazilian’s La Liga dreams were starting to crumble, Arsenal signed a player they believed to be an even bigger prospect. Robinho had been earmarked as a long-term replacement for Henry - now they had found a player who was younger, quicker, and even more surprisingly, English. Aged just 16, Theo Walcott arrived with a £12m price-tag and the hopes of a club on his shoulders.
Walcott’s first few months with the club are well documented. Despite not getting on to the pitch before the end of the season, he was selected for Sven Goran Eriksson’s 2006 World Cup Squad. He didn’t get a game there either, with other members of the squad reporting that Walcott was clearly out of his depth. Upon the resumption of the Premier League season, Theo found himself as a peripheral squad member, making a string of mixed cameos that culminated in his goal at the Carling Cup Final, against Chelsea.
Since then, the interruptions he has suffered from injuries have been so frequent as to disrupt any real pattern to his progress. Both shoulders have been operated on due to a congenital condition, and he’s suffered a succession of muscle injuries which may or may not be related. This season has been something of a nadir on the fitness front, with Walcott making just three league starts so far. The false dawn of his hatrick in Croatia has long since been eclipsed by injuries and inconsistency. Arsenal fans now face the question: Will Walcott ever be as good as we hoped? Can he still inherit Henry’s crown? Or, like Robinho, has his teenage talent dimmed? Is he another “decepcion”?
The arguments against Walcott feel particularly clear at the moment. It’s a well-known fact that his technical development is behind those of his age group, as he didn’t start playing the game until he was around 11 years old. Arsene has always been a firm believer that the time between 8 and 11 is critical in developing basic technique, though he was prepared to make an exception for Walcott on account of his extraordinary physical gifts.
On occasions, the gulf between Walcott’s athleticism and his ability causes comical results, as he sprints off in to the distance - forgetting to take the ball with him. He swings wildly at crosses and shots - a Walcott effort is as likely to end up in row Z as it is the top corner.
And yet, some do find the top corner. For all Walcott’s erraticism, there are moments of composure where he gets it just right. You want evidence? I’ll give you evidence.
He’s done some extraordinary things on the football pitch - things which some of the greats couldn’t even dream of:
And yet these make up a handful of moments in what is now four years of Walcott’s Arsenal career. The fans have given him plenty of time - a combination of his enthusiasm and his passport has long protected him from their jeers - but patience is starting to wear thin. We were promised the new Thierry, and we’ve got a player who on today’s form can’t hold a candle to Aaron Lennon, Ashley Young, or even Shawn Wright-Phillips. At the moment, I’m not sure even a fully fit Walcott would make the best Arsenal XI.
So where now? The next six months will be something of a litmus test for Walcott. Despite the famous hatrick that launched England’s qualifying campaign in such style, I think his World Cup spot is in serous jeopardy. Lennon has been far superior, and the form of Milner (as well as Capello’s inclination to pick Beckham) mean that it’s going to take an extraordinary run of performances, let alone good health, for Walcott to force his way back in to the 23. Unusually in this era of club over country, England will be Walcott’s principle motivation in the latter half of the season.
Come the end of the season, many will feel ready to judge Walcott. He’ll be 21 - a far cry from the boy who joined us. However, perhaps we’re best placed to give him more time. Due to his late entry in to the game, Walcott was never likely to be a top class footballer by the time he was twenty. Recently, a journalist asked Arsene to compare Theo and Milner, stating that they were “about the same age”. James Milner is 24. He emerged at Leeds as a 16-year old. It’s taken him eight years to reach the level where he is considered good enough to even sit on the bench for England.
Perhaps the answer is at least to wait until Walcott hits his mid-twenties before we consign him to the scrap-heap marked ‘Portsmouth’. I’d be ready to write him off now, were it not for one enormous factor: the judgment of Arsene Wenger. This is a man who saw something in Alex Song, when all I saw was the footballing equivalent of John Sergeant on Strictly Come Dancing. If Wenger believes Walcott will come good, I’m prepared to trust him.
Between now and May, the onus is on Walcott. To prove that he possesses the potential Arsene clearly believes he has. To prove that those great goals weren’t just flukes. To prove that he’s as good as his Nike ad suggests. To prove, once and for all, that he’s not a deception, but the real deal. Good luck, Theo - we’re rooting for you.
Several players failed to perform at the required standard yesterday. Denilson, Almunia and Clichy were the most obvious, with arseblogger taking their performances apart with a clinical precision not unlike United’s counter-attacking. However, I’d also consider Nasri and Rosicky as fair targets: they were ineffective and absent defensively.
Arsene acknowledged that the performance was off-colour and that individual mistakes were made. Speaking to the press after the game, he said:
“It is difficult to take but easy to explain because we were poor offensively and defensively cohesion-wise. We delivered an off-the-mark performance completely and that is why we were well beaten today. We gave them always too much room, we were naive.”
He’s right. Our defending yesterday was not good enough. But our defenders, with the exception of goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, are.
Gael Clichy, Bacary Sagna and William Gallas are all France internationals, and Gallas in particular has been decorated with honours at every level of European football. Thomas Vermaelen, meanwhile, was near faultless yesterday, as he has been for much of the season. Alex Song, playing in the holding role, showed composure, strength and commitment. And yet we conceded three goals - and it could have been more.
By contrast, look at the Untied backline we faced. Patrice Evra is arguably one of the world’s best, but the opposite full-back, Rafael, is a mere rookie. Johnnie Evans has potential but is not yet top class, and Wes Brown was made to look a fool by some of Andrey Arshavin’s footwork. Their midfield contained the likes of Park and Fletcher - grafters who can’t hold a candle to Nasri or Rosicky in terms of talent. And yet they’re an infinitely more solid outfit.
The problem with our team is not one of personnel. The answer is not to just sign more defenders. Arsene has made a philosophical decision that this team is about possession play and attacking. Defending is a secondary consideration - our aim is to score more goals than the opposition. When we fail to do so, we will stand a pretty good chance of losing.
To improve the team Arsene needs to instill in them a desire and pride in keeping the opposition at bay. What made the 4-3-3 so dynamic - and, to be frank, so effective - at the start of the season was the pressing high up the pitch done by the attackers. Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner, both of whom have been conspicuous by their absence in recent months, were particularly good at closing down the play and pressuring the opposition, forcing them in to mistakes which we were able to capitalise on. Yesterday, United were allowed to advance freely in to our half, as the attacking trio of Nasri, Rosicky and Arshavin failed to impose themselves on players whose ability would have been sorely tested by that kind of pressure.
The transfer deadline passes in an hour and you can bet we won’t be making any signings. Instead, the manager must now reinforce the importance of graft and commitment - something it seemed he had managed at the start of the season but which has since faded away.
If he doesn’t, then third is the best we can hope for this season.
It all feels a little familiar. Today we head in to a home game against a title rival full of hope, expectancy, and with the chance to make a real statement about our title credentials. Last time those circumstances collided, we came out on the wrong end of a 3-0 walloping from Chelsea. It has been a hard-fought struggle to drag ourselves back in to contention. One suspects that this time round we might not get a second chance.
Avoiding defeat today is essential. Winning would take us above United and within two points of Chelsea. Defeat would leave us five points off the top and facing a win or bust game at Stamford Bridge next week.
We’re perfectly capable of beating United. Indeed, only an untimely lunge from Manuel Almunia and the most bizarre of own-goals from Abou Diaby prevented us from doing so at Old Trafford earlier this season. Andrey Arshavin, who speaks to John Cross of the Mirror today, is determined that we won’t replicate the mistakes we made that day and throw away a prospective lead:
“When we were at Old Trafford, we were a little bit scared when we were leading 1-0 and I don’t have any concern now about the team. I am sure we will show a good performance. Sometimes it’s not enough, but in this game we will have to make sure that it is enough. If you don’t believe in your team, then you shouldn’t come onto the pitch.”
Since then, this team has grown in confidence. They’re the leagues top-scorers, and will be confident in their ability to out-Gun a United side whose defence will be without the suspended Rio Ferdinand.
Two late fitness tests will decide our line-up. Thomas Vermaelen will be doing everything possible to make himself available - if he doesn’t make it, Sol Campbell seems most likely to step in to the breach. Arsene spoke with the press on Friday evening about his decision to re-sign the veteran centre-half:
“When he came here [to train] he was not in good shape. We pushed him really very hard. He asked me if he could practice here. He could have said ‘yes tomorrow I cannot come and I can come two days later’. But the fact that every single day he was there and was ready to work, I thought ‘Oh he is still hungry’.
I thought if I give Philippe Senderos an opportunity to play somewhere else, why should I look somewhere else? Campbell worked for three months every day and I think for 60 days it was without working with our team, just fitness. I was impressed by his attitude. Sol was not the keenest before because he relied on his natural physical ability. This time he pushed himself.”
Sol will need every minute of that fitness work if he is to cope with an in-form Wayne Rooney today.
The other major fitness consideration surrounds Nicklas Bendtner. The Dane has not started a game in something like three months, but with Eduardo injured he’s our only real option for the centre-forward role. Arsene might be tempted to employ Andrey Arshavin through the middle again, but I’d rather see the Russian torment rookie right-back Raphael out wide. If the manager thinks Bendtner is ready, this could be a huge opportunity for him to prove that Arsene was right not to sign a striker this month.
It’s simple today: we must not lose. Win and this chance of a trophy becomes ever bigger. But more than that, we’ll have beaten our greatest rivals of the past twenty years or so. The players know that - hopefully they’ll respond.
Arsenal.com are messing with us. They know we’re scared, paranoid and frightened. Every time one of our players goes down to tie up their shoelaces I feel confident that they may never stand up again. Or if they do, they won’t have a head.
And yet all they seem to do is exacerbate our fears. One minute, they’re telling us Aaron Ramsey will miss three weeks, five days later he’s playing against Stoke. They said Samir Nasri would miss almost a month with a hamstring problem - he came on to face Villa within a week or so.
Then, to top it all, on Wednesday night they sparked panic attacks among Gooners everywhere by telling us that Thomas Vermaelen “might” have broken his leg - now he’s got a chance of facing United on Sunday.
Why tell us he “might” have broken his leg? It’s only going to upset us. It’s like telling an arachnophobic that their “might” be a tarantula on their face.
If Vermaelen is anything over 50% fit, I’d imagine he’ll play on Sunday. If he doesn’t make it, Arsene has hinted that Sol Campbell will deputise, and he seems to feel the veteran is up to the task:
“I have to assess him today but normally he will play if Vermaelen doesn’t play. I think he can stop Rooney. He has experience and he likes the big games. He can turn up if needed and experience helps in these kind of games.”
That big game mentality is going to be vital at both ends of the pitch, which perhaps explains why Arsene is hoping for another magic moment from the enigmatic Andrey Arshavin:
“When you look at him, he turns up when it is really needed - not at 4-0, but at 0-0. He is always coming up with something special. He is a player whom you always rely on in a big game like that.
Arshavin likes the big stage. He can be quiet for 20 minutes, and then suddenly turn up with something decisive. That is what you want from the big players - the big players make you win the big games.”
Andrey scored with an absolute rocket at Old Trafford earlier this season and almost provided another for Robin van Persie with a brilliant run down the left. With Eduardo nursing his hamstring and Bendtner lacking sharpness, it’s very possible the Russian will be asked to lead the line again. It’s a difficult role for the Russian, but all he needs is half a yard to produce a moment which can make all the difference.
I’m doing a lot of talking about Arsenal today. Have a listen to today’s arsecast for a chat with arseblogger about injuries, Stoke, Villa, United and more, and tune in to Arsenal.com’s Friday night Fans Forum around 9pm GMT if, for some peverse reason, you think I might have something interesting left to say.
Finally, Arsenal fans are going to really struggle wishing a Bolton player well. Good luck, Jack - this is a very important stage in the career of English football’s brightest prospect.
I suppose Arsene would admit it was an unfortunate sequence of events: you try and sign a promising young centre-half from Fulham only to be gazumped by Man United, and just as he’s signing autographs at Old Trafford our best defender, Thomas Vermaelen, limps off at Villa Park with a suspected fractured fibula. Chris Smalling will now engage in some midtable huffing and puffing before completing his move North in the summer - in the meantime, he could have been playing Champions League football with us.
If Vermaelen’s fibula is indeed fractured rather than just suffering from a tweaky nerve, he could miss the next three months. It gives us Arsene five days to ponder how he replaces him: does he move for a replacement before the transfer window closes, or can he put his faith in the man who replaced Vermaelen yesterday - Sol Campbell?
I don’t think any of us envisaged Campbell being called in to Premier League action so soon, but all reports suggest he coped with the threat of Heskey and Agbonlahor admirably in his hour-long shift. Whether or not his fitness is yet at the level whereby he’d be able to recover in time to play on Sunday is one question - another is simply whether or not you’d fancy him against the Footballer of the Year-elect, Wayne Rooney.
By the time Sunday rolls around there may well be other options available: Mikael Silvestre could have returned from injury, and Alex Song could be ready to step in to the defence having arrived back from Angola. However, if Vermaelen’s scans are anything like we fear, Arsene will be going back to the list whereon Chris Smalling was Number 1 and making a few very pressing phone-calls about Number 2.
Last night’s match looked to be a strange one. Neither side managed to play their best attacking football, and chances were limited. In the first half, Cesc Fabregas side-stepped two Villa tackles and fired a shot against the post. Unfortunately, Tomas Rosicky and Aaron Ramsey got in to a muddle over the rebound and the chance was gone.
In the second half, an Arshavin dart past two defenders saw his shot saved by Friedel. When the ball came out to Fabregas, he showed an awareness Rosicky and Ramsey hadn’t to slip the ball to the former, only for the Czech’s powerful effort to cannon off the crossbar.
In a rare piece of good fortune, all of Aston Villa’s chances seemed to fall to Stewart Downing. ‘Relief’ doesn’t do it justice.
Still, I said before the game that a point wouldn’t be a bad result, and a clean sheet at Villa Park is no disgrace. Only the width of the woodwork prevented us from coming back to London with three points, so we oughtn’t despair. It does, however, make the two games against United and Chelsea all the more vital.
Even if Wenger decides he needs to splash out on a centre-half, they won’t be in place by Sunday. It’s starting to look as if the United game could be the climax of the most unlikeliest of comebacks in the career of Sol Campbell.
Winning at Villa gives us a cushion at the start of our nightmare run
Villa, United, Chelsea, Liverpool. Four games that will define our season. Beating Villa and Liverpool will mean that avoiding defeat against United and Chelsea will be good enough to put us in a stonking position.
Tonight’s game against Villa is as tricky as any of the other fixtures. The midlanders will still be stinging from the 3-0 defeat we inflicted on them a few weeks back, and will doubtless be looking for revenge.
There is plenty of good team news: Bacary Sagna is fit to start again, whilst Samir Nasri and Nicklas Bendtner will both be on the bench. Aaron Ramsey is probably fit to start after coming off the bench at Stoke, and suddenly our squad is starting to fill out again. I’d imagine that Ramsey will play alongside Cesc and Denilson, with Eduardo, Arshavin and Rosicky ahead of them.
A point tonight is no disaster - much as Arsene will insist we’re taking each game as it comes, he will have an ideal points total in mind for the upcoming four matches. Knowing Arsene’s ambitions it will be a non-negotiable “12″, but I think, when pushed, he might gladly take 8 or 9. Three points tonight is a big step towards that.
Transferwatch
Has Chris Smalling signed for Manchester United or not? Nobody seems particularly sure - apart, that is, from United themselves, who were equally confident they had snapped up Aaron Ramsey a couple of years ago.
Last night Sky were reporting that Arsenal had also had a bid accepted by Fulham, though if it did arrive it seems it may have been too late. Smalling is reportedly in Manchester now undergoing a medical ahead of completion of the move. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that United’s willingness to loan Smalling back to Fulham for six months may have been what gave them the edge - Arsene has never been keen on such deals.
All the talk this January was of us looking for a striker, but Arsene simply hasn’t seen anyone of sufficient quality to make a purchase worthwhile. Much like last year, when everyone urged Arsene to buy a defensive midfielder or centre-back and he bought Arshavin, he’s instead focused on defensive areas, with Campbell arriving and Smalling clearly a target. There are even suggestions we’ve been looking at goalkeepers, though it seems this one is Mucha do about nothing.
Arsene is sufficiently confident in our attacking options to be letting Jack Wilshere go out on loan, with Bolton the most likely destination. It will be fascinating to see how wee Jack gets on when afforded some first-team football. His talent is unquestionable, but he’s struggled somewhat this season, both with injuries and the extra attention afforded to him by defenders as his reputation grows.
