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Wolves 0 – 3 Arsenal: Theo dances past Wolves

79 comments April 12th, 2012

Arsenal 3 – 0 Wolves

Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction

This was a perfectly satisfactory night for Arsenal…
Three goals, a clean sheet, and no injuries.  The game was won inside 12 minutes, and we were able to coast for the remainder.  I had the ill-fortune of listening to one Tony Gale on commentary, as he insisted the ‘professional’ thing to do was to attack a ten-man Wolves side and look to score five or six.  I disagree: the professional thing to do was keep the ball, conserve our energy, and focus on greater challenges ahead.

Theo Walcott was electric early on…
Wolves made a strange decision to play a high-line, and Walcott punished them, twice flying beyond the defence.  The first time he was brought down, culminating in a penalty and a red card, and the second he finished superbly.  Afterwards he faded, and may have been a little thrown by the boos he received from the Wolves crowd.  He should embrace that sort of reaction: from opposition fans, a boo is almost always a compliment.

Robin van Persie was magisterial…
His impudently chipped penalty was the highlight of an exemplary display.  He dropped deeper than usual, happy to let Walcott roam further ahead, and was involved in all three goals.  He’s now equalled a record held by Ian Wright by scoring against 17 different Premier League teams.  The Footballer of the Year elect simply must stay at Arsenal.

Szczesny shares a trait with all great goalkeepers…
Concentration: he has the ability to make important saves having been inactive for long portions of games.  The young Pole has had an outstanding debut season as first-choice keeper.  The main thing he needs to eradicate from his game is a tendency to roll or kick the ball out to players under too much pressure to retain it.

Yossi Benayoun has been a vitally important squad member…
He’s been used similarly to the way in which Alex Ferguson uses Park Ji-Sung – brought in to bulk up the midfield with his industry in the big games.   He’s also chipped in with a few good goals, and last night’s was no exception, thumping home in to the near post from the edge of the box.  Despite his impressive displays, I’d be surprised if Arsene were to sign him permanently – with the emergence of Chamberlain, as well as the likely additions to next seasons squad of Podolski and Miyaichi, opportunities on the flanks will become increasingly hard to come by.

Andre Santos looks a long way from fully fit…
…but that is only to be expected after so long on the sidelines.  At times last night he made my heart jump up in to my mouth, but I’m sure that as his fitness improves he’ll regain the form he showed prior to Christmas.  In any case, Kieran Gibbs should be fit to return to the side at the next available opportunity.

Wigan on Monday will be a test…
I watched their game at Stamford Bridge and they were outstanding.  It seems they were in similar form last night, beating a subdued Man United.    Hopefully a third performance like that on the trot proves to be beyond them.  We now face Wigan and Chelsea before Spurs play another league game, giving us the opportunity to open up an 11 point gap.  Indeed, 4 wins from our last 5 games (3 of which are at home) would guarantee third spot and Champions League Qualification.  Keep the focus, and it is within our grasp.

The decision not to punish Mario Balotelli…
…is, of course, ludicrous.   The rules and systems simply must be changed to prevent further miscarriages of justice.

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You can hear me discuss all this and more on tomorrow’s Arseblog arsecast. Be sure to give it a listen.

Arsenal 1 – 0 Man City: Small feet, Big goal

326 comments April 9th, 2012

After his thumping free-kick against Aston Villa, Arsene Wenger revealed the secret behind Mikel Arteta’s shooting: his unusually small feet.  Well, rarely can such pies pequeños have been responsible for sending such reverberations through the Premier League.  Arteta’s 87th minute strike has not only continued our propulsion towards Champions League qualification, but also seems to have handed the title to Manchester United.

On the evidence of yesterday, City do not deserve to be Champions.  They played without fight, without passion, and with plenty of fear.  When the game was poised at 0-0, they looked more scared to fail than eager to triumph.  It was a curious twist of fate that this crucial defeat for them came against a side whose mental toughness has often been openly questioned.  Anyone watching this game would be forced to conclude that it is City, not Arsenal, who have the flaky psychology.

As for Arsenal, the victory was fully deserved.  Arteta and Song were the foundation of the victory – after City lost Yaya Toure to injury, they were unable to cope with the tenacity and technique of our midfield pair.  Ahead of them, Tomas Rosicky buzzed around effectively, whilst Robin van Persie seems to be regaining sharpness – only the post and, comically, his own man denied him a brace.

We waited a long time for the goal, but in the end justice was done.  There was justice also for Mario Balotelli, sent off for a second bookable offence after the referee somehow failed to notice his potentially career-ending lunge at Alex Song in the first half.  Balotelli is a curious case: the press are loathe to condemn him because they love the soap opera.  Why, though,  has Mancini been so loathe to condemn him?  It can only be because he shows ability on the training ground that makes the circus seem worthwhile.  However, he’s never shown anything like that form on the pitch, so I’m not unsurprised his manager’s patience is wearing thin.

Arsenal now look ahead to a clash with relegation-battling Wolves.  I say ‘battling’ – they haven’t shown too much fight in recent weeks, and look doomed.  That said, it wouldn’t remotely surprise me to see them raise their game for our visit.  Every match between now and the end of the season is a big one, and after losing at QPR hopefully the team have learnt that allowing concentration to drop in this league will almost always result in painful punishment.

I’m actually typing this from holiday in Mallorca, so am going to scoot off back in to the sun now.  Happy Easter everyone.

QPR 2 – 1 AFC: Back to Earth

21 comments April 2nd, 2012

Arsenal fans seem as furious about this defeat as any other in this topsy-turvy season.  Once again, the players are being branded as no-hopers and the manager as clueless.  It’s almost as if one result has caused a seven-game winning streak to evaporate.

The fact is that if you allow your performance level to drop, any team in this division can beat you.  Our performance on Saturday was not up to scratch – when we had the ball, we didn’t do enough with it, and when we didn’t have the ball we made simple defensive errors, with the normally reliable Thomas Vermaelen particularly culpable.

It’s a bad result, but we were going to lose eventually.  The uproar and vitriol I’ve witnessed in the aftermath of this game suggests that, as with the long unbeaten run prior to Christmas, the winning streak has created a disproportionate degree of expectation considering the limitations of this team.  A few months ago we were praying for fourth; now we’re furious that Spurs have closed in on third.

Just as many were too quick to write us off in the face for the Champions League back in September, so too were we too swiftly heralded as the Premier League’s ‘third-place elect’.  The road until the end of the season is long and winding, and there will be several more bumps between now and May.  Good: I for one find it exciting.  And, remembering the disaster that was last summer, am very glad just to be in the mix.

I’ve been fairly consistent in saying that we’d finish fourth this year.  Looking at the respective fixture lists of ourselves, Tottenham and Chelsea, I see no reason to revise my prediction.  As I’ve said several times, considering the problems we’ve faced this season – many of which have been self-inflicted, I’ll admit – that would resemble some achievement.  As much as I’m enjoying laughing at Liverpool, it doesn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to imagine that it could very easily have been us.

Of course, we should give it everything we have to finish third.  It’s still very much in our hands, and if we want to do it we need to avoid the complacency we displayed in the game at Loftus Road.  Some of the players seemed a little like they had begun to believe their own hype, whilst Robin van Persie is finally starting to look a little jaded – one can’t help but feel that earlier in the season he would have buried the one-on-one chance presented to him by Alex Song’s fine through-ball.  I was also a little bemused by the selection of Aaron Ramsey wide on the left – it was a ploy that had limited success at Everton, and seemed to backfire in a game where the attacking onus was with Arsenal.  Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has not started any of our last three games – a run I hope will end soon.

So it was a poor performance, and a poor result.  But it’s not the end of the world – nor, crucially, the end of our season.  Before the game I spoke of eight cup finals.  We lost the first won, but win the next against Man City and it will soon be forgotten.  Arsenal have plenty to play for, and I’m afraid slip-ups along the way are inevitable.  Don’t be fooled by unbeaten runs: this team are not the Invincibles.  They are, however, earning a reputation for being fairly unkillable: as soon as they’re written off, they find a way of coming back from the brink.  It’s a trait I can’t help but admire.

Arsenal 3 – 0 Villa: Just like the good old days

61 comments March 25th, 2012

Arsenal 3 – 0 Aston Villa

Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction

This was an uncommonly routine victory…
The last few weeks have left Arsenal fans accustomed to being on the edge of their seats. Four consecutive league comebacks surrounded a nail-biting night at home to Milan, before the oh-so-tight victory over Everton in midweek. It was an unfamiliar and unsurprisingly relaxing experience to watch Arsenal be so completely in control for ninety minutes. The gulf between the two sides was enormous, and had Aston Villa ever shown any sign of coming back in to the game, we plainly had several other gears to go to in order to see them off. As it turned out, it wasn’t necessary. We were able to beat them with the ‘handbrake’ firmly on.

They key was a bright startɉ۬
The players finally seem to have realised that an early goal can make their lives much, much easier. We are beginning games with a tangible sense of urgency, and yesterday we reaped the benefit with two goals in the opening 25 minutes.

Kieran Gibbs is in terrific formɉ۬
I have long been a proponent of starting Andre Santos over Gibbs whenever possible, but I must admit I’ve been extremely impressed by the young Englishman’s recent form. After a slightly sticky patch immediately after returning from injury, he has gone on to have some of his best games in an Arsenal shirt. It began at Anfield, when as late as injury time he was still making dangerous forays forward. Yesterday his goal was just reward for another convincing performance. The shirt is his to lose – and by the looks of it, he won’t give it up without a fight.

‘Songinho’ produced another perfect pass…

His clipped ball over the top was as good any of his ten assists this season. For a player who is in the side principally as a destroyer, his creative ability is quite remarkable. Credit too to Theo, whose control and finish were the icing on the cake of another dangerous display.

Gervinho deserves creditɉ۬
He is clearly out of form and lacking confidence, but yesterday he showed a willingness to put in the leg work required to help pull him out of this slump. On one occasion he chased back fully sixty yards to cover for Gibbs, and the crowd rewarded him with sustained applause.

Mikel Arteta’s free-kick was a thing of beauty…
It had been coming too – he’d brought a brilliant save out of Shay Given with a thirty-yard piledriver in the first half. The strike that eventually beat the Irish keeper was straight out of the Cristiano Ronaldo text-book, and led to this brilliantly quirky insight from Arsene Wenger in the post-match press conference:

“I prefer it when he takes free-kicks with his laces because he has short feet. Usually the guys who have good insight have bigger, longer feet, and when a guy has short feet like that they are very talented at hitting the ball with their laces. The ball floats a little bit when they take it and I think he is more built to hit the free-kicks like that.”

Thanks Arsene. I can now console myself with the fact that I’ve never scored a goal that good simply because my feet are a size 12.

Robin van Persie looked a little tiredɉ۬
…particularly in the second half. It’s entirely understandable, and thankfully our form is now such that, for the first time this season, we’re not entirely reliant on Robin for goals. The other positive is that even when he’s not entirely on top of his game, his reputation has now reached such heights that defenders are drawn to him, creating more space for our other attacking players.

Overallɉ۬
This was a good victory against an uninspired Villa side. With Chelsea and Spurs drawing at Stamford Bridge, we were able to edge further ahead of both of our rivals. There’s a long way to go, but Arsenal have demonstrated they have the ability – now they just need to retain their focus. There are just eight games to go. Come on you Gunners.

Everton 0 – 1 Arsenal: Huge step along the long road to Europe

442 comments March 21st, 2012

Vermaelen heads home the winner

Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction

This was an old-school, hard fought victory…
It was fitting that Thomas Vermaelen should score the vital goal, because in every sense the defenders were the match-winners in this game. Messrs Vermaelen, Koscielny, Sagna and Gibbs were outstanding, showing a combination of discipline and desire to keep Everton at bay. At the start of the season we all imagined this might be our first-choice back four, and whilst I am a big fan of late arrivals Mertesacker and Santos, this quartet are clearly benefiting from a run of games together. Vermaelen, meanwhile, has rediscovered his knack for crucial goals at just the right time of the season.

Bacary Sagna is a beast…
An aspect of his game that has long been overlooked is quite how good he is in the air.  Last night he won 14 of his 17 aerial duels.  Find me another full-back who can match that.

Arsenal should have been out of sight early on…
Everton looked shell-shocked by our quick passing game, and the first ten minutes saw us carve out a host of presentable opportunities, the best of which fell to Aaron Ramsey, who volleyed over when well-placed. Although Vermaelen did grab the goal in this period with a great header from a Van Persie corner, we didn’t capitalise on our best spell in the game with the ruthlessness you would hope for.

It was a great night for Arsenal…
…not just because of our three points, but because of results elsewhere. Chelsea lost to a late goal at Man City (courtesy of, of all people, Samir Nasri), Spurs needed a last-gap equaliser to grab a point against Stoke, and Liverpool threw away a two-goal lead to lose at QPR.

Arsenal are now above Spurs…
It’s a delicious fact, and something that seemed impossible when they were 2-0 up at the Emirates just a few games back. A win on that day would have taken Tottenham 13 points clear. The turnaround in fortunes since that moment, for both clubs, has been extraordinary. Their collapse has been as spectacular as our resurgence.

There is still, it’s worth pointing out, a long way to go. After this weekend’s game at home to Aston Villa, we enter a potentially tricky period of fixtures where trips to relegation battlers Wolves and QPR sandwich a clash with title-chasing City.

I daren’t commit the same sin as several Spurs fans, and gloat about our current position. However, what I will say is that to be six points clear of fifth place at this stage in the season is better than any of us could have hoped for a few months back.

Finally, on Fabrice Muamba…
Like everyone connected with football, I’ve been hugely moved by the recent events surrounding the former Arsenal midfielder, England U-21 International, and thoroughly likeable human being, Fabrice Muamba.

Like many, when I saw him collapse at White Hart Lane, I feared the worst. What we’re hearing about his recovery since then is nothing short of miraculous. I’d just like to take this opportunity to publicly send my best wishes in his battle to return to health. I’m backing him all the way.