You know what, Chelsea? You can keep your 5-0 romps. Truly, there is no sweeter way to win a football match than with a solitary last-gasp goal. More than ninety minutes of turgid entrenchment punctured by one sweet strike from substitute Aaron Ramsey. Cue much air punching, back-slapping, and (in my house at least) spilling of tea.
To say it was an average game would probably be generous. After a promising start, it fizzled out, which felt a little like seeing Joey Barton on fire, and then having some jobsworth health and safety officer throw water over him. The closest we came to goalmoath action was a shout for handball at either end, with Carl Jenkinson and Souleymane Diawara the men lucky to escape censure.
Andre Santos also carlessly handled the ball having already been booked, and was probably lucky not to be sent off. If you knew nothing of Santos, just five minutes watching him would enable you to guess he was Brazilian. Plenty of skill and imagination on the ball, but a tendency to overplay and take some quite insane risks. Needless to say, he is fitting in perfectly at Arsenal.
The basic problem was a lack of quality in the final third. Marseille lacked ambition; Arsenal urgency.  Andrey Arshavin had been selected ahead of Gervinho but was having a nightmare of a game. At least he would occasionally find himself on the ball – the same could not be said for Theo Walcott.
The second-half introductions of Johan Djourou and Gervinho for Carl Jenkinson (injured) and Theo Walcott (AWOL) threatened to bring our right-flank to life, but it looked for all intents and purposes as if Arsenal were playing out a creditable 0-0 draw. I even began composing a blog, now thankfully discarded, which reported the result as fact.
There were positives to be drawn. Laurent Koscielny was quite outstanding at centre-back, with Per Mertesacker equally assured alongside him. Ahead of them, Alex Song added to what is becoming an increasingly impressive portfolio of performances this season. He breaks up the play well, and uses the ball intelligently. Next to him, Mikel Arteta showed more graft than craft with a number of crucial and crunchy challenges. The advantage of signing players with Premier League experience is that they usually know how to scrap.
The frustration was that Marseille were clearly there for the taking, if only Arsenal could up their game. In the end, the man to release the figurative handbrake was subtitute Aaron Ramsey, who collected a Johan Djourou cross, miscontrolled by Gervinho, and fired low in to the near post – the perfect way for him to prepare for a game with Stoke at the weekend.
And so it finished: 1-0 to the Arsenal, with our first clean sheet away from home in Europe since Milan ’08.
Afterwards Arsene said:
“We left it very late but we had a difficult start. We lost some balls in the first half due to the fact Marseille pressed us well.
They didn’t find their fluency but in the second half we took over and I don’t think Marseille were dangerous at all [after half-time]. Marseille defended very well but you could see in the last 15 minutes we created some chances and were rewarded because we kept going and got an important victory.”
It leaves us top of the group, and a win in the return fixture would all but guarantee our qualification to the knockout stage.
Quietly, without anyone taking much notice, Arsenal have won five of their last six games. It’s not quite a resurgence, but it’s certainly a relief. Long may it continue.
After transfer deadline day, the mood among Arsenal fans was surprisingly positive considering our domestic results thus far. A fistful of new signings offered the opportunity of a fresh start. The honeymoon, however, has not lasted long. If there was anything likely to puncture the morale of the supporters, it was injuries.
Surprisingly enough, the worst news has not come from participants in the dreaded interlull. Although both Tomas Rosicky and Theo Walcott missed their respective games last night with minor muscle strains, they’re not expected to be major doubts for Saturday. The worst news has come from two players who stayed at home with what we had believed to be relatively minor problems. Turns out, in true Arsenal fashion, they’re much worse than we feared. On Monday it was confirmed that Jack Wilshere will miss at least two months, and then yesterday Arsenal revealed that Thomas Vermaelen had undergone an operation which means he will miss at least a month of training. His likely return date is the home game with Sunderland on October 16th, meaning he’ll miss Champions League ties with Dortmund and Olympiacos as well as the North London Derby.
The news casts a slightly different light on our transfer activity – the staff would have been well aware of these injuries when negotiating for the likes of Mertesacker and Arteta – and means those players will immediately become integral to the side. The big German wore the captain’s armband for Germany last night (in a game in which Wojciech Szczesny was outstanding for Poland), and should be ready to go straight in to the team on Saturday alongside Laurent Koscielny.
In midfield, Alex Song will still be suspended, so Mikel Arteta should start alongside Emmanuel Frimpong and Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey was named Man of the Match in Wales 1-0 defeat at Wembley last night, and gave a commanding midfield performance as captain. With the departure of Cesc and Nasri on top of Wilshere’s injury, it’s clearly a huge season for Aaron. I don’t doubt his talent, but sometimes he seems to try too hard, playing 50-yard Hollywood passes when a simple ball is on. It’s easy to forget what a fantastic recovery he’s made from his broken leg, and perhaps he’s just a little over-eager to make up for lost time. If he can start to use the ball more maturely that will be a big step along the road back to where he was just prior to his injury.
Frimpong, meanwhile, has once again declared his intention to play for Ghana. Selfishly, I’d like him to play for England: a) because it means we won’t lose him for African Nations football, and b) because I’m an England fan! That said, he was born in Accra and his Ghanaian heritage clearly means an enormous amount to him, so best of luck to him. There are African Nations tournaments in January 2012 AND 2013 – the only consolation being that Cameroon are unlikely to qualify for this season’s tournament, meaning we won’t be entirely bereft of defensive midfielders.
Upfront, there’s a slim possibility of a debut for Park, who has scored again for Korea – that’s now four in his last two games. It’s clear he’s a decent technical finisher, and in a team like ours he’s certain to get chances. I actually think that at the end of the season we may look back on his signing as something of a bargain.
We may also witness a home debut for teenage flyer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The teenager has been in superb form over the International break with England U-21s, with this cameo against Israel particularly impressive, setting up all four England goals:
It sounds like he made a decent impression off the pitch too, when the squad decided to have an ‘X-Factor night’ bonding session. The Daily Mail claims:
“Arsenal’s man-of-the-moment Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – according to observers – ‘brought the house down’ when impersonating Will Smith by rapping the theme tune to his old comedy series, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.“
On a serious note, he looks a hell of a talent: quick, powerful with an eye for a pass. We shouldn’t let any disappointment that bigger names didn’t arrive cloud the fact we’ve signed a hugely promising youngster here.
We’re slightly fortunate that the injuries to Wilshere and Vermaelen come at a time when the fixture list is a little less daunting than it has been until now. In September we have home games with Swansea, Shrewsbury, Bolton and Olympiacos, as well as trips to Dortmund and Blackburn. In that period we are able to welcome back Song and Gervinho from suspension, as well as adding five new signings in to the mix. It is no exaggeration to say that, with our new look squad, all those games are winnable. What a different season it would look then.
Come on Gunners. Let’s turn this around. Starting on Saturday.
