Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

There’s plenty of ranting and raving amongst Arsenal fans this morning which isn’t surprising or even unwarranted. Some of the stuff is a bit unreal, but that’s true every day now!

What we have left now is the fight for fourth. It’s achievable, but at the moment we have a downward momentum that will be difficult to turn round. I hope that the home crowd can try and play a part in that, as well as the team and management.

The game against Sunderland was always going to be tough after Wednesday and started of course with another defensive reorganization. Koscielny and Gibbs will hopefully be our for just the one game because our patchwork back four only survived about ten minutes before Coquelin was helped off clutching his hamstring. On came Sebastien Squillaci. He hasn’t played in ages and it showed as he misjudged the flight of the ball and struggled to stay goal-side of Sessignon.

He must so regret his move to Arsenal. He had a solid reputation where he was and things didn’t start to badly. But now he lacks confidence and pitch time. And as fourth or fifth choice he inevitably only plays when Arsenal are up against it.

Yesterday we weathered an early onslaught but never really found a rhythm. We could have had a penalty, but we could have conceded one too. We were found out by two determined goals that both went it off our own players. Neither was the fault of the player involved, but it just seemed to some up where we are at the moment. As on Wednesday, the response to going behind was to drop Van Persie a bit deeper and put someone in ahead of him. Henry on Wednesday. Walcott this time. Didn’t work this time either. Neither really got into the game.

That doesn’t mean two strikers isn’t the answer. It’s just that at the moment it seems like a last gasp panic measure. And I’m not sure that Theo makes a great point-man. If this is plan B, then how about:
_______ Song ______
AOC _ Arteta _ Gervinho
_______ Van Persie __
____Chamakh _______

I know Chamakh hasn’t impressed but he has only played bits of games and he is probably more of a threat in the middle than Walcott. He can use his head too, which would give us variety.

But the main thing we need now is heart, in big measures. Last year, going out of the cups put us in a real spin, but we clung on to that Champions League place. Now we have to do the same, despite more teams in the mix this time. The rest of the season looks like a mini-league of Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle and Liverpool. The other three have their troubles too, but it’s going to be a big challenge.

Come on Arsenal.

Sunderland 2:0 Arsenal

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So yesterday Arsene Wenger locked the team in to tell them exactly what he thought of the performance on Wednesday night. Probably just the right thing to do, but he must of thought quite hard about how to play it with the next crucial game coming up so soon.

This is a big game now. If we hadn’t been so abysmal on Wednesday we might be discussing a relatively relaxed approach to the FA Cup, firmly of the view that the Premier and Champions League are what we are really about.

But that would be a dangerous approach now. At times like this it’s about momentum. As we found out too painfully last season, if you pick up too much speed running down hill it gets hard to stop. Barring a miracle we went out of the Champions League on Wednesday. Tomorrow we really need to stay in the FA Cup.

If we don’t, we will be in a very bad place mentally for the next game against the best Spurs side in twenty years – defending fourth spot. We are only in fourth on goals scored. Bloody hell this post is getting depressing.

Who should play then? Obviously Koscielny is out and Henry departed, but Gervinho has returned. Will he go straight back in. No-one who played on Wednesday really distinguished themselves although Van Persie saw so little of the ball the he had no real chance.

None of them could complain if they were dropped and some will be, but I’m not sure that this is the moment for wholesale change. It’s more a case of players going out there and restoring their professional reputation. Which is probably why Arsene Wenger decided that letting fly with both barrels was the way to go yesterday.

I’m guessing that Djourou will have to partner Vermaelen in the centre of defence rather than Squillaci or Miquel. The next most likely change is Gervinho for Walcott or Oxlade-Chamberlain. Neither were great on Wednesday, but AOC probably showed the most grit of the two.

The other possible change I guess is to use Coquelin somewhere in midfield.

I not going to predict a team at this stage. This is mainly going to be about mental strength and what Arsene Wenger saw in each of their faces after he told them the facts of life in short easy to understand words.

Can’t help feeling that these next two games are our season now. Come on Arsenal!

Well that was rather depressing.  You can argue about the pitch, slips, offside and a well worked penalty etc but there’s no getting away from it – we were crap.  We really didn’t look like we knew our business at all.

Vermaelen had a complete mare.  Has he been out wide so long he’s forgotten what to do?  The midfield were ineffectual.  Did we make more than two forward passes in a row?  Van Persie had some decent efforts when he got the ball but that hardly every happened.

I really don’t get the tactics of the first half.  We seemed to play to their strengths.  Surely we needed to get at them with pace rather than play from side to side until someone got sold short on a pass and lost it.  Was the pitch so bad that we decided only a snail’s pace was possible?

We started the game with a sort of lopsided 4-4-2 formation with Rosicky out on the left.  Presumably this was to give Gibbs some protection on his first game in months.  But all it did was leave Rosicky stranded out where he doesn’t want to be and couldn’t contribute.  In the second half we adopted a different new formation with Henry as point man and Van Persie dropping off.  A positive response to the situation but it made no real difference because we were playing so badly.

Arsene Wenger said that was our worst performance in Europe.  He’s right.  I can’t remember a European game where Arsenal played with so little determination or skill.

Their first goal was a cracking finish, but Boateng shouldn’t have got the chance.  It was a poor Szczesny kick and no Arsenal midfielder responded to the danger.  For the second goal Ibrahimovic probably was marginally offside, but you can’t ease up on a close call like that and they over ran our slowly responding defenders.  A nightmare!

Before the game the pundits talked about Arsenal having their first choice central defender pairing for a change.  But I’m not sure that’s true.  Sure, Koscielny and Vermaelen are both individually good players (usually!), but they are too similar and this unbalances the defence.  With Mertsacker and one of the others, you have one to attack the ball and one to read the next danger and mop up.  With Koscielny and Vermaelen you get both attacking the ball or a hesitation while they work out who is doing what.

Anyway, I don’t want to pick on the defenders too much, because the whole team were so poor.  Barring the slimmest of chances were out of the Champions League now.  But the season doesn’t have to be over. The next two games are now huge though to prevent a collapse in morale.  On Saturday we have to stay in the cup, the week after we defend fourth spot on the table at home to Spurs.

Everything depends now on man-management between now and Saturday evening.  Will we stand up and take it out on Sunderland? Or will we fold?

AC Milan 4:0 Arsenal

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No big surprises in the Arsenal squad that travelled to Milan.

Goalkeepers
Lukasz Fabianski, Wojciech Szczesny
Defenders
Johan Djourou, Kieran Gibbs, Laurent Koscielny, Bacary Sagna, Thomas Vermaelen
Midfield
Mikel Arteta, Yossi Benayoun, Francis Coquelin, Aaron Ramsey, Tomas Rosicky, Alex Song
Forwards
Andrey Arshavin, Thierry Henry, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott

Yesterday Arsene Wenger spent a lot of time saying nothing decisive about whether Gibbs will start. On the one hand it’s the natural thing to do but on the other it would be the San Siro for first game back etc.

But he did also talk about Vermaelen being more natural in a central role. He hasn’t taken Miquel to Milan, so if it isn’t Gibbs or Vermaelen then Sagna or Coquelin are is going to have to play wrong-footed if you see what I mean. I suspect that Arsene Wenger does know what he’s going to do but is happy to keep Milan guessing about any area of uncertainty he can get away with. I think Gibbs will start.

If Milan have weaknesses they are generally reckoned to be a lack of pace and width. If the plan really is to get after Milan from the start then that’s got to be an argument for both Gibbs and Oxlade-Chamberlain getting a start.

It would be good to see Arsenal with two genuine fullbacks again. That isn’t a criticism of all the players who’ve been plugging the gap: Coquelin, Djourou, Koscielny, Miquel and Vermaelen. But none of them are really fullbacks and it’s had a noticeable affect the way Arsenal get forward.

I hope we’ll see Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain making surging runs into the box. I know that Blackburn and AC Milan don’t belong in the same sentence, but the pace and width we employed in that game showed how we can make the players we’ve got more dangerous.

I think that a confident and determined Arsenal can come away from tonight with an away goal and a result.

Come on you Gunners!

So off we go to Milan in search of an away goal.  Arsene Wenger says we will be positive and go for that advantage.  Quite right, an away goal puts you in charge and stretches your opponents more – which plays into hands of a pacey team that can pass the ball.  But first we need to get that goal.

We are travelling in slightly better shape than we were in a month ago thanks to our last two wins, but we had to dig deep for the last one and we’ve picked up another defensive injury.  It’s not exactly clear yet how long Per Mertesacker will be out, but it’s not looking good at the moment.

What does this mean for the Arsenal back four tomorrow night?  It all depends on how match fit Kieran Gibbs is now really.  In Sunderland on Saturday he made the bench but not the pitch.  Is he ready for a start now?  If he is, then Vermaelen goes back to the day job partnering Koscielny.  If not I guess we will see the Belgium stay put at left back and Djourou in the middle.

In midfield Song and Arteta will be dead certs, with the choice being over Ramsey or Rosicky.  Tomas Rosicky had started the last two and done really well.  He won our man of the match poll. But will he start three in a row?  My hunch is that we will see Ramsey this time.  He’s had some critics recently but I’m not one of them other than to say he looked knackered before he was given a break.  I think the stats show that he makes a positive contribution.

Up front I don’t see any question over Walcott and Van Persie.  Walcott has his critics too, but his record bears scrutiny as well.  By next Saturday, Gervinho will be back in the equation and then it might get more testing for Theo.  Two from Walcott, AOC and Arshavin isn’t as challenging to Walcott as two from Walcott, Gervinho, AOC and Arshavin.  This is a good problem to have.

But who will start on the left?  Chamberlain had started the last two.  Is he there until he falters, or will he be rationed out a bit?  He will no doubt say he has no nerves about playing at the San Siro and his fearless displays to date support that view.

But this might be an occasion where Arsene Wenger opts for experience, despite his talk of being audacious in the away leg.  On the other hand, I think pace can the key to unsettling Italian sides.  Tricky decision.  I hope for a gamble on AOC, but suspect a start for Arshavin.

If that is the decision them I hope we’ll see the level of industry he’s shown more recently combined with the skill that saw him set up Thierry Henry’s winner through beating two defenders to make an inch-perfect cross.

Whichever one starts I expect we will see Thierry Henry one last time at some stage in the game.

There will be an update from Arsene Wenger later today I guess, but at the moment it’s looking like:
_______ Szczesny ______
Sagna _ Kos _ Verm _ Gibbs
________ Song ________
____ Arteta _ Ramsey ___
Walcott __ RVP _ Arshavin

Sunderland 1:2 Arsenal
Ramsey,Henry

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Sunderland 1:2 Arsenal
Ramsey,Henry

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Big day in the Premier League today and crucial that we get a good result.  The battle for fourth is very tight again.  Here’s the current situation: