Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

Our main rivals have played match 33 and sit two and four points behind us. Tonight we have the chance to make that five and seven. Wolves lie six points from safety. Do they still believe or have they given up? Either way, Arsenal’s biggest threat tonight is complacency. Hopefully the QPR game had driven out any chance of that.

As for the team we will see at least two changes tonight. Gibbs’ groin is apparently fatigued and Koscielny is suspended for the next two games. Gervinho is also out. So Squillaci and Park join the squad. Clearly Santos will play at leftback, but who will pair up with Vermaelen? I think that Arsene Wenger will stick with the obvious and put in Djourou.

That leaves the question of who plays out wide left? Wenger pulled a bit of a surprise on Sunday and played Benayoun with excellent results. But I don’t believe that he will start two in a row so it’s going to be Ramsey or Oxlade-Chamberlain. I hope that it’s the latter. He’s due a start this is surely a good game to do it. One antidote to complacency is a player with a desire to prove himself.

So I expect to see:
______ Szczesny ______
Sag _ DJ _ Verm _ Santos
________ Song _______
__ Arteta ___ Rosicky __
Walcott __ RVP __ AOC

Meanwhile I’m still fuming over the spineless Football Association for all the good it will do. They are hiding behind FIFA now. Nobody believes you guys, they see other football associations acting and you doing nothing. Victory to the leg-breakers and your fault.

Last night Liverpool scraped a 3:2 win over struggling Blackburn despite going 2:0 up in the first fifteen minutes. Kenny Dalglish still manager. Flanagan was hopeless but he’s just young and cost Kenny nothing. Henderson was laughable and cost millions. Hard to believe now that his capture by Liverpool was held up at the time as another example of what Wenger couldn’t achieve!

The English Football Association has decided that Mario Balotelli cannot be punished for his high, studs first challenge on Alex Song during the match on Sunday. Their ‘defence’ is that referee Martin Atkinson saw the incident and so they are powerless to act.

You are not powerless guys, you are in charge. What you have effectively done is created a leg-breakers charter. Is what you saw in that review what you actually want to see happen on football pitches in England? Since you have refused to punish Balotelli, we have to assume that it is. Pathetic.

Remember, you are the ruling body for football in England. You are in charge. You are the body entrusted with defining how football is played in England. You could stop this type of challenge if you wanted to. You haven’t. So what are we supposed to think of you?

Liverpool lost again yesterday and are now vulnerable to a bottom half finish. They ought to have enough to avoid that but right now they are eighth with four clubs within three points of them. Tough days for Liverpool fans, but no more than Kenny Dalglish deserves.

Quite apart from it being Liverpool’s sixth defeat in seven games, the match was notable for its outrageous gamesmanship. The first incident was spotted by the referee. No surprise, as Andy Carroll’s dive was probably visible from outer space. Carroll got a yellow card. Later, Liverpool were denied a goal when Danny Simpson cleared of the line with his arm.

Then, in the 82nd minute, Newcastle fullback fouled Liverpool keeper Reina. The two faced up to each other, foreheads touching. Barely touching that is until Perch flew to the ground clutching his face. Now Reina was always going to be in trouble for pushing his head against Perch, but there’s no doubt that the Newcastle player acted to ensure the card was red. No way to make a living guys and no-one really deserved any points at all.

Gareth Bale dived. Watch the replays as many times as you like, Gibbs and Szczesny didn’t touch him. Explains the difficult discussion the ref had with his Assistant – Who should get the card? Neither. No card given.

Remember the storms over Pires and Eduardo? Well where is it now? Or is diving only a problem when it’s a foreigner? That can’t be it surely?

Today we learned that it was all Arsenal’s fault that Alan Hutton got sent off the other night. Well not completely, he does say that Hutton shouldn’t have fallen for being conned into a red card!

Conned?!?!!! Alan Hutton cleaned out Van Persie and Vermaelen. He came through the back of Van Persie, failing to get the ball. Then ninety seconds or so later he bulldozed Vermaelen off the pitch, again not involving the ball in proceedings. In other words he quite rightly got two yellows which makes a red.

The only people conned are the Aston Villa owners when they were persuaded to part company with some cash to bring him to the club. To make matters worse, McLeish then says he doesn’t hold anything against Van Persie for conning Hutton. Apparently that sort of thing is acceptable ‘street smart’ behavior that gains your team an advantage.

McLeish needs to get his thinkin ‘ead on – Hutton wasn’t conned, he’s just too slow, and conning the referee isn’t something premier football managers should be advocating. I know this all sounds a bit ‘preachy’, but surely good football is something worth having?

The only thing I don’t get about Arsenal’s decision on postponing the Wolves game is that they left it so late. The Boxing Day strike has been planned for weeks. Why wait until fans have made all their family plans for Christmas before changing?

The Wilshere red card tackle which, take note, nobody at Arsenal has sought to defend, has had the likes of McLeish sounding off in the Sunday papers.  Why oh why oh why does everyone rate Wenger ahead of us they want to know.

McLeish complains that people haven’t forgotten the Taylor tackle on Eduardo.  Pullis points out that foreigner Wenger hasn’t won anything in a while.  Why oh why doesn’t anyone recognize our talent in the same way they want to know.

Well here are two lessons why.  One is about being remembered for the right things, but the first is about being remembered at all.  Both are about class.

So, Wenger hasn’t won anything in years.  That’s true Tony, and Arsenal fans are a little anxious, but he has won stuff and you haven’t.  He has led a team to the closing stages of the Champions League just about every year, including a final.  He was spotted in relative obscurity and plucked out to manage the Arsenal.  You were spotted and plucked out to manage Stoke City.  What’s more, he’s competed with the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd, Barcelona and now Man City with a fraction of their spending.

That’s why people rate him Alex.  That’s why people will still be talking about him, and let’s face it the Taylor tackle, long after they’ve stopped talking about Alex McLeish!

The second lesson is about wanting to be remembered for the right things. Tony Pullis and Alex McLeish do have tough jobs to do.  Yes, absolutely true.  But so do Ian Holloway at Blackpool and Roberto Di Matteo at West Brom.  All four of them have to keep their ‘unfashionable’ clubs in the top flight on small budgets.

But there’s a big difference in the approach that the two pairs of managers take.  Holloway and Di Matteo send out teams to play football.  They try and close the skill gap through athleticism, concentration and good tactics.  It’s football and it’s admirable.

Now it’s early in the season, and Holloway and Di Matteo may yet succumb to the pressures of survival, but it is clear from the way they have started the season how they want to play the game, how they want to be remembered. Plus they make sure that they are not remembered for whining interviews!

Now Tony and Alex may argue that they’ve never had the breaks in their careers, so maybe we can be sympathetic on lesson one, but they have no excuses on lesson two.   The managers of West Brom and Blackpool are in the same boat as Tony and Alex.  The difference is, they’ve got class.

Danny Murphy‘s contrbituon to the tackling debate was welcome because he was the first player to break ranks and say something is wrong with the game in England.

The problem is that by saying that some managers tell their players to go out and hurt opponents, he gave some of them a way of getting off the hook.  The managers in question just get all indignant and say: ‘I would never tell my players to go out and break someone’s leg’.  It allows Mick McCarthy to make a joke about the whole issue – storm in a teacup, yes?  No!

What the game needs is an end to recklessly dangerous tackles, whether they are meant maliciously or not.  Take Jack Wilshere‘s red card tackle yesterday.  He didn’t say to himself, ‘I’ve lost the ball so I’m going to break the leg of the Birmingham player who has it now’.  He was frustrated because his first touch was poor and stupidly lunged in with a reckless tackle.

It wasn’t high speed, rigid-legged or really high, but it was reckless and wrong.  So he rightly got a red card.  Because that sort of tackle can cause injury and is nothing to do with a skillful game.  Willshere will hopefully learn the lesson.

We need two clear principles to be accepted across English football.

The first is that players are individually responsible and they have to cut out reckless tackles that are just a substitute for a mistake, a lack of pace or skill.  When they don’t, they should get a red card.

The second is that managers need to accept that the way to compete with an opposing team made up of much more talented players is pace, organization and concentration.  Just like West Brom when they came to Arsenal.  And that by telling their players to be physical, they are giving them license to be reckless.

**** You can still vote for your Arsenal – Birmingham Man of the Match here. ****

Referee Attwood had another nightmare in the game at Anfield. Liverpool’s first goal was truly bizarre. The referee points to where the freekick should be taken, then turns his back on the ball. The Sunderland player lazily kicks it (kick overstates it really) behind him, obviously expecting the keeper to come and take it. Liverpool player nips in and takes the ball.

By the time Attwood has turned round to look he’s in trouble. He doesn’t know how the ball went live because he wasn’t watching. Liverpool score but look sheepish, Sunderland protest. Attwood is stuffed.

What is the advice he gets from his assistant? Whatever is said doesn’t help as he confirms the goal.

Later, Steven Gerrard fells a Sunderland player with a forearm in the face. Deliberate or unfortunate accident?

If it’s deliberate it’s a red card. If it’s an accident it’s no card at all. Attwood gives Gerrard a yellow.

Sad to say it, but the guy is out of his depth and it matters.

Deliberate, off the ball body checking seems to be an unwelcome new tactic creeping into the Premiership this season.

I’m watching the City Chelsea game right now and I’ve seen two clear examples by a City defender. I’m not talking about shoulder to shoulder running by defender and forward or putting an arm on an opponent in a corner. That goes on in every game and referees can’t really do much because they can’t tell who’s leaning into who.

What I’m talking about is a player changing course away from the ball to barge into a player running into box. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen it, there have been a few examples now. It can be tricky for the referee because it doesn’t involve the two players on the ball. It’s more obvious when you are watching on TV.

Despite the difficulty I think referees need to clamp down. Otherwise we could end up with something that looks a bit like American football with each runner be barged down by a defender.

Sam Allardyce says that Arsene Wenger is a clever man.  I’ll go along with that.  Though of course Sam isn’t talking about the teams that Wenger has built on limited budgets.

Sam says that Wenger is clever because he talks referees into giving Arsenal players more protection than is right for the game.  Up to a point, and Sam’s horizon here is just the Premiership survival of the clubs Sam gets to manage, he is right.

I’m sure that Arsene Wenger quite deliberately intends that his comments will make it more likely that his talented, quick thinking players will be protected from players who have no skillful means of stopping them.

And I can see why the Prof’s style of delivery sometimes winds up his chippier managerial rivals. (What does Wenger’s voicemail greeting say?  Please leave a message after the high moral tone.)

In the context of each doing their job, both are right.  But there is a wider question.  What sort of football do we really want in England and how do we get it?

If the answer to the first is that we revel in the consistent competition of the talentless levellers, who close the skill gap with high, stud-first lunges, then nothing needs to be done.  Timid referees are given covering fire by hard-bitten commentators and summarizers who grew up watching Stiles, Harris and Hunter.

But is that really more attractive than what we saw in the Arsenal-Braga match on Wednesday?  Or the sort of games we see played out by the top clubs?

Obviously my answer is no and I believe that the supporters of the other top half dozen clubs, for all there weariness at Wenger’s tone, probably think the same.

Buy that’s the issue at the heart of this – the top club managers are employed by club directors who never fear the big drop into the Championship.  They can afford the big player fees.

Sam Allardyce is employed by those who understandably fear the financial consequences of relegation.

Sam Allardyce and those in the same boat know there are six to eight clubs his team cannot match technically.  They have to be stopped.

That means denying them space and time on the ball- or giving them a good kicking physically discouraging them. That’s how it is.  Simple as.  Injuries, says Sam, are inevitable.

There are teams that try to mount such an energetic, disciplined challenge that they hope will deny space to teams like Arsenal for a whole ninety minutes.  But that’s a very tough ask.  One lapse in concentration and the game is lost.

There are teams that stick to good football without the personnel to pull it off.  We admire Ian Holloway’s Blackpool right now but how many think they will stay up playing that way?

Sadly, the efficient tactic for these clubs is the physical option.  It’s a cold-hearted logic.

In the end, it isn’t entirely Big Sam’s fault.  He’s just stuck in the system and provides the narrative to make it seem ok.

So what can be done?

Maybe the big clubs could share more of the wealth with the Championship to reduce the financial penalty of relegation.

Maybe we could have a smaller Premiership, but keep the wealth, to reduce the gap between top and bottom.  Fewer games would also benefit the national side.

But I can’t see enough clubs being brave enough to vote either through.

In some sports they do away with relagation altogether and also force the clubs to share out the most talented players.  But I don’t think that would be popular and may even be an illegal restraint of trade here in Europe.

So that leaves us with the option of the English game’s regulators being brave and laying down the law.  But were talking about the FA here!

Would they do it.  They have the responsibility and in the long-term it would probably improve the quality of the England team.  Could they do it.

I wish I felt more optimistic.

- Feel free to offer other solutions below.  And you don’t have to go along with the partial defence of Sam Allardyce if you don’t want to!