Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

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!

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

Not too bad a weekend! Seven Arsenal goals on Saturday and then on Sunday Howard Webb pulled it back for United to see Chelsea dropping a couple of points despite having gone 3:1 up. To be honest, the first Man Utd goal was a genuine penalty, but the second one was a gift.

Pity about the Newcastle win though to hold us back in sixth. Still the battle for fourth has tightened up again to our advantage with the gap to Chelsea cut from five points to three.

Lessons from the weekend?

Front Three Works
The Walcott, RVP, AOC combo had given us back width and some fear factor. Yes I know it was only Blackburn, but we were getting seriously predictable and bogged down in the middle. Now we’re coming from more angles and we’re running into the box.

Arsene Wenger had been warning about the danger of burn out for Chamberlain and no-one wants a repeat of Jack Wilshere’s experience this season. But with Gervinho returning it should be possible to avoid that.

Welcome back Mikel
It’s hard to point out key moments during the game, but it just works better with him. There’s more composure and possession results in the ball moving forward more. Somehow we’re under less pressure. Can’t tell you exactly why. There just seem to be some players, like Gilberto Silva or John Collins and Mikel Arteta who know where they need to be to relieve pressure from team-mates.

Rosicky can share Ramsey’s load
Tomas Rosicky is having his best season in ages despite playing a support role. He may not be up to consecutive starts, but he can step right in when Ramsey needs a break.

So a better Monday morning despite the trudge through the snow to the station and the packed train. Have a good day now.

Well that feels a lot better of course, though the toothless Bolton game still does my head in.  Look where we could be!  Anyway, back to the good news.

After a run of Sunday games we were first up for a change with a lunchtime kick-off. Our rivals are all still to play.  What a game it was.  Same squad as Bolton but Coquelin and Rosicky started rather than Sagna and Ramsey.  Sensible changes.  Ramsey has looked jaded of late and Sagna is coming back from a long lay-off.  On Wednesday of course the whole team looked jaded.  Not yesterday.

In less than two minutes Walcott set up Van Persie for a tap-in.  Confidence flooding all around.  Arsenal in control, on a stroll, not going to blow this one!  But then Koscielny pulls down Modeste just outside the box.  Pedersen’s freekick was inch perfect and Blackburn were level.  Surely we weren’t going to blow it again?

Despite getting level, Blackburn just didn’t seem to have it in them to take advantage.  So Walcott and Van Persie went and did exactly the same. 2:1.

That was the game for Blackburn then.  They had nothing left and the stage was set for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s first Premier League goal.  Set-up by Van Persie with a fantastic pass onto a clever run from Chamberlain.  With composure he took three touches to collect the ball, get some room and then score.  3:1

As Arsene Wenger said after the game, Chamberlain has made a very rapid transition from youth player to confident first-teamer.  I’m not always a big fan of Mark Lawrenson’s punditry, but he was spot-on last night about AOC: what marks him out already is that he has a bit of everything.

Explosive pace to lose opponents, head up early to read the game, intelligent runs, strength to stay on the ball under pressure, composure to finish.

We all rolled our eyes in the summer didn’t we?  There goes Arsenal blowing a thick wad on a teenager when we need maturity.  Well we were right but so was he! Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was a major signing for Arsenal.  He’s currently leading our match poll.

Today the pace and movement of Ox and Walcott either side of the sublime Van Persie looked unstoppable.  OK, so we can’t play Blackburn every week, but it looked fresh and dangerous.  Running into the box scares the hell out of defenders good and bad.

Blackburn were dead now but not content to let Arsenal to do all the burying!  A desperate two-footed lunge from Givet on Van Persie earned him a straight red.  All this and the second half still to come.

The second half was more one-way traffic.  Arteta collected a loose ball from a corner and forced a goal through a deflection.  4:1

Then a great run from Walcott sets up AOC for his second.  5:1.

Another hat-trick for Robin Van Persie.  Very similar to the first two, but this time the pass came from Coquelin.  You could call them all tap-ins, but that takes something away from Van Persie.  He has that talent to check and dart that loses his markers and gives him space to receive the ball and score.  6:1

Now the most curious bit of the game.  We’re 6:1 up and RVP, without whom our season etc etc, has already suffered a couple of crunching tackles.  He can surely come off can’t he?  No he can’t!

Sagna, Henry and Benayoun come on, but Van Persie stays put.  Just how big a cushion is needed to let Park Ju-Young give Van Persie a early finish?  Clearly Arsene Wenger doesn’t rate him highly, but really, just how bad can he be?  If a five goal lead against ten isn’t safe enough, there have to be other players in the squad who can sit on the bench don’t there?

Anyway, the game was nearly done.  It just had enough in it to let Henry play one-two with Van Persie and score number seven.  Bit of a lucky defection true, but he worked hard to win the ball and get there so he deserved the goal.  7:1, majestic, emphatic, about time!

Now we can relax and watch our rivals play later.  Dream results would be losses for Chelsea and Newcastle against Man Utd and Aston Villa respectively.  Both possibilities!  Then tomorrow Tottenham play Liverpool.

So potential to improve our standing having finally got it right yesterday.  All good.

So, Thomas Eisfeld then?  Haven’t a clue to be honest.  I mean, we’d all learned up about Mario Gotze and it turns out we’re buying the other teenage attacking midfielder from Dortmund.  The one who isn’t tipped by all the big past stars of German football and isn’t called Super Mario.  Poor kid!

Not sure how much we’ll see of him this season.   He has played no first team games for Borussia Dortmund and Arsene Wenger has said that there will be a period of adaptation.  So I doubt that he will feature much before the autumn.  Which is a pity because the bad news of the day was confirmation that Jack Wilshere is unlikely to feature before next season as well.  So Gotze would have been just the job.

But the truth is that no ‘big name’ was likely to come in this January.  People can witter on all they like about Arsenal having plenty in the bank and that Arsenal have to buy, but you can only buy if people want to come.  What big star would commit to Arsenal in January when we are six points off a Champions League spot?  This may be unfamiliar territory for younger fans, but it’s where we are and we will only change it on the pitch with the player we have.

The news about Jack Wilshere is quite a blow as we could do with more midfield cover as the season goes on.  Arteta and Ramsey have both done a great job but Ramsey is looking a bit jaded and Arteta didn’t have the best of fitness records before joining Arsenal.  Rosicky is doing a great job at the moment bit you don’t see him starting many consecutive games.

Which brings us on to the team to face Bolton tonight.  Bolton are fourth from bottom but we haven’t let such things get in the way of an embarrassing slip-up before.  Laurent Koscielny is right to warn against any complacency.

Last night, Chelsea were kind enough to leave a couple of points in Swansea, so we need seize the opportunity.  Arteta, and Henry are apparently both good to start, but it is less likely for Sagna.  There are no additional injuries from the Villa game.

Our current league form is, of course, dire with three losses on the trot.  Bolton on the other hand have had a good month with victories over Everton and Liverpool and progress on the cup.  Losing at Old Trafford was their only problem in January.

So a strong team choice is order to ensure we get back to winning ways.  Only two real choices to makes I guess, Sagna v Coquelin/Djourou and Ox v Arshavin.  Bolton are not particularly pacey on the left so Djourou would be ok, but I would prefer Coquelin.  As for the other choice, Arsene Wenger has talked of a cautious development of Oxlade-Chamberlain’s career so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Arshavin start with the younger player back on Saturday at Bolton.

So something like this:

______ Szczesny ______
Coq _ Merte _ Kos _ Verm
________ Song _______
___ Arteta __ Ramsey __
Walcott _ RVP _ Arshavin

Apart from Thierry’s winner against Leeds United, January has been a thoroughly crap month. Let’s hope we can end it with a win against Villa tomorrow. I know the league is our main focus nut when you’re in a losing rut you just need any kind of win.

A big part of our problem has been injuries of course and the news there is good and bad. Arteta, Henry and Coquelin are likely to be available and Sagna could make the bench.

The news that Jack Wilshere has suffered a set-back this week is depressing. He’s said to be gifted and I’m sure he is. It’s frustrating for us as fans, must be so much worse for him.

Of the potential returnees, I think it’s Arteta we’ve missed the most. We’ve definitely lacked composure and possession whilst he’s been out so if just one of them is ready I hope it’s him. If there’s any doubt about Coquelin, I wouldn’t be disappointed to see Yennaris at fullback. He’s looked alright and it’s his position.

Last time we played Villa we won with a late Benayoun header. Since then they’ve added Keane on loan. He may not be quite the player he was, but he’s still a big threat. I think it could be a tough game.

Will Oxlade-Chamberlain get a start? I think he might just, although Arsene Wenger was on bit of a mission to fix Arshavin’s confidence yesterday. But form is the thing and managers earn their corn by being ruthless when required. So it would be good to see AOC, even if he doesn’t have the stamina for ninety minutes yet.

Course, if he can’t do ninety minutes, Arsene Wenger won’t relish repeating THAT substitution! But if Henry is fit he can be spared that option.

Maybe he’ll start them both and leave Theo sitting on the bench pondering where to pitch his contract bid.

Predicting a team line-up is difficult when so many players are on the cusp of match fitness, but how about something like this -

______ Szczesny ______
Yen _ Merte _ Kos _ Verm
_______ Song ________
__ Arteta ___ Ramsey __
Walcott __ RVP ___ AOC

Well that was depressing.  Some Arsenal fans have gone quite ballistic on blogs and twitter.  Understandable although surely losing to Fulham and Swansea were worse?

That substitution!
Anyway, let’s start with what everyone’s talking about – the substitution of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with Andrey Arshavin.  Arsene Wenger says he had to come off as he was beginning to fatigue and suffer cramp.  Well this was his first Premier League start and he hasn’t played a whole lot of competitive football so maybe that’s right.  Plausible enough.  What I don’t get, and neither does anyone else, is why he was replaced with Andrey Arshavin.

OK so he didn’t have a lot of options on the bench, it was a choice between Arshavin, Benayoun or Park.  We’d just got a goal back, but we were still under pressure from a team that never gives up or they wouldn’t dare go back into the dressing room.  Neither Arshavin nor Benayoun are great defenders, they are both attacking midfielders, but the key difference is that Benayoun makes the effort.  He really looks like he cares what happens.  Admittedly Arshavin has upped his work rate over the last couple of games, but he’s never really put much in defensively and his form this season has been poor.

It was also very poor for a player to come on to booing by his club’s own supporters.  I’ve blogged elsewhere about it and those who’ve commented don’t agree, but I still think it was a crap thing to do.

So was the defeat all Arshavin’s fault?  No it wasn’t.  But he was hopeless in the lead up to Man United’s second goal and we definitely lost momentum.

The Ox has arrived
But in picking apart the decision to substitute him, let’s not lose sight of Chamberlain’s performance.  The guy was an absolute star.  OK so he may get caught out of position a bit, but this was his his first league start and he’s only eighteen.  And he was playing Manchester United.  He’s got pace and strength.  He is determined not to get muscled off the ball and he has a clear idea of what he’s going to do with it.  There’s plenty of end product along with all the effort.

It’s natural to compare him with Walcott, so everyone doing that today.  Pity for Theo that he had such an ineffectual time yesterday.  They are not identical.  AOC doesn’t have the same pace that Walcott has, but he is plenty fast enough and accelerates well.  He has more muscle and bulk than Walcott.  It took a couple of seasons for Theo to stop getting bounced off the ball by featherlite challenges.  AOC already has that resilience now and more.  If Theo wasn’t already looking over his shoulder, he should be now.  The Ox has arrived and yesterday made a convincing case for starting more often.

Three typical goals
The three goals could all be described as typical.  United’s first came with us being beaten out in the right fullback position.  It went on for most of the game, mainly with Nani beating Djourou, but this time it was Giggs eluding the covering Walcott.  In went the cross and on the far side Valencia beat Vermaelen to the ball and headed in from close range.

Our goal was a typical classy counterattack.  Koscielny calmly played the ball out of defence, Rosicky combined with AOC, who slipped the ball to Van Persie.  You didn’t fancy RVP’s chances where he was and the players in the way, but he scored, reversing the ball through a defender’s legs and across the the keeper.  It crept into the corner and Arsenal had crept back into the game.  Van Persie didn’t actually have the best of games, missing a bit of a sitter earlier.  But the goal showed why he is such an asset.  You couldn’t imagine anyone else in the squad, apart from Henry resting in the stand, who would have scored from there.

Man Utd’s winner was also sadly typical with Arshavin first tentative, then typically casual and then finally off the pace when Valencia made his run into the box to create the opportunity for Welbeck.

Temporary fullbacks and Nico Yennaris
The lack of proper fullbacks is hurting us.  Not every game, but in every game where we come up against pace.  Central defenders are not built for speed and you have to do a lot of running out wide.  Against Swansea’s Sinclair and Dyer, United’s Nani and Valencia, Djourou, Vermaelen and Miquel are struggling.  By halftime yesterday, Djourou was knackered and getting beaten time and again.  He isn’t a bad player, worth his place in the squad, but he isn’t a genuine fullback and Nani is a genuine winger.  At halftime, Arsene Wenger ended his pain by bring on Nico Yennaris.  A longstanding debate. Which is the better option, experience out of position vs youth?  Last night the answer was clear.  Yennaris didn’t shut out United completely but he was clearly the better option.  He isn’t Bacary Sagna yet, but he looks a very decent player.

Rosicky and Koscielny
This isn’t meant to be a blow by blow account, but these two have to have mention.  Tomas Rosicky had a great game.  You wouldn’t start him ahead of a fit Arteta, but he is clever, passes well, holds the ball and he cares about the result.  Koscielny also played a blinder.  To think how we scorned him in his first season!  He has great skill, reads the game well and supplies a great deal of the team’s backbone now.

Fifth
So there we are, emotionally drained, still fifth, but slightly further off the golden top four slots.  The only glimmers of the weekend were Spurs and the two rivals immediately behind losing.  We’re still in the hunt and we have players to come back.  But it got harder again this weekend.  Last night wasn’t our worst performance in January, not even our second worst.  But it still hurts in the morning.

Let’s be clear before any muppet dives straight in, I am not in any way happy about the result this evening.
1) A five point gap to fourth place is going to make life very difficult (but losing to Swansea & Fulham were the real slip-ups)
2) If Chamberlain had to come off, I just don’t get replacing him with Arshavin.

BUT, booing a player on to the pitch as Arsenal fans people in the stadium did this evening is just crap, crap, crap.

Why are we such a magnificant crowd away and so pathetic at home?

More on the game itself later.  Meanwhile, AOC and Kos lead our match poll.

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Well that was a depressing end to the weekend!  It started so well too, with an excellent opener from Robin Van Persie after just a few minutes.  A well timed run to stay onside and a perfectly weighted pass slid in by Theo Walcott.  For a second it looked like RVP would run out of room, but he slipped it past Vorm to score.

We were on a roll.  What was that you said about Swansea’s home form?

Well, as they demonstrated next, their home reputation is well deserved and it shows why they’ve been clear of the drop-zone so far this season.  Once they got over the shock of our early goal they got their shape back and played some good fast attacking football down both sides.  Ignasi Miquel may be a good prospect as a central defender, but as a stand-in fullback he was soon struggling with Nathan Dyer.  On the other side, Djourou was coping slightly better with Sinclair but still not keeping him out.

Swansea were lucky with the penalty for the equaliser though.  Aaron Ramsey did make contact with Sinclair’s heal but only after Sinclair had crashed into his calf studs first.  It should have been a freekick to Arsenal and maybe a card for Sinclair, but that’s not how the referee saw it and so Swansea were back in the game with their tails up.

Szczesny went the right way for the penalty, but Dyer put it hard and low into the corner and scored.  Szczesny actually had a good game for a keeper conceding three.

But by then we weren’t having a good game elsewhere on the pitch and the combination of injury, sickness and the African Cup showed how shallow the squad is as Swansea completely dominated possession.

Djourou and Miquel are two players worth their place in the squad as alternate central defenders, but they are not proper fullbacks and against pacey traditional wingers it showed.  Walcott and Arshavin are not always that helpful to Sagna and Santos and the need for assistance was even greater yesterday.  Against Leeds and Swansea, Arshavin demonstrated that he has rediscovered energy, but sadly he hasn’t rediscovered form.

Benayoun ran himself ragged trying to fill midfield gaps but that has never really been his game and he wasn’t making much impact standing on for Arteta who was out with the same bug that hit Mertesacker and Rosicky earlier in the week.  Presumably Rosicky wasn’t feeling 100% as you would expect him to cover for Arteta – much better likeness than Benayoun who has a different sort of talent.  Whether Arteta’s presence would have changed the result, who knows.  There was only a goal in it.  But we were definitely missing him in the middle.

Swansea got the lead when Joe Allen dispossessed Ramsey and passed to Dyer.  Miquel was stranded well out of position and Dyer finished superbly.  After about an hour, Arsene Wenger replaced Arshavin and Benayoun with Henry and Rosicky.  For a while it looked to do the trick, more so because of Rosicky than Henry.  Straight away we were holding on to the ball longer and looking more organised.  Calm and order seemed to be restored and we got the equaliser.  Walcott surged forward and scored with a the sort of calm finish which, if he could do it consistently, would transform him into a top, top class player.

At that moment, any result was possible: win, loss or draw.  But we fell asleep at the restart and the ball was fed between Koscielny and Miquel to put Danny Graham one on one with Szczesny.  The game had been rescued and thrown again inside a minute.  After that we tried to pressurise, swapping Oxlade-Chamberlain for Mertesacker, but Swansea weren’t going to throw it away and held out to the end.

So we’ve dropped points, giving Chelsea a whole game’s cushion ahead of us.  Hard yards ahead.  We have shown that we can compete at the top, but with some key absentees we’re very vulnerable.  Get well soon Arteta, Sagna, Wilshere and Santos!  Hurry home Gervinho.