Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

And if that isn’t actually a George Graham quote, it certainly ought to be! A good evening’s work, even if it wasn’t wonderful football. Arsenal looked distinctly jaded and got a little bit lucky with the result.

But they say you make your own luck and our persistence paid off with a late winner. The fresh legs and experience of Rosicky and Benayoun helped. Even Arshavin managed to inject a bit of urgency for a change. Several starters looked a jaded – Ramsey and Gervinho. Frimpong showed his inexperience here and there. But then experienced is what he is and he’ll learn more control as he plays more. Someone who seems way past learning any control is Alan Hutton who managed to get two yellows in the space of ninety seconds. Both pretty pointless incidents too.

Arsenal were slightly lucky with the first penalty, quite a few like that wouldn’t be given, but unlucky not to get a second. Bizarrely, Van Persie even got a card for diving.

Our man of the match poll came down to a choice between Benayoun and Koscielny with the latter getting the most votes.

The other results last night were mxed for Arsenal. Manchester City and United march on, opening up a gap at the top. But the two seems below us lost ground. Newcastle are on the slide after a load of key injuries. Even with Coloccini back they lost again. Wigan battled hard to keep Liverpool out, so we have a points and goal difference gap below us again.

If there was anything ugly about football last night it was the sight of the Liverpool team all parading in Suarez t-shirts before that game. Team solidarity is one thing, but this is a much, much bigger issue and it seems that Kenny Dalglish so doesn’t get it. Liverpool Football Club should be feeling deeply embarrassed, not defiant.

It’s an extension of the ‘not that kind of player’ attitude we get after a leg-breaking tackle. The point is this – you may think that your player is niave, stupid or inept rather than evil, but recklessly violent play and racially abusive language should be stopped. And that’s all there is to it.

Aston Villa 1:2 Arsenal
Van Persie,Benayoun

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Aston Villa 1:2 Arsenal
Van Persie,Benayoun

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Arsene Wenger doesn’t have the option of an unchanged side against Aston Villa tonight.  The City game saw Alex Song reach five yellow cards and Johann Djourou limp off with a groin strain.  So now we have five injured defenders!

To make things worse it appears that Kieran Gibbs has had a setback and may be out for quite some time.  Arsene Wenger is now talking publically about looking for loan options.

Tonight of course, Arsenal have to play with what we’ve got.  That means Squillaci or Miquel getting a game.  Hopefully Miquel.  It’s a shame for Squillaci how things have turned out, but he hasn’t convinced so it’s better to invest pitch time in Miquel, even out of position.

So that means a back four of Koscielny, Mertesacker, Vermaelen and Miquel.  Not ideal going forward, but it should be pretty secure.  Villa haven’t been scoring too many goals this season.

Who is top understudy to Song, Frimpong or Coquelin?  There isn’t a huge amount to choose between then really, but it’s Coquelin who’s been getting more of the chances this season.

Will any of the attacking players get a break tonight.  Yossi Benayoun certainly deserves more games.  But with changes in the defensive half, I suspect Arsene Wenger will be cautious and make no change.  With Liverpool matching us on points now, we could do with some goals tonight so I hope that we can manage a similar intensity to Sunday.

I’m expecting:

______ Szczesny ______
Kos _ Merte _ Verm _ Miq
______ Coquelin _______
___ Arteta __ Ramsey __
Walcott _ RVP _ Gervinho

What do you think?

Longer-term, we obviously have a fullback problem to solve and the media have decided that the obvious solution is to take Wayne Bridge on loan from Man City.  This story has been helped on with comments from Roberto Mancini to the effect that trotting round the training ground with the reserves each morning is no work for a grown man.

Trouble is, do we want Manchester City’s third choice leftback, especially given we’d have to pay the lion’s share of his reported £90,000 a week wages?  Finding a suitable replacement isn’t easy though.  As Arsene Wenger said, it isn’t like a supermarket where there’s loads sitting on the shelf waiting for you.  But there’s surely got to be a better option than someone who’s played just one Carling Cup game and can’t even get on the bench most weeks.

The option that everyone apart from Andre Santos would like to see is Leighton Baines.  Sadly I’m not sure it’s a runner.  Everton are in dire financial straits but they’re not in ‘fire sale’ territory yet I think.  Selling Baines would be a desperate move for them.

Third name doing the rounds is Taye Taiwo at AC Milan.  He’s probably the right sort of player to be a good stop-gap, in terms of both skill and value.  Nigeria didn’t qualify for the African Cup of Nations and Taiwo has only played seven times this season.  He has played in the Champions League though which would reduce his value for us.  But is he really available and would AC Milan want to help us out in any way now that they’re our next Champions League opponents?

Now that Arsene Wenger is speculating openly about the situation I expect we will see a whole host of other names over the next couple of weeks.

Man of the Match poll for the Villa game later – come on you Gunners!

An extra round of games this week and Arsenal need to stay right on their game after the big game on Sunday.  So what are the prospects for Arsenal and the teams roundabout us?

After a couple of weeks where the top end of the league tightened, the last set of games spread the leaders out again.  So here is the situation for teams we can reach, or can reach us, in these midweek fixtures.

There will be some changes of course, Djourou injured his groin and Alex Song is suspended having racked up five yellow cards.  More on the team choices tomorrow.

Villa were dreadful at the weekend according to all the reports I saw.  An easy game?  Maybe not easy, but winnable.
Villa at home: DWLWLL
Arsenal away: LLWWWL
Villa’s home wins were Wigan and Norwich.

These are the games for our rivals:
Wednesday
Newcastle V West Brom   &   Wigan v Liverpool
These ought to go the way of the big clubs, but then Wigan will feel buoyed up by getting a point against Chelsea.  Roy Hodgson will have noticed Newcastle failing to beat Swansea at home and wonder if his side can grab at least a point that he wouldn’t have reckoned on a few weeks ago.
Thursday
Tottenham v Chelsea
A big game for both teams and a big game for Arsenal too!  What do we hope for?  Traditionally we’re always happy to see Spurs lose, but traditionally they’re below us in the table.

A Chelsea win just maintains their gap and Spurs have a game in hand any way.  So let’s hope for an exhausting draw.  We can’t gain any places midweek, but it would be nice to see things tighten up again.

After beating Wigan yesterday it feels like we have reached the end of the recovery phase.  Four – nil was the right score rather than just getting the right number of points.  I know that Wigan away is a fixture that we’ve cocked up two years running, but all the same it feels like a suitable statement about this season – we’re back where we should be.

It’s tempting to say now for the hard bit, but that underplays what we have already achieved since that dire day at Old Trafford.  Pulling a team out of a crisis of confusion and confidence is hard, but Arsenal have done it.  It’s just that the next bit is going to be hard too.

The race for a top four slot has got harder thanks to Sheik Mansour and Harry Redknapp.  Much as it pains me to say it, Redknapp has put together the most credible Tottenham team in decades.  Meanwhile City have spent nearly a billion pounds and this season they are getting the inevitable rewards.  We debate the sanity or morality of spending billion pounds on a football club when the world’s in such a state, but there we are, that’s what he’s done, and now Man City and Tottenham are at the races too.

I’m not sure about Newcastle.  Their start to the season has been stunning but I get the feeling we are about to see how deep the quality of their challenge really is.  They picked up a couple of injuries on Saturday that might be hard to deal with.  But for the moment they are in the mix with us.

So too are Chelsea.  Like Newcastle, there are still questions to be answered, but on Saturday they looked like they knew their business again.  Their defenders held their shape and did a good job.  Sturridge looks increasingly good and Drogba looks fitter.  You wonder how different it might have been if Luiz had got a red card early on when he brought down Demba Ba.  He was clearly last man, but Chelsea got the break and made the most of it.

Tomorrow we will see if Liverpool are still on the pace after a few draws that have taken a bit of the gloss off.

But at the moment there’s a seven way fight for the only four positions that mean anything and we’ve got a tough month ahead.  Before Christmas we play Everton (eighth), Man City (top) and Aston Villa (ninth).  These are all going to be harder work.

Looking around the web today there’s all the usual transfer speculation, none of it really stood up with convincing quotes, so I think we might leave it be a little longer yet.  One pretty solid looking story is that Emmanuel Frimpong wants a loan spell, with Wolves the most likely destination.  Sounds like a sensible enough move to me.  Coquelin is probably edging him as chief understudy to Song at the moment and after Tuesday’s shot to nothing against Olympiacos and us going out of the Carling, it’s hard to see what time on the pitch he’s going to get.

Mikel Artea won our Wigan Man of the Match poll after initially being neck and neck with Robin Van Persie.

A fortnight ago it was just a chance to keep the momentum going and keep station with our rivals. This weekend there is a place up for grabs, unless Liverpool can get a win away at Chelsea.

This is the state of play heading into the weekend:

Chelsea 11 9 22
Tottenham 10 6 22
Liverpool 11 4 19
Arsenal 11 2 19
(club,played,GD,points)

The key fixtures for us are spread over three days.

Sat – Norwich v Arsenal
Sun – Chelsea v Liverpool
Mon – Tottenham v Aston Villa

So Arsenal need to set the pace with a win on Saturday lunchtime in Norwich. Our form is mixed of course, a good run of wins now but just the one victory away from home. Norwich’s own form at home has been mixed but not disastrous. Two wins, two draws and defeat in the last five at Carrow Road. So Arsenal can’t afford any complacency. This needs to be another solid performance.

On Sunday, Liverpool go to Chelsea. Interesting! Two clubs that got good starts but had a bit of a wobble before this last break. Both have twelve points from their last six games. Both managers have been targets for football columnists – discussing whether they are really up to the job.

Can Chelsea’s creaking defence deal with Suarez and Carroll? Can Liverpool supply their forwards with enough of the ball? I think this one should be a home win, although not by much. Could just be my optimism, as that’s the result that surely moves Arsenal up a place. Mind you, longer term, a draw is the better result for us.

Then on Monday, Spurs at home to Villa. Spurs are on a roll at the moment and Villa haven’t won away, so I can’t see anything other than a home win for this one.

Fantasy Result - Arsenal win 8-0 and Liverpool scrape a win against Chelsea. Arsenal go fourth heading a group of four clubs on twenty-two points!

More likely result - Arsenal win and Liverpool lose. Arsenal edge another place forward after another ‘good day at the office’ performance.

This has been Robin Van Persie’s most successful season as a club striker. More goals per start than he has achieved before. I’m sure he shares the fans feeling that it’s also been the most frustrating of seasons too.

So if our top gun has been on top form why haven’t we had a pay-off in points. For all Van Persie’s efforts we haven’t won enough games. Part of the answer is the defence and there will be plenty to write about that. Part of it I think is an attitude problem that brings any winning run to a crashing halt.

But I think that another significant issue is the way we play up front and the game against Villa illustrated this. When Squillaci came off (no loss) for Chamakh we looked a lot more dangerous and Villa had to work harder.

Playing both Van Persie and Chamakh made things more complicated for the Villa defence because they had to cover two strikers who play in different ways. The pressure on them would have been greater of course if we hadn’t gifted them a two-goal cushion but that’s a different issue.

Not only does playing a second striker pose different challenges, I think it actually suits Van Persie. I know that Van Persie can take the ball on a forward run, control and shoot in a couple of touches, but his natural instinct seems much more to drop deep. Having another striker ahead of him could open up space or provide another route to a goal.

Playing two strikers would also keep more than one striker sharp. Often this season when Bendtner or Chamakh have come on as subs they have missed chances to score and taken some stick as being not good enough. Well, maybe we can do better, but strikers need time on the pitch to stay sharp and they don’t get much. And if we can do better, do those better players want to come and keep the bench warm?

One argument for the current formation is that these days the game is won and lost in midfield and without five players there we will be outnumbered. But I’m not suggesting that we should always play with two up front, plus a forward that drops deep adds to the midfield when we don’t have the ball making it six midfielders with no outlet.

Another argument has been that Theo Walcott isn’t up to the job of being one quarter of a midfield four. But if that was true before I think he has shown greater strength and discipline this season. Plus if it’s still true, he may not be the player we need. Personally I think he’s up to the job now.

So, new striker or new formation? Well maybe there is a new striker out there fir Arsenal, but I think our priority for new players lies elsewhere in the team and if we rigidly stick to one mode of attack again next season we are in for more frustration.

Some seasons thrill to the end, some just drift away.  The magnificent win against Manchester United promised a final flourish, but it never happened.  By the time we play the final game, third place could look unlikely but we can’t do worse than fourth.  Our opponents Fulham will have no prospect of penalty or reward either.  The season is drifting away and many fans too.  So many empty seats yesterday, mocking the club’s policy of defining attendance as tickets sold rather than seats filled.

Bodies are getting tired and players with little to prove have no incentive to battle their way back on to the pitch.  We have seen the last of Fabregas for this season and probably Nasri too.  Have we seen the last of Cesc in an Arsenal shirt?  Plenty of time to write about that one and other transfer rumours too.  I am determined to get to the end of the season before going all caught offside!

What positives on this cloudy Monday morning?   First, Thomas Vermaelen.   He cannot entirely escape the blame for the opening fifteen minutes of madness against Villa, although he has more excuse than most in his first premier league game for months.  But he is back and looks like he’s made a full recovery.  He still has the leap that overcomes his diminutive stature.  He still has the fight that doesn’t give up the ball or the game. He has the confidence to push forward when space opens up, without it looking like a kamikaze mission.

Second, Robin Van Persie, most readers’ man of the match yesterday.  He had the best chances and grabbed a messy opportunity eighty minutes after the game was apparently dead.

Third, Wilshere, Ramsey and Walcott are three players turning promise into action on the pitch. Wilshere’s legs are tiring now and Ramsey still needs a more experience but this trio is turning good now.

A gap in the clouds, maybe, might as well smile when you can.  Have a good Monday folks!

For all they tried for the remaining seventy-five minutes, and they did with energy and commitment, the complete ineptitude of those first fifteen minutes meant that the game and the points were gone – again.

Soft passes, misjudged off-side moves and ball watching gave two goals away.  Sagna and Squillaci got the final moves wrong for the goals but the whole team started in sleepy fashion.  The first goal was about two sloppy clearances followed by a misjudged move for offside.  Szczesny did his best to stand tall but Bent got the touch just right.

A few minutes later another sloppy clearance, another misjudged move for off-side and another goal for Bent.  Vermaelen was probably least to blame in the first fifteen, although his slip gave Delph(?) time on the ball to pick out Bent for the second.

After that Arsenal played better, showing some fight, but it was too late.  With a two-goal lead to defend Villa sat back and worked hard.

Vermaelen put a on a good display of one thing we’ve been missing.  He is more determined, more intelligent and can still out-jump most players.  He seems to get up early and hang there somehow.

Ramsey should probably have got a penalty when Richard Dunne crashed into his leg as he swung it back to shoot but it wasn’t given. Arsenal really put the pressure on in the second half going to 4-4-2, Villa probably only managed a single attack, but couldn’t get more than a consolation goal poked in by Robin Van Persie.

Playing your hearts out after you’ve conceded two restores a bit of pride but this was a game that summed up the season – gone in a few minutes of sloppy defending, beyond the reach of Van Persie, Walcott and co to pull back.

***** Van Persie and Vermaelen lead our Man of the Match poll so far, cast your vote here. *****