Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

Four central defenders can work, but four full-backs fail

Arsenal kept a clean sheet on Saturday despite not having a single fit fullback available.  Admittedly Everton are not the biggest threat but Djourou, Mertesacker, Koscielny and Vermaelen still had a job to do.  Perhaps on these days of more athletic ‘total football’, central defenders have to be more mobile and more comfortable on the ball.  Of those four players, only Mertesacker would have struggled at full-back and back-up Ignasi Miquel has also filled in well playing out wide.

Does it work the other way though?

The answer from Newcastle certainly seems to be no, as their back line of fullbacks shipped four goals at Norwich.  With injuries to Stephen Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini, I think they’re going to struggle now.  There are only so many that Demba Ba can get at the other end.

It is possible to feel sorry for Spurs?

Well it is nearly Christmas and they were playing Stoke, so let’s be big-hearted over this!  Spurs were robbed of a win yesterday by some dreadful refereeing.   Tottenham players were twice prevented from leaping for crosses as Stoke defenders clung on to them.  Ryan Shawcross made a goal-line clearance with his elbow.  Crouch used his arm to control the ball before setting up Etherington’s first goal.  Adebayor was no-where near offside for his disallowed goal, the Assistant Referee suffered severe tunnel vision and ignored the Stoke player, returning to the pitch after sliding out, who put three Spurs a yard onside.

Chris Foy and his assistants have helped tighten things at the top I suppose, but crap refereeing turns games into stupid lottery. I didn’t include the red card in the list as the second yellow was definitely a foul and quite a few referees would have done the same.

Blackburn and Bolton are in trouble

To be truthful, that isn’t just a lesson of this weekend.  But whilst these showed that they are consistent in their lack of talent, Sunderland and Wigan showed that they have some answers if only they can make it work often enough.

Meanwhile…

David Moyes apparently took the chance of Arsenal’s Birthday Party to cheekily ask Thierry Henry if he fancied a spell at Everton.  I’m sure Thierry was gracious enough to give him a sympathetic smile in return.

The media have decided that Szczesny isn’t the only ready to kiss Van Persie’s feet and that he is Real Madrid’s top transfer target.  I guess that for as long as Van Persie is fit and scoring we’re going to have to put up with these stories constantly.  Hopefully Robin will tell the Special One to kiss some other part of his anatomy.

Arsenal Team Against Newcastle
As the season goes on, the suspensions, knocks and form make the player choices more obvious. By now Arsene Wenger probably has a very settled view about his strongest team and the dilemmas will be about who needs a break.

Injury and form have handed a big opportunity to Wojciech Szczesny. He has the rest of the season to stake his claim to be undisputed number one. He isn’t the finished article yet but the signs are good. I expect he will get to play every game except for the Orient cup tie.

Wenger says Walcott is fit but Song will miss this weekend, so I guess the line-up will be:

__________ Szczesny ___________
Sagna _ Djourou _ Koscielny _ Clichy
______ Diaby  _ Wilshere ______
__________ Fabregas ___________
Walcott ___ Van Persie ___ Arshavin

Moyes & Fabregas
Clearly the game on Tuesday night was an emotional affair for all involved. Everton need every point they can get, so ending up with nothing after being a goal up really exposed how well David Moyes can take the pressure – badly.

I’m sure that Fabregas was pretty pumped up too after Arsenal went behind on a very dubious on-side decision. But if he had behaved as badly as Moyes claims, he would have been charged by the FA. Unless of course the officials were so dreading going in to see the replay of the Saha goal that they were too comatose to notice!

Arsene Wenger doesn’t often brand his fellow managers as liars so I think that the whole story is about what is going on in David Moyes’ head.

Gary Neville
Talking of Arsene Wenger’s generally charming attitude, he was charitable enough to join in with the praise for the retiring Gary Neville. He even agreed with the suggestion that Neville had been England’s best right-back. Personally I think he was a ruthless thug who made up for his lack of technique with consistency and a good enough reading of the game to avoid getting stuck out of position.

Obviously as a Gooner I’m biased but describing him as England’s best right-back for decade just means that England hasn’t had a decent right-back for a decade.