Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

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?

Now that was a game. Except for the first fifteen minutes of the second half, we dominated from start to finish. And yet for a long time it looked like it wasn’t going to be rewarded. But finally Arteta stole the ball and ran into enough space to line up a great shot and score.

Before that we hit the post several times and had a crazy goalmouth scramble where the ball travelled the whole width of the goal before being cleared. Early on, a Van Persie header hit Vermaelen and bounced away.

Through the game the midfield belonged to Arteta, Rosicky and Song. For the first twenty minutes, City could barely touch the ball. It’s hard to say which of the three played best as they all put in such a terrific effort. The three of them dominated our Man of the Match Poll, with goal scorer Arteta topping the votes.

Gibbs and Sagna exploited tons of space left by a narrow City defence. Early on Ya Ya Toure hobbled off after what looked like a fairly light challenge from Song. Mancini took the opportunity to reshape his midfield, which helped but didn’t regain them the initiative.

The main talking point was how long big kid Balotelli would stay on the pitch as it seed that every one of his tackles was led stud first. His worst was a high one on Song, just below the knee. The referee didn’t see it, but the FA might take a look. After the game, a fed up Mancini actually seemed to encourage them to do it. Eventually Balotelli picked up two yellows and trudged off.

Whilst Balotelli was bonkers, the rest of his teammates looked beaten from the start, Kompany and Hart excepted. They looked like they were still on the case. Kompany was fantastic. He has a great knack of knowing where the trouble is and was a big part of why it was just one nil.

Arsenal were great as a team with everyone pulling their weight. Benayoun made a rare start and put in a big shift all over the pitch. The three subs, Santos, AOC and Ramsey didn’t make a huge impact. Santos looked very rusty, I hope whatever ailed Gibbs isn’t serious. Santos picked up an early yellow, but fortunately he didn’t have to do too much defending. Fortunately, because in his time out injured he seems to have got a little vague on both ‘left’ and ‘back’!

The other worry, apart from Gibbs early departure, was Koscielny picking up a tenth yellow and therefore a two match ban. At least it’s against Wolves and Wigan and he will be back for Chelsea. One more game and he would have reached the end of season cut-off and safety!

With Mertesacker out injured, his replacement isn’t easy. Squillaci or Miquel? Arsene Wenger could drop Song into the back four, but with Frimpong and Coquelin crocked there isn’t a straightforward replacement as defensive midfielder.

But for a couple of days we can rest easy, celebrating a good win that was more comprehensive than the one nil suggests. Back into third too! It’s still tight out there after our Loftus Road slip, but job well done today.

Seven games to go, the next three of them coming in eight days.  Thanks to our loss of concentration against QPR, it’s now very tight again.  Two very tight battles in fact:

So we do need a win against City really.  Arsene Wenger has been more cautious than that.  He described it as a ‘want to win’ game rather than ‘must’.  At least complacency shouldn’t be a problem.

City have had a jittery week or so.  They’ve drawn their last two games against Stoke and Sunderland and there’s plenty of sniping going on.  Journalists are speculating about the next manager and the current one jokes that if he were Balotelli’s team-mate he would probably want to punch him everyday!

With the mood at City like that it’s hardly surprising that United have pulled clear.  Single-minded focus is what they do best, even if they’re not playing well.

So who will play for Arsenal?  The injury situation is unchanged and Arsene Wenger says he will pick from the same squad ad last time.  It could be the same starting eleven I guess, but I would rather see a change out on the left.

I don’t think it’s a good place for Ramsey.  I don’t think that he wants to be there and he doesn’t excel.  I’m not anti-Ramsey, I think he’s great and will get better.  But I’d rather see him giving Rosicky a breather in the middle midweek.  Not everyone, even good players, does a good job out of position.  I would rather see Gervinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain or Santos there.

So I’m hoping to see:

______ Szczesny ______
Sagna _ Kos _ Verm _ Gibbs
_______ Song ________
__ Arteta ____ Rosicky __
Walcott ___ RVP ___ AOC

with some rotation against Wolves.  What do you think?

Match reviews written straight after the game finished were quite mixed, reflecting the disappointment that our recent winning run had come to an end.  Arsene Wenger was subdued in the face if ‘didn’t you play well’ from the media.

“We got encouragement, but we needed encouragement and points and we didn’t get the points.”

Arsene hates to lose and that is just as it should be, but the team put on a huge performance against a club that has had nearly a billion pounds spent on it.

Blogs written later and media reports have much more praise for Arsenal.  Maybe there were some who still secretly thought that a run at the title was realistic.  Personally, I felt that had slipped away by September as we paid the price of the Nasri/Fabregas saga with pole-axed morale and five late arrivals to incorporate.

What we did show last night, in a game that could have resulted in a draw or better, was that despite all those setbacks and  injury to every single fullback we are able to compete at the top end of the league.

Thomas Vermaelen won our Arsenal Man of the Match poll, just ahead of Wojciech Szczesny.  I think that was right.  Vermaelen had an immense game – as a fullback, central defender and pushing forward to try and get a goal right until the very end. The guy never stops fighting to win and his technique is fantastic.

Szczesny had a good game too.  He is a great keeper.  Tough, agile and fantastic anticipation.  He had just one flaw yesterday when he rolled the ball out into a dangerous area.  Fortunately the shot that resulted hit the post.

Arteta was another star.  He worked constantly going forward and back.  Koscielny has surely now convinced the doubters of last season.  Another strong performance from him.

Someone who wouldn’t be anyone’s man of the match, even allowing for the fact he was only on for twenty minutes, is Arshavin.  This was a big game where everyone was working their socks off, even those who were struggling to make an impact.  But Arshavin wasn’t.  It’s getting hard to make a case for him now.  The flashes of genius are too rare and, although he tackles a bit more than he used to, his play is so casual and sloppy that he misses opportunities for us and creates them for our opponents.

The neutral sponsor’s Man of the Match was Samir Nasri.  I think that’s wrong and surprisingly so.  I don’t think he had the biggest impact on City’s win.  Balotelli or Aguero up front had more influence on play.  Zaboletta marked Walcott completely out of the game.  Kompany closed down Van Persie throughout.  Maybe whoever made the choice decided that it should be an ex-Arsenal player to fit the overall story?

Anyways, where does all this leave us?  Apart from worrying about another defender being injured after Djourou had to come off with what appeared to be a groin strain.  We are still fifth, although the weekend games have spread the the teams out a bit more.  But we have now played all the away games against the teams above us and we are still in touch with the top four fight.

There’s still a lot in this season for Arsenal.  Come on you Gunners – and take out our disappointment against Villa on Wednesday!

Last trip we were in the midst of chaos.  Now we are measuring how far we have come since when comes top of the league opponents.  We slipped up against Spurs but we beat Chelsea.  Now for City!

City may not be looking quite as invincible as they did before crashing out of the Champions League and losing to Chelsea but this is still the biggest game of the weekend and a massive game for us.

The only game that mattered yesterday was Wigan v Chelsea.  Instead of cruising to form-book victory, Chelsea had a relapse and dropped two points.  Newcastle’s drift continued as they drew at home to Swansea.

So halfway through the weekend this is the situation:

The action today is staggered across the afternoon:
12.00 – QPR v Man Utd
02.00 – Aston Villa v Liverpool
03.00 – Sunderland v Tottenham
04.00 – Man City v Arsenal

What can we get out of City?  Can Liverpool avoid slipping up at Villa Park?  Can QPR or Sunderland pull off a shock result?

Man City v Arsenal
Not so long ago we’d have have been staring at this like the edge of a cliff.  Now at least we are thinking about taking something out of it.  Obviously league form over the last half dozen games favours City -
Man City at home: WWWWWW
Arsenal away: LLLWWW
But those games against Man Utd, Blackburn and Spurs and now hopefully consigned to the past.  No doubt Sky will use all the United goals in their build-up, but we are a different team now.  Arsene Wenger said yesterday that you never forget an 8-2 defeat, but you can put it behind you and move on.

At his press conference on Friday, Arsene Wenger was asked about the City game and whether we were back in the title race:

“Let’s wait a little bit,” he cautioned. “I think we are on the road of recovery but we have a big test on Sunday and we will see how we will survive that test.

“We have to be closer to Man City to be really in it and the race for the Champions League places at the moment.

“Certainly the purpose is to get closer and, of course, we have a good opportunity to do it on Sunday.”

The team is likely to be unchanged form last weekend, so:

_____ Szczesny ______
DJ _ Merte _ Kos _ Verm
______ Song ________
__ Arteta _ Ramsey ____
Walcott _ RVP _ Gervinho

The result?  Can’t make up my mind.  I honestly think a win is achievable, but it depends on keeping Silva and Balotelli quiet for 90 minutes and break down their six-man defence.  Both are possible, but both are tough to do.

What do you think?