Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

You kind of feel that the fantastic result achieved last Saturday afternoon deserves greater reward than to keep us exactly where we were in the league – fourth by virtue not of points or even goal difference but on goals scored. But that’s the tight spot we’re in and, unless Chelsea completely implode, it could be that tight to the end.

So the reward Arsenal get for coming back from 2:0 down to win 5:2 is the fact that it’s worthwhile pulling off the same success tomorrow. Hopefully without the 2:0 down bit!

Here’s how its stands:

Tomorrow we go away to Liverpool at lunchtime and Chelsea go to West Brom in the afternoon. Spurs host Manchester United on Sunday. So basically we’re still where we were last week. Chelsea have the easier game and we have to assume they will win. We have the tougher game that we have to win to stay on the pace.

We’re still waiting on fitness reports for Rosicky and Koscielny, with the former being the most doubtful. That could mean a second consecutive start for Yossi Benayoun. Vermaelen also took a knock against Spurs of course thanks to that crunching tackle from new England captain Scott Parker. Perhaps it made all the difference in Stuart Pearce’s eyes! But Vermaelen played 90 minutes for Belgium ob Wednesday.

Hopefully that’s a sign of his fitness rather Belgium’s misjudgement. If not we’re a little bit thin at the back again with Djourou and Squillaci unfit. I guess it would be a choice of Song or Miquel. But with no Coquelin or Frimpong, Song would be missed in midfield.

Liverpool are missing Agger through injury, so Van Persie can look forward to the tight embrace of Jamie Carragher. I’ve never understood how Carragher gets away with handling his opponents so much. They may also be missing Gerrard, but that isn’t confirmed as yet.

Should be a good game with both sides coming off the back of a success, though hopefully Liverpool’s struggle to overcome Cardiff is a good sign for us.

Probable team? Hopefully -

_______ Szczesny ______
Sagna _ Kos_ Verm _ Gibbs
________ Song ________
__ Arteta __ Benayoun __
Walcott _ RVP _ Gervinho

Come on you Gunners!

It would be nice to claim that I knew we could do it.  But I must confess that I was a pessimist yesterday morning.  The terrible, effort-free performance at the San Siro and the downward momentum from going out of the FA Cup as well left me very fearful.

Strangely, that feeling began to lift even before we scored.  OK so the first goal was soft, Vermaelen’s defensive colleagues had left him with the impossible task of covering two advancing forwards single-handed, but it was clear that Arsenal really had come to play.  Tottenham had the run of the first ten minutes, but not over the Arsenal team of Milan or Sunderland.

At one-nil down I was even wondering if I could feel good about a narrow defeat if it was accompanied by signs of regained fight and skill.  As it was the North London Derby I swiftly pushed such soft thoughts out my head, of course it would still hurt in the morning.  But such were the hopeful signs that it did cross my mind.

After the first goal we stepped up our attacks rather than fold and Spurs’ second goal was against a turning tide.  And it was never a penalty!  I really don’t think that either Gibbs or Szczesny brought Bale down.  Mike Dean gave the penalty immediately, but then seemed uncertain what to do next.  If it was a penalty then surely someone had stopped a clear foal-scoring opportunity?  Surely someone had to get a red card?  Dean consulted his assistant for a long time.  What were they talking about?

It was one of those occasions when you wished you could hear, rugby style.  Clearly the assistant couldn’t tell Dean which player had felled Bale, because no card followed.  Did he even agree that it was a penalty?

Anyway, Tottenham were two goals to the good and Adebayor was obviously enjoying his birthday.  But not for a lot longer, because despite being two goals down, Arsenal were now flying and creating chance after chance.

Perhaps being two goals down rather than one actually helped.  The Arsenal players had nothing to lose now but their souls.  There were some frustrating moments though.  Walcott burst through on goal brilliantly with a fantastic burst of pace and then wimped out of the responsibility of shooting, passing to Van Persie who was surrounded by three defenders.  Rosicky had a great flicked on header superbly saved by Friedel.

A lovely ball from Walcott slipped Van Persie into the box and he hit the post.  Surely all this pressure had to pay off?  It did, Van Persie was still picking himself up while Gibbs and Arteta rescued possession and fed the ball back into the box for Bacary Sagna to head home.  Fantastic.  Even more fantastic, Sagna picks up the ball and sprints back to the centre spot.  He hadn’t come here to lose to Spurs.

More pressure, more chances and then, out of nothing much, a beautiful curling shot from Van Persie beats Friedel and we’re level.  We might even have gone into half-time ahead, but it was progress enough.  Spurs player’s heads were dropping and their fans were stunned.

Sagna and Van Persie may gave been the scorers but the pressure was created by Song, Arteta, Benayoun and most of all Rosicky.  They dominated midfield and were unrelenting in closing down, tackling and feeding the ball forward again.

Redknapp certainly noticed, swapping a striker for another midfielder at the break but it made no difference.  It was all Arsenal after the that.  Soon Rosicky got his just reward with his first goal in two decades or something and no-one deserved it more.  Tomas Rosicky was our overwhelming choice as Man of the Match – over 70% of the vote in our poll.  Spurs were beaten from that point.  Nothing left.

Theo Walcott, his mind now cleared of self-doubt surged and shot at goal again and again getting two.  It seems to be all about confidence with Theo.  Once he found it, Spurs couldn’t handle him.  They couldn’t handle anything by that stage.  The substitutes had no impact and their play became more ragged.

Scott Parker lunged in on Vermaelen and knew immediately that he was off.  We might have had more but who care.  FIVE – TWO to the Arsenal.

It was one of those unforgettable games that we will think back to for years.  I’m guessing that the White Hart Lane shop won’t be doing a special DVD this time! Maybe just a replica of Bale’s Oscar.

Who cares that it’s Monday morning, nothing can go wrong today!

We will return to earth at some point, we are still clinging on to fourth by just goals scored and we have Liverpool away next week.  But time enough to think on that one later – we ARE fourth and we beat Spurs FIVE -TWO.

Now, what time does my Spurs supporting colleague get to work?  I promise not to be any harsher than his text at 2:0!

Arsenal are still the favourite media whipping boy this weekend, with various hacks and has-beens having a go.  Sadly we’re all just going to have to take this on the chin for now because our club is the obvious story.  To add to the pounding fron the pundits, there’s news that Jack Wilshere may be out a while yet.

There may be twenty Premier League clubs, but in truth it’s the fight for the top four places that dominates the coverage.  There’s heavy commercial logic here right across the media so don’t expect this to change.

Whilst there might be some nit-picking over various aspects of United, City and Chelsea’s squads, no-one thinks they are going to be uncompetitive.  In contrast, even the most blinkered Gooner would admit that we have had a traumatic summer that followed a terrible closing third of the season.

So we’ve got it all to prove against the challengers for our top four status. To aid the media, this can easily easily be characterised as matey Kenny and ‘arry verses too clever by half Arsene.  So this is our lot until the team can prove otherwise.

What of the challenge from Liverpool and Tottenham?

Everyone agrees that Liverpool have got stronger this summer, but I think the jury is still out on quite how much stronger.  They beat us two-nil, but we were poor and understrength. I didn’t think they looked that special.

I don’t think anyone has really made their minds up about Spurs yet.  They have kept their two most influential players, Van Der Vaart and Modric, but have let go of a number.  In come Parker, Friedel and Adebayor.  Adebayor had just 15 starts last season.  Who knows just how much he’s got to give.

Gooners have been on an emotional roller coaster.  Depths of despair at old Trafford, the surge of relief from the closing stages of the transfer window.  Now we’re sat stationery, we’ve paid for another ride but we don’t know how it will go.

If the Arsenal as a team can be more than the sum of its parts, competition with City, United and Chelsea beckons.  Or will the ‘big top four’ turn in two groups of three?

Hold very tight now!

In recent years I’ve been finding international football a bit dull and uninspiring.  So yesterday afternoon I almost didn’t bother.

But in the end I was sucked back in to see how Jack, Theo and Johann got on.  Plus there was that Scott Parker who many suppose could supply some diligence and maturity to Arsenal’s midfield.  Then there were a couple of lost boys too: Ashley ‘never been the same since…etc’ Cole and Phillippe Ponderous, sorry Senderos.

England started with ten minutes of quite spirited stuff, looking quite promising, but then lost there pace and purpose.  Inler and Behrami established Swiss control over the midfield and England were on the back foot.

Then those England boys seemed to come up with the tactic of confusing the hell out of the Swiss with a startling different way of defending free-kicks.  Rather than the zone method they adopted the ozone method, as in les make big holes in it.  The Swiss will be so confused they won’t understand what they’re up against!

Two direct free-kicks later the Swiss are so confused they’re two goals up.  Two free-kicks in which no-one, attacker or defender, touched the ball on its journey over the line.  The first came from a slightly high ball into the the middle of box that neither Terry nor Ferdinand judged right.  Hart decided not to come for it, which was not necessarily the wrong decision, and was left stranded as it crept inside the far post.  Even if he had managed to reach it and parry, the two nearest players were both Swiss.

The second was from a tighter angle.  Hart set a two-man wall of Walcott and Milner to guard the near post and crouched ready.  This time the free-kick was hit low and at the wall with a Swiss player making a late run into the box.

Milner obviously decided that this was the threat and started to move, despite the fact that the ball was heading straight for the wall.  It was a bit like a snooker player concentrating so hard on where the cue ball is going to end up that they miss the pot.  So the ball sails past Walcott, who had stayed put, through the space where Milner had been positioned by Hart and in the goal at the near post.

So, two-nil down and it’s looking a bit desperate.  At this point England woke up and went back to playing football.  Jack Wilshere won the ball and went on a determined run into the box where his club team-mate Djourou obligingly brought him down for a penalty.  Frank Lampard almost messed up with poor placement but had enough pace on the shot to score. So England ended the first-half still in the game.

Much of the pre-match debate had been about how knackered Jack Wilshere must be by now, but actually it was Lampard who looked most short of pace and form.  So it wasn’t a massive surprise to see him replaced at half-time.  In the end it was a draw, after a good goal from Young. But for a lot of the time the Swiss were the better side and if they’d taken three points you wouldn’t have called them lucky.

So what of the Arsenal boys, old and new?

Jack Wilshere is looking a bit worn round the edges now and needs time on the beach, but he was one of the better England players yesterday with determination, good running and intelligent passing.

Theo didn’t get in the game as much, but did okay.  He made some good runs but didn’t get a lot of support.  He also did his bit defensively making some good covering moves when Johnson got overlapped.

Djourou had a bit of a ‘mare.  He made some strange choices positionally and could have conceded a second penalty.  Senderos was the same as ever – committed, direct, reasonable positioning but little finesse and no pace.  Ashley Cole wasn’t too bad, but not stunning.  Someone landed on his instep early on which left him limping.  For some reason Capello waited an age to replace him with Baines, so he spent half his time on the pitch looking rather half-hearted.

So what of Scott Parker?  He certainly is diligent and mature, again yesterday as ever, and there are times when Arsenal need that.  But he doesn’t have have massive skill on the ball.  For a good price he would be a good option to have, but I hope we can do better.

Yesterday I blogged about Arsenal up front, now let’s look at the midfield. This really comes in two parts – one is about Arsenal going forward and that story is largely about whether Fabregas it staying or going; the other is about providing the first line of defence.

Lets I think that Arsenal need a new Remi Garde or Gilles Grimandi. They were not the most technically gifted players Arsenal ever had, or the most youthful, and a persistent knee injury limited Garde to just 30 appearances. But they had an important job to do and they stuck to it. Their task was to ensure that what Arsenal had, they held. When you saw Garde or Grimandi on the touchline waiting to come on you knew that Arsene had said to Pat, ‘this is as good as we’re going to get today, let’s make sure we hold on to it’.

I don’t think we have enough players like that today. The only defensive midfielder we have is Alex Song and there have been occasions this season when he hasn’t stuck to the task. Don’t get me wrong, this is not an anti-Song piece, I’m still a big fan, but we need more. There are games, or stages of games, where he needs help or needs to be replaced with fresher legs. At the moment, the replacement options are Denilson and Diaby.

I always thought Denilson was a promising player, but his development seems to have stalled and he isn’t the real deal as a defensive player. He doesn’t look too bad in Champions League games against middling opposition, but he struggles to make an impact in the intensity of the Premiership.

Abou Diaby promises to be a Patrick Viera type, who can play from box to box. Sometimes it’s true, but not often enough. The rest of the time he goes missing or dawdles on the ball until he gets mugged.

It may be that Frimpong can play this role in the future. He was being talked up by the club pre-season last year before his cruciate ligament injury sidelined him. But even when he is fit again he is just young. A bit of maturity can be an advantage for this sort of player who needs the discipline to be single-minded when you’re one nil up at Old Trafford with eight minutes to go!

Is Scot Parker that kind of player? He could well be and in the West Ham fire sale he could be the right man at the right price.

Alternatively, a budget-busting move for a new central defender could mean the option of Djourou or Koscielny doubling up as cover for both midfield and defence.

Attacking midfielders tomorrow. Have a nice day now.