Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

Chelsea may not win the Champions League final, but then again most of us thought them unlikely to reach it at all. But, despite the hilariously daft best efforts of John Terry, they have beaten Barcelona. Given the way Barcelona behaved last year I find myself unusually pleased to see Chelsea triumph.

If they actually win the Champions League that might stretch my generous spirit too far though. It could give us a problem too as it would mean that, regardless of where they finish in the league, they get a Champions League spot next year. This change was brought in after Liverpool faced the prospect of not being able to defend their last Champions League title which many thought was unfair. Now the defending Champions are always in, but they have to included in their country’s total allocation of places.

So, fourth may not be enough. What we have now, we really have to try and hold. The probability is we can probably get away with dropping points in one of our remaining games, Newcastle face a tough run-in, but we can’t bank on it. Our next game is probably the toughest, away at Stoke. Stoke lost three nil away at Newcastle last weekend and we can beat them. But they can be hard to break down and we will be doing it without Walcott and Arteta, two players who have featured pretty consistently this season. This has probably been Theo’s most effective Arsenal season yet and Mikel Arteta has been the reliable heartbeat of our midfield.

Diaby, Gervinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ramsey. Two of them really have to step up to the plate now. If Diaby is fit (now there’s a rare phrase) then I would favour him. But I think he’s had fewer games for us than Thierry Henry this season do I’m not holding my breath. Just crossing all my fingers.

OK so we slipped up last weekend, but so did others and it’s still really tight in the battle for fourth.

Current State of Play
4 Newcastle 13 7 26
5 Chelsea 13 11 25
6 Liverpool 13 5 23
7 Arsenal 13 3 23
(played,GD,points)

Newcastle and Chelsea have been losing out recently, whilst Liverpool and Arsenal have been marking time.  The key fixture for this group comes at lunchtime on Saturday:

Newcastle v Chelsea
So how do we call this one? Here’s the form guide:
Newcastle DWWWLD
Chelsea WLLWLW
Of course Chelsea have had disappointments in the Champions League and Carling Cup as well.

Then, in the afternoon, Arsenal visit Wigan.  This should be just the fixture for us after the Fulham disappointment.  The form guide inspires confidence:
Wigan LLLLDW
Arsenal WWWWWD

You could say that Wigan were improving, but those last two were a controversial against fellow strugglers Blackburn and a win against plummeting Sunderland.  We mustn’t be complacent, but this should be an Arsenal win.

Then we have to wait until Monday evening and Fulham v Liverpool.
Liverpool have the edge on form, but they haven’t been consistent.
Fulham LLWLDD
Liverpool DDWDWD

There’s an obvious nightmare scenario here for Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas.  Arsenal and Liverpool wins, which would follow current form, would see Chelsea seventh if they lose at St James’ Park.  Then they have to beat Valencia to stay in the Champions League.  Can Villas-Boas survive that or will Guus Hiddink be back in London next week?

I expect Arsenal and Liverpool to end the weekend with 26 points. So it’s all down to Newcastle and Chelsea.  Can Terry and Alex keep Demba Ba at bay?  A draw could leave the order unchanged, but three clubs on 26. Tighter and tighter?

Come on Arsenal!

It was such a wonderfully bonkers game of football. Hard to believe. In the first half neither side defended well. In the second half, Arsenal tightened things up but Chelsea, if anything, got worse.

That’s not to say it was a game without skill. It was a game full of brilliant moments, but it had a kind of recklessness that left you breathlessly wondering what on earth the outcome would be. It wasn’t until Robin Van Persie got number five that I really let myself believe we’d done it.

Of the three goals we conceded, two were a familiar failing, an attacking player given too much opportunity to attack a cross. A setback for Mertesacker after games where he has looked more and more solid. The third was a shot from Mata with the power and direction to beat Szczesny. Lukaku blocked Santos from intervening, Song arrived fractionally too late and Szczesny was six inches short of a save.

Szczesny though had some luck to stay on the pitch. If he had got a red card for a charging tackle that sent Cole flying it would have been hard to argue with. But it was yellow only. ‘Well it was only Ashley Cole’, says my wife in a tone that questioned whether referee Marriner should even have stopped play. This has, I suspect, more to do with the way Cole treated Cheryl than his Cashley Cole departure from Arsenal but never mind.

Anyway, enough negatives because we won. And we did it with fizzing style and passion across the team.

Song and Koscielny were fantastic. They put in a huge game to keep Chelsea from playing through the middle. Koscielny is smashing through the assumption that he will give way to the recovering Vermaelen. It’s great because we need all three. At our defensive best we could choose two from Adams, Keown and Bould – and be confident of any pairing.

But this wasn’t a game about great defenders. It was a game about fluid attacking and this time we were on the right end of it.

Goal one had two great elements. Aaron Ramsey threaded a great Cesc-like pass into the box for Gervinho. Inch perfect with the right weight and timing to keep him and Van Persie onside. Then, rather than claiming the chance of a goal himself, Gervinho made scoring a certainty by squaring the ball to Van Persie. The first of two Arsenal equalizers.

Straight after half-time came another equalizer. This one had a magic moment two with Song receiving the ball and turning away from the marking Chelsea player in a single fluid movement that opened up space. Santos, who had laboured through the first-half, was charging down the left, Bosingwa was way out of position and the Brazilian finished past the flailing Cech. Two-all.

Next up with a special display was Theo Walcott. He had a great game altogether, but this bit was terrific. After a foul by Ashley Cole on the touchline, Arsenal took a quick freekick that sent Walcott on a weaving run through a bunch of five defenders. He was brought down and the Chelsea players paused to glance at the referee. Walcott didn’t pause at all. He was back on his feet, switching the ball right foot, left foot, right foot and through on goal. Cech beaten at the near post again. Three – two.

Could we hold on to this? No. Mata gets his equalizer. Whatever next in this bonkers game? John Terry blundering! Malouda gave him a back pass he could have done without. It was too heavy and the opposite side to the way he was moving. As he turned to chase it he lost his balance and went down. Van Persie charged past to go one on one with Cech. No contest. Four-three!

Surely we can hold on now I thought. Arsene Wenger had brought on Rosicky and Vermaelen to grab hold tight to three points. But Chelsea hadn’t given up and attacked too.

The decider came after Rosicky showed the spirit that typified Arsenal’s game. Risking a boot in the face, he dipped his head to take the ball away from an attacking player on the edge of the box. Then he surged forward and passed, to set up a three against two at the other end. Goal number five. Van Persie’s hat-trick. Our first away win of the season – at Stamford Bridge. Arsene Wenger’s 500th Arsenal victory. Sweet.

Robin Van Persie was run-away man of the match of course!

We’ve still got a lot to do this season, but we’re back in this thing now.

C’mon you Gunners!

PS. Does anyone remember what Torres cost? It’s slipped my mind somehow;-).

Arsenal AGM today, so there could be some interesting bits and pieces later about where Stan Kroenke sees the club going in the future.  I say ‘could’ because these AGMs are generally tightly scripted affairs and Stan Kroenke isn’t exactly known for big statements.

The Verminator is talking big though, Vermaelen says I’m back and I’m ready to play against Chelsea.  According to Vermaelen, once your fit that’s it.  This match sharpness thing is all in the head and if you’re a professional footballer, you’re ready to go as soon as your body is ready.  All good positive stuff, and though I wouldn’t want to do Robin Van Persie down in any way, it shows the sort of character you want as a team captain.

It also opens up the possibility that we will have a pretty strong back four for the Chelsea game, despite missing our first and second choice right-backs:

Kos _ Merte _ Verm _ Santos

Good job too, because Chelsea away ups the ante a bit.  Yes we’ve been steadily putting our season back together, but we haven’t won away from home yet in this campaign. It’s been one draw (Newcastle) and three defeats (Man U, Blackburn & Spurs).  Chelsea on the other hand have won all four of their home games.  But Chelsea have had problems this week and I’m not not just talking about whether or not John Terry racially abused Anton Ferdinand.

They made a complete mess of the QPR game, conceding a penalty and getting two red cards.  Last night they made heavy weather of Everton (admittedly with a weaker team) and didn’t win until the last four minutes of injury time.  Picked up another red card too.  It would be cliche territory to say there’s never been a better time to go to Stamford Bridge, because they still have a lot of class, but all is not well at Chelsea and the cliche of ‘everything to play for’ will do instead.

Since we put our run of wins together, we’ve hauled ourselves back up the table.  Four weeks ago we were seventeenth, now we are seventh.  But the closer to the top you get, the slower the progress as we are in amongst our real competitors.  Were two points behind Liverpool and three behind Spurs. Our goal difference is five worse than both.  This weekend, Liverpool are away to West Brom, Spurs host QPR on Sunday afternoon.

Even if the results all go our way, I can’t see us beating Chelsea by six!  So the best we can hope for is sixth place if we win and Liverpool lose.  It could happen, West Brom’s recent form is better than Liverpool’s, but I wouldn’t put money on it.  So this weekend is about finding out how good our improved form really is, and not losing ground.  There are three clubs just a point behind us, so plenty for the pessimists to get their teeth into!

But it’s only Thursday so let’s stick to optimism for now – that’s not a bad back four and Robin Van Persie is on fire.  Bring it on!

Gulp!

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.

England are not out the World Cup yet.  A win on Wednesday against Slovenia should see them through.  They need to keep calm heads, decide what they can do differently and then go out and play like it matters to them.

So how are they doing with that?

Somebody thought, I know, let’s get John to head up the presser on on Sunday.  John?  Yes, you know, the deposed captain from the club where public player rants have become the norm since Jose left.  Stunning idea.  That will calm things down.

So out comes John Terry to set the record straight about who is to blame, with the backing of all the senior players.  Except that now perhaps we find they might not all have agreed with his plan.  If it was a plan rather than just car crash telly.

Then another bright spark thinks, if this goes pear-shaped were going to look like dorks for doing an extended deal for Capello the other day.  Tell you what, let’s leak out the word that if England fail to reach the next stage, we expect Capello to resign.  That will cover our backs and stop everyone thinking that the FA is a complete shambles.  So they did.  And then a few hours later started to downplay the whole story.

Anyone out there think the FA isn’t a complete shambles?  Everything a lot calmer in the England camp now?  Thought not!

England probably need to do something different.  What they have tried to do so far hasn’t worked.  But they need to work it out by talking to each other.

The FA, the England set up, need to learn a lesson from the politicians (yes I know that sounds mad but bear with me for a moment).  The lesson is this: the media are not listening to you because they are your friends.  They are there to earn a living.  It’s a bit like with your agent only you don’t pay the fee. They understand media manipulation better than you.  Just like the politicians, this doesn’t make you saints in comparison.  But you don’t have be so &@”*ing naive either.

Stick to thinking about the football guys.  A) because it’s supposed to be the bit you know most about and  B) because the media verdict will be determined by what happens in the 90 minutes on Wednesday regardless of any media stunts pulled before.

Come on England.

Wayne Rooney has just had his best ever season, playing as a lone striker supported by attacking midfielders.  England have Wayne Rooney.  England has attacking midfielders.  Capello seems to favour a big traditional centre-forward who can receive the ball reliably, hold-up the play with strength and pass accurately.  Heskey does this well and if Capello sticks to his system, I would think he sticks with Heskey.

But I also think that to do this would waste the fact that England has one of the best forwards in the world at the moment.  Anyone who has watched Rooney’s powerful acceleration and determination to put himself in the box on the end of a pass knows that he doesn’t need someone to hold up the game for him.  He is the game.

Play him at the front, with Gerrard or Lampard just behind.  On current form that would be Gerrard.  Then play three supporting players behind them.

Put Barry in front of the back four.  This does two things.  It sets Lampard and Gerrard free because they know they don’t have to check to see if the other one is covering the defence.  It helps to cover the fact that England have lost their two most agile central defenders.  Terry and Carragher are going to have to rely on their experience of reading the game and their strength.  They could do with Barry cutting out the pacey runs through the middle when they are caught square with their backs to goal.

Come on England.