Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

In truth West Ham didn’t put up much of a fight. Yes they had a few chances, but Arsenal controlled the game.

West Ham rely on Green, Upson, Parker and Piquionne to be any kind of threat at all. With the latter two missing they were a team that just had to try and stem Arsenal’s flow of attacks.

But the game still had to be won and I’m glad that, suspended Sagna excepted, Wenger put out our strongest team. There were a few negative points. Eboue was caught out a few times, although he worked well with Walcott when going forwards. Szczesny got well out of position once and needs to work on his kicking but was otherwise ok. Particularly when Djourou made a rather lazy back-pass to set up the Hammers only real chance.

But apart from that, this was a classy professional display. Song, Wilshere and Fabregas dominated the midfield completely. They closed West Ham down tight every time the Hammers got the ball, which wasn’t that often. They got beautiful passing sequences going.

Upfront, Walcott and Van Persie were terrific. The quality of their first touches was brilliant. Both goals from open play were fantastic single touch strikes from both.

Both of them obviously needed a run of games to get back to their best and this game will have done both of them a lot of good. Walcott has matured so much now, there is a lot more to his game now and Wayne Bridge, a good opponent but without many games played this season, was way out-classed.

Let’s hope Robin Van Persie can go a long run without injury. He is a class above Chamakh and Bendtner. So far he leads our Man of the Match poll. It’s great to see him back on form.

Go Gunners!

***** West Ham Man of the Match Poll still running here. *****

When I was looking forward to October I was very apprehensive.  It was is the aftermath of the Sunderland and West Brom games, – and next up was Chelsea away.  Although the Champions League games were going fine, Arsenal were still showing signs of choking on opposition that should have been chewed up easily.

Although we duly lost at Chelsea, the way we played set the tone.  We weren’t blown away, as some lazy pundits said, we played well.  And we carried on playing well for the rest of the month.

Played 6, Won 5, Drawn 0, Lost 1, Goals For 15, Goals Against 4.

We ran five Man of the Match polls during the month – Jack Wilshere topped two and Nasri, Fabianski and Song topped one each.

Some were expecting an easy game against West Ham yesterday, but they work really hard, defending well all the way through.  Robert Green had a fantastic game.  Avram Grant knows how to get a team organised and motivated.  The important thing was we stuck to our task and got the goal in the end. The results you grind out are just as important as the dazzling displays.

I was surprised that we didn’t start with Walcott as he gives some pace to cut through teams set up to defend in depth.  I was also glad to see another clean sheet for Fabianski. I’ve only seen the highlights and read all the reviews, but it’s interesting to read again and again something picked out by people who saw the game. – Fabianski dragging Fabregas into the correct position for a set-piece and being proved right as that was where the ball ended up!

It’s a good sign of growing confidence from the keeper that comes through getting a decent run of games.  A good keeper has the confidence to take charge.

So, on to November: Shaktar (A), Newcastle (H), Wolverhampton (A), Everton (A), Tottenham (H), Braga (A), Aston Villa (A), Wigan (H).

Obviously the stand-out game for fans is Tottenham half way through the month. They are having a mixed season.  Should be a good game. The rest will all need some care, Wolves showed yesterday what they can achieved when their game plan works, but November has the potential to be as good a month as October – maybe even better.

***** West Ham Man of the Match Poll still running here. *****

Well we left that a bit late!!!!!  I couldn’t get to the game, but for those of you who saw it – tell us who was Man of the Match.

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So can we round off the month with a win against West Ham?  Ought to be a dead cert with West ham at the bottom of the table, although they are coming to this on the back of a win.

I think we should have plenty enough to beat them though.  So who will play?

Looking at the injury situation and listening to Arsene Wenger’s interview it looks like something very similar top the Man City line-up.  The only change could be Koscielny in for Djourou.  The fact that Gibbs is going to be out for a few weeks after coming off with aknee injury at Newcastle glues Clichy into the left back slot.  To be fair, he had a better game at Manchester City than the previous matches so that ought not to be a problem.

I assume that Fabianski will be in goal.  Szczesny had a good game midweek, but I think that the priority for Arsenal has to be to find out about Fabianski one way or the other.  So unless he has a real disaster, he should play as many games as possible between now and the transfer window.

I reckon the midfield will be the same as the City game – Fabregas, Denilson and Song.  Diaby is apparently out, so no need for change there.

Up front we now have more options – three from Nasri, Arshavin, Bendtner, Chamakh, Walcott, and Rosicky.  It’s good to have this kind of problem rather than the injury strewn mess of before!  Plus RVP to come back in a couple of weeks!

My guess is that Chamakh will start.  Bendtner looks to have come back in good form, but Chamakh has been on the money too.  Will Nasri be rested to let Walcott in – and give the Frenchman a break ahead of the trip away to Shaktar?

How about this as a best guess?

_________ Fabianski ____________
Sagna __ Squillaci __ Koscielny __ Clichy
_______ Denilson _ Song_________
___________ Fabregas __________
Walcott _____ Chamakh _______ Arshavin

What do you think?

October starts of course with one of the biggest challenges of the season – Chelsea away.  Too early in the season to be truly decisive, but a real six-pointer all the same.  Especially given the points we let slip in September.

Then comes the tedium of the international break and the wait for injury news on key players.  England play Montenegro.  France play Romania and Luxembourg.  Spain play Lithuania and Scotland.

After the break Arsenal have to play five times in fourteen days:  Birmingham (H), Manchester City (A) and West Ham (H) in the Premiership;  Shakhtar Donetsk (H) in the Champions League and Newcastle (A) in the now to be taken seriously Carling Cup.  Arsenal bloggers rattling off lists of players that can be dispensed with might well take note!

Clearly the Chelsea game is the big one.  Will Fabregas be fit?  Wenger played it down but didn’t rule it out in the Belgrade post-match interview.  Will Almunia’s elbow still be troubling him?  All the hints and comments from Arsenal sources seem to point at another game for Fabianski.

Jack Wilshere came off early uninjured in Belgrade.  I think he will start on Sunday.  Arshavin can be irritating to watch, and many have berated his work-rate, but take a look at the stats. He has featured in all nine games so far (starting eight of them) and is top scorer with five goals.  I missed him out of my top three players for September but I that was probably unfair.

I really don’t know how to call this one.  After the mixed form we have showed so far, and Chelsea’s start, I’m nervous and thinking that a draw will be a good result.  But Newcastle and Manchester City have shown that they can be beaten.

With the first game being so big and the break coming straight after, it’s a bit hard to speculate about the rest of the month.  Newcastle’s win over Chelsea in the Carling Cup shows that they have some spirit and ambition.  We cannot field too weak a side if we are serious about the Carling Cup this season.

Manchester City show signs of growing consistency, so that will be a tough game too.  Birmingham and West Ham have only managed one win each so far, so we must be looking for six points from them.

Shakhtar Donetsk are supposed to be our toughest opponents in the Champions League and like us they have won their first two games.  I think we will beat them at home.

But as I said, it’s all about the Chelsea game. Beat them or even match them and we will have a good month.

* Thomas Merton