Norwich 0-2 Arsenal: Are you happy with fourth?

In the Premier League, what do I call progress?

I define progress by two aspects. Firstly, I see how many points we've finished behind the leaders, on comparison to last season. In 2012/13 it was (yeesh) 16 points adrift, this season it was only 7. In that respect, yes, we have progressed.

Secondly, I define progress by seeing the position we've finished in. Last season we've finished fourth, this season we've finished fourth. In that respect, we've stood perfectly still.

What should be given more importance, though, the number of points we cover up, or our final league position? I have to say, I think it's the former. We finished third in 2011/12 and fourth in 2013/14, yet no one would argue that today's squad is much better than that of 2 years ago. Yes, we have progressed.

Our progress has happened down to two factors - Steve Bould and the dual signings of Flamini and Ozil. Steve Bould has been phenomenal. Our defence has been superb this season. Had Wenger shown tactical intelligence against Chelsea, Liverpool and City, we could have ended with the best defensive record in the league. Heck, had Szczesny started, he would have taken the Golden Glove home. What was Wenger thinking there?

Flamini, when 'bought', quickly integrated and became a defensive midfielder. Ozil, let's face it, was a panic buy, but one that had a superb effect on our team structure. He being in our team strengthened the midfield. Cazorla was forced on the flanks, which in turn strengthened our flanks. Since his purchase was a panicky one, I refuse to believe that Wenger had a master plan for his midfield all along.

Yes, we have progressed, but most of that progress has been accidental. Aside from signing Flamini, nothing this season has been well thought-of. Had fan pressure not been applied, Ozil wouldn't have come and Bould wouldn't be given license to forge a defence of warriors.

I know Wenger won't do it, but I'm asking again. To prevent another 'not good enough' or 'what might have been' season, the club needs to be PROACTIVE. It is absolutely essential that we do the following:

1) Either sack Wenger or pen him down to a conditioned 2 year deal, conditions being that he cannot overrule his backroom staff, set his own wage budget or go solo in dictating transfer prices.

2) Sort out everyone's futures before they leave for Brazil, especially of Podolski and Vermaelen.

3) Buy at least a goalkeeper, a right back (Aurier seems to be a done deal, in fairness) a striker and a defensive midfielder before the World Cup is over. Bayern have signed Lewandowski, Leverkusen have signed Dmric and United have bid 27 million quid for Shaw. Why can't we do the same?

4) Make sure the transfer business is done BEFORE the season starts, not after the Champions League qualifiers.

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Do these, and a solid foundation will be set. We might yet not win the league, but I guarantee we'll be much closer than previous seasons. We will even go closer in the Champions League, and that's all I want, anyways. Even though there is a fantastic chance to win the FA Cup next week, I've never said that I want the team to win trophies. All I demand, all I have ever demanded, is competitiveness on the big stage. And by the big stage, I mean the Premier League and the Champions League.

Winning the FA Cup is great, sure, and I wish I could say that it could be the start of something. But the truth is, if the above 4 points are not done, there is no way we'll see genuine progress. Frankly, if the above points are followed and we fall short, I'd still be happy. I'd prefer finishing second in the league, losing in the semi-finals of the CL and not winning the FA Cup, rather than finishing 4th and winning the FA Cup and being a nobody in the CL.

What I want next season is for Arsenal to compete in the Premier League and the Champions League. If we don't win it then I'd be sad, but at least I'd know that we'd be on the right track. It would provide hope and a good foundation for the future.

Whatever happens, I don't want this 'flattering to deceive' nonsense again. I don't want the season to be a predictable collapse, foreseen a day after the transfer window ends. I don't want the club to go meekly out of the Champions League and fall short in the EPL. I want competitiveness, right from the first day till the last.

Win the FA Cup, get the deals done early, listen to the experts, and it might just happen, Wenger. Come on.

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )

Norwich vs Arsenal: Match Preview

So, here we are. Final league game of the season.

Compared to the previous two campaigns, when we had to scrap with Tottenham for fourth, you could say that this season has been progress. After all, fourth is sealed two Gameweeks in advance and we have bettered our points tally by potentially six. That's good, right?

I agree! However, for me, at least, this season hasn't been progress enough. I firmly believe that the team we had was better than Liverpool, injuries or not. Indeed, with some clever tactics, we could have even gone past Chelsea.

I firmly believe that on paper, we are the second best team in England, below City. Add a striker and a defensive midfielder in the coming months, replace the departures with quality, and we may be the best. Why then, did we slip to fourth?

For me, it was the away hammerings. Of course, you could argue that we could have won the league despite that, had we not slipped against Stoke, United, Southampton and Swansea. Mathematically, yes, we could.

However, in a 38 game season, you are bound to make a mistake against lower opposition once in a while. Even though our record this season against mediocre opposition is impressive to say the least, going through flawlessly past all of them is nearly impossible. If you want to be the best, you need to take out the best.

That's where we've failed this season. And last season, and the season before. That lies with Wenger, as he failed to suitably adjust his tactics and motivate his team ahead of these crunch clashes.

Finishing with fourth and the FA Cup is not a successful season. It would be, on comparing with our previous eight seasons, or comparing it to teams like Everton or Spurs or United. Those teams would take Champions League and a trophy anyday.

But we are Arsenal. If you look at the players we had, the instability in other teams, and the bank balance of ours, we should have done better than fourth. This season, hugely because of the FA Cup, has been acceptable, but not a benchmark for other seasons.

Coming back to the game, which shouldn't be of much importance. The league season is practically over, and considering there's a final coming up, we should rest a lot of players. Again, I say 'should', but I know Wenger won't.

I would like Diaby, Rosicky or Sanogo to get a run in. Maybe even Vermaelen or Jenkinson, and Viviano as goalkeeper. If I had my way, I'd go with Viviano - Jenkinson - Koscielny - Vermaelen - Monreal - Kallstrom - Diaby - Rosicky - Cazorla - Podolski - Sanogo.

But screw it. Why fantasize over something that won't happen? I know Szczesny will play, Mertesacker will play, Özil will play. Giroud or Arteta might be rested for Wenger's two French darlings, but that's about it. Let's just live with that.

I'd love for Arsenal to reach 79, for it might raise the bar higher for next season, and keep the confidence flowing ahead of Wembley. But in hindsight, the win obviously will mean nothing.

If anything, this will be the last time I'll see this Arsenal side (one more colourful and characterful than other) play in sync, without pressure, without expectation. It goes without saying that I'll miss watching these group of players together, so I'd better appreciate them before they get disbanded for lesser known, lesser cared-of people. And yeah, that's happening this summer, so live with that too. Sagna's on his way out.

Until then, there are only two games of this Arsenal left, one so close to perfection. One final show, please, Arsenal?

P.S. I've been told that Arsenal's interest in Serge Aurier is genuine. You can take this as a fact. Make of that what you will. Personally, I don't know him, and that's what worries me. I don't know him.

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )

Arsenal 4-1 Norwich: I could just dance

We restore our lead at the top of the table after another clinical performance against Norwich City, by running out 4-1 winners at the Emirates. And while it was against lowly opposition and in our own stadium, who couldn't have been excited by THAT performance?!

I for one was surprised as to why Wenger played his first team against such easy opposition, especially by starting Santi Cazorla. Overplaying players, especially key players, is always a big risk, and I thought that he would play the likes of Gnabry or Vermaelen, keeping in mind that we have an important fixture coming up on Tuesday. At this point, we don't want another injury crisis, do we?

The massacre began on the 18th minute through a Jack Wilshere goal after some slick Arsenal play. I think that the word "slick" is an understatement to the caliber of playing showed by Giroud and Wilshere to completely outfox the whole Norwich back four and the goalkeeper. This was literally what I remember of the goal: Cazorla has it, flick, flick, flick, Wilshere through, GOAL. It was one of those magical moments that just takes your breath away, and simply marvel at the beauty of what you just witnessed.

I saw at least 10 replays of the goal, and yet I couldn't remember how they managed to string that move together. It was a combination of Arsenal tippy-tappy and direct style of playing, which I don't see in any other team in Europe. It was the kind of goal you would say you were privileged to watch live, and the kind of goal which rivaled Arshavin's against Barcelona. I remember calling the first goal we scored against Napoli "one of the finest Arsenal goals I have seen this season". Well, after looking at what we had produced, that goal seemed pretty scrappy to me. 

We dominated proceedings after that and while we never really threatened, it was some good, calm Arsenal play. That was until Mathieu Flamini's aggression got himself an injury. He ran and bonked heads with Tettey, which resulted in him getting the worse of the two. And the fact that we struggled until the end of the half after he was taken off for Ramsey simply underlines how valuable he is to the team.

I said it before and I'll say it again: Wenger should've rested his key players for this game. Players like Szczesny, Koscielny, Flamini, Ozil and Wilshere need a breather or they'll get susceptible to injury. And while Flamini's injury wasn't out of fatigue but sheer commitment, wouldn't we have been better suited having that commitment against Dortmund than Norwich? Flamini is the only player in the team who has the Vieira-esque traits, which alone makes him one of the most important. And it's not like we're not capable of defeating a team like Norwich even without these players. This is one of the reasons I don't like Wenger: he'll keep playing his first team until most of them are out and then overplay his second team until most of them get injured, which will leave him to get "creative" with the squad.

Anyways, we grabbed a second goal around the 58th minute after another confident pass-and-move goal which was definitely against the run of play. Ramsey's quick pass to Santi left him in lots of space to engineer a counterattack. And after taking the ball forward, he played it to Giroud on the right. Ollie's slanted cross was inch-perfect, which left Ozil to head home expertly. It was another fine Arsenal goal, showcasing all our best qualities, but I'm not sure that it was one we deserved.

Howson got one back for them (quite predictably, for me, the goal was coming) in the 70th minute to make a game out of it. Howson's low drilled shot past Szczesny came after a rare Mertesacker deflection. And while it was a good finish, I couldn't help but notice how Gibbs failed to block that strike. It was very unlike him, and if you ask me, it was the result of a bit of complacency seeping in.

However, we tied the game up with a sensational screamer from Aaron Ramsey. After Wilshere played a pass to him in the box, he feinted twice to get into a good position and calmly slotted past Ruddy. It was another candidate for the Goal of the Season, and it was fitting to come from Arsenal's Player of the Season so far. It reminded me of Nasri's first goal against Fulham he scored like 3 years ago, but this one was from a more honest lad who deserved it after being through such a lot.

However, his continuously increasing solo play is worrying me. True, it was sensational skill and a cool finish, but I couldn't help but notice how he never gave a thought to the players around him. Ever since he scored against Stoke, his playing style is becoming too goal-oriented and a bit negative. I fear that he will put himself in front of the club in the future and have a Nasri like departure.

Anyway, Mesut Ozil's second put the game to bed, after Rosicky's cross and a Ramsey assist (good he didn't go for goal there!) left him space to tap in and effectively put the game to bed. After the game, Wenger said:

 "We won 4-1 and their keeper had a good game. But I think as well that Norwich played well, so it is strange. They made it difficult for us. We had a difficult period between 30 and 60 minutes where we struggled a little bit to keep our game going. I would come out of the game thinking Norwich is a good team."

A pretty good summary of the game by the boss, who now has to focus on a much sterner test against Dortmund. If Flamini won't be able to make it on a match like this, then I'd be pretty pessimistic about our chances to win it. For me, it has been him rather than our Mertescielny axis which has steeled up our defence. Yet we somehow managed to concede 7 goals in our last 8 games.

Football is weird.

However, for now, let's just laugh at Liverpool and Man Utd (don't we always?), and gloat at being on top of the pile.

Bring on Dortmund. I can't wait.

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )

Arsenal vs Norwich: Match Preview

Football is back.

After what seems like a decade, we finally see our team in action as we face a pretty straightforward matchup against Norwich at the Emirates. And while on paper there seems to be only one winner, results aren't declared on paper alone.

The good news is that Cazorla, Sagna and Ozil are fit which should mean that we have depth and choices to give the manager food for thought. The bad news? Er, um.... top of the league on goals scored?

Such are the good times going on at North London that there's hardly any bad news to talk about. I don't think that it was a coincidence that Jack's smoking issue was publicized to such a large extent by the media. It was simply because they couldn't find anything else that was wrong with the club. No contract sagas, no title hiccups, no Champions League slip-ups and no "Spend some f*cking money" crap. I love how much the media hates us this moment.

Which means that the press will surely jump on us should we fail to defeat Norwich City at our home. That said, they might have a point as this game should be nothing more than a walk in the park for a team like us in scintillating form. Even if the manager decides to rest Santi, Ozil and Sagna, (which would be the right decision, considering we play Dortmund on Tuesday) asking this team to beat a team in the relegation spot in our own backyard isn't asking much.

Wenger, as always, said that he wouldn't underestimate the opponents, saying:

“Norwich are much more dangerous than last season because they have Elmander and van Wolfswinkel. Also they are technically very good in the centre. They showed that against Chelsea in the last game and it is always a potentially dangerous game to play Norwich because they are a team with a good dynamic."

Having said so, it would be a huge disappointment if this Arsenal side came out of this fixture with anything other than 3 points, and possibly losing our lead. With Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City and the Spuds facing relatively easy opposition this weekend, we cannot afford to drop points against such teams, even if it is early days. We are on top of the table, and I'm proud of that, but the next and more difficult challenge is to maintain that lead.

I feel that this should be taken as a good opportunity by Wenger to rotate his squad and keep the key players ready and raring for the important game against Borussia Dortmund. While I think that he will keep the back five of Szczesny, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Koscielny and Gibbs unchanged, I feel it would be better if he brings Viviano and Vermaelen for some game time. It would at least give them a chance to prove their worth and give the others a run for their money to keep their place in the starting lineup. 

Midfield might be a problem, but it is the kind of problem that every manager would love to have. I expect Wenger to play Flamini and Arteta in central midfield, Ozil in the attacking midfield slot and Ramsey and Serge Gnabry on the wings, with Wilshere possibly rested. While I would've played Rosicky and rested Ozil for the game, I feel that Wenger's man management 'skills' would make him overplay Ozil and injure him eventually. It's a bad, pessimistic prediction, but I have a feeling that's what's going to happen if Ozil starts today. 

Santi Cazorla seems set to be on the bench, such was the hint in the manager's quotes:

"Cazorla is available in training but he is not match-fit. It is just about competitiveness with him. There is a possibility both (Cazorla and Sagna) are in the squad for Saturday. I have not decided whether they will start or not."

It's good to see Wenger playing it safe with Santi, because he is an important member of the squad and needs the special attention to get back into the game. I like Santi, and I can't wait to see the lethal partnership that he, Ozil and Flamini will form once they link up. Our midfield, though weedy, looks talented, strong and determined. Which is why Wenger should carefully play his cards as to which recently fit player should start the game, and who should be benched.

Olivier Giroud seems set to start the game, and while I might've suggested Bendtner to start instead (no injuries welcome in the striker area), he simply is too bad, even to play a game against the Canaries. As of now, we have no choice but to play Giroud in every possible game, and hope that he won't pick up a knock. I know many people have kept hopes that if Giroud would stay fit until Jan, then Wenger would get a striker to support him, but that sounds like bollocks to me. I know Wenger too well that I would actually be surprised if he bought a quality striker in the winter transfer window, because why would he buy a striker if he didn't get one in the past 2 transfer windows?

Anyways, that's quite another story. For now, let's just focus on consolidating our lead at the top of the table by defeating a pretty easy team. Here's to maintaining our lead, no more injuries, and an easy victory.

Come on Arsenal.

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )