West Ham 1-2 Arsenal: Signs of progress

Match Report | Match highlights | Wenger's thoughts

I'm not one for unnecessarily bringing hopes up by overrating the positives. I don't think, for instance, that defending that lead till the death is a huge step or a turning point. West Ham were impressive until we sucker-punched ourselves into the lead - that doesn't mean we were assured as such. The impressive defending that spanned across the calendar year of 2013 looks to me like a one-off, not something we've taken heart from and progressed.

Francis Coquelin was impressive. I for one always rated him whenever I saw him on the pitch, but I assumed he might have regressed since he barely got games in for Freiburg and Charlton. However, I don't really think this might be some sort of career landmark moment for him. He was an emergency player and performed admirably as one. I would like to give him a run of games, for he certainly seems calmer than Mathieu Flamini, but asking Wenger to give someone a chance has become foolish thought nowadays. The man hardly ever rotates.

However, the only positive that I found was about our attack starting to click. I know that many were fans of the Welbeck-Alexis-Giroud trio, but I personally prefer Oxlade-Chamberlain into the mix. The forward trio we had out there, sandwiched with Santi Cazorla in the middle produced one of the finest attacking displays this season.

West Ham at home, particularly this season, are not to be undermined. Manchester City faced them and couldn't find a goal because the likes of Cresswell and Song were so influential. For this jaded Arsenal side to find three valuable points and legitimately claim that we could have won by more is not to be scoffed at. With the defence yet to settle down, I have a feeling our attack may have to carry us for the games to follow.

On a final point to this alarmingly microscopic match report - don't for one second bear any illusions of Arsenal stumbling into the title race. From an Arsenal perspective Chelsea are impossible to overtake, while although Manchester City are not different class as such, we still have a lot to work to do and a lot of fine margins to reach before thinking about them. Imagining Arsene Wenger remedying the minutiae is laughed at for a reason.

Speaking of Arsene Wenger, here's a superb Arsenal Truth piece that goes miles into describing him.

Until then, Happy New Year!

-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]

Arsenal 2-1 QPR: Super Sanchez seals nervy points

Match Report | Match highlights | Wenger's thoughts

We've had so many unconvincing wins this season that yesterday seemed almost routine. The pattern was almost familiar - a possession-dominated Arsenal side failed to impress in front of goal, only to be bailed out by the magnificent Sanchez, yet almost found a way to Arsenal it all up. I guess Jesus was on our side for this one, because despite not getting some of the decisions our way, we were fortunate to not concede a penalty which many referees would have given.

The lineup hit me as a bit of a surprise, but on second thoughts, I realized there didn't seem to be much choice for Wenger than to bring Tomas Rosicky for the injured Oxlade-Chamberlain. Apart from that the only other change was Nacho Monreal for Calum Chambers. While I appreciate the rotation, on a personal level I would have tried to being Podolski into the fold, for either Sanchez or Welbeck.

I know that Podolski isn't rated highly by the manager, but it's not exactly a monumental task to trust him to deliver the goods against one of the worst teams in the league at home. He does have his faults in terms of his defensive contribution and his workrate, but he also has utility to the team. He wasn't and isn't a German international by fluke.

Wenger spoke about rotation in the Christmas period, coming out against it with some pretty ludicrous quotes:

“The difficulty is finding the right balance between rotation and the balance of the team without destabilising it. Therefore you sometimes have to limit the numbers of rotation.”

To me it seems like a poorly thought out way to window dress his man management skills throughout the years and promote inaction. Anyone who plays football - it doesn't even have to be Premier League standard - knows that their body is a temple. Carefully managing the team throughout the season (which include the training sessions as much as the Matchday fixtures) is very important. The answer to winning all games isn't playing all the best players by default, especially when you take into consideration that most of the players Arsene has assembled are relatively brittle and are playing football week in, week out since a tender age.

It's amazing how readily people dismiss and downplay the consequences of overplaying a footballer to defend their manager. Any football authority worth their salt will tell you its of huge importance, none more so than Shad Forsythe. However, in the end, Shad doesn't pick our starting XI, Arsene Wenger does. And it is this overplaying that increases the casualty list after almost every match.

Ospina's injury was down to poor management (he's fit now though, bless him). Koscielny, Ozil, Arteta and Ramsey were definitely exerted. It isn't unfair to suggest that at this going rate, the likes of Mertesacker, Flamini, Cazorla, Alexis and Welbeck could pick up an injury pertaining to muscle strains. Even playing them too much too quickly increases the balance of probability in them picking up an impact injury.

Should Mertesacker, for instance, get injured, it will be hard to blame the medical staff. The reason for his injury will be down to him being physically and mentally strained, which goes back to the transfer market. However, Wenger still has control over the Cazorla, Alexis and Welbeck situation. He has players like Rosicky, Podolski and Campbell who can do a job for a few games. He needs to stop using the same group of players and trust other portions of his teams too.

On any manager's level, though, it's easy to understand the temptation to play Sanchez regularly. Even (or especially) when he makes an error in Arsenal proceedings, he hustles and harries to make amends.

After some steady pressure, Traore showed exactly why Wenger let him go when he foolishly felled Sanchez in the box. The Chilean's penalty was admittedly up to the standard of Traore's challenge. I don't know if he was overly confident or what, but he shanked that. Wenger hinted in the post-match presser that Cazorla was supposed to take the spot-kick. And while that speaks of Sanchez's selfishness, it also spoke of his determination.

At that point, I felt that we were going to give the game away. Never mind it was QPR and Harry Redknapp, Arsenal remain Arsenal. I couldn't trust this team to beat Arsenal Ladies anymore. It did seem for a while that things were starting to go haywire. Mertesacker was mispositioning himself into the final third. Around the 32nd minute Sanchez chose not to cross to Giroud, seemingly out of lack of concentration. Even a classy player like Rosicky was only starting to get into the game. A better team than QPR might have punished us.

Thankfully, we punished them for their lack of opportunism. Welbeck picked up the ball around the centre of the park and fed Santi on the edge of the box. Cazorla, with his back to goal, rolled in Gibbs, who crossed towards the far post. Armand Traore's positional sense was shot to pieces when he realized he left Sanchez in so much space I thought he was offside. Green didn't help by leaving his goal open either, and Sanchez took the gift with both hands. Or his head. You know what I mean.

Stephen Caulker almost negated the lead within a minute, but missed his header. No matter, as Arsenal took advantage of QPR's meh-ism and bossed the ball. Around half-time I remember possession stats reading 71% in Arsenal's favour. I always love that when we're winning.

Of course, all those feelings of "thank God we're finally getting it together" we're squished early into the second half when Giroud got himself needlessly sent off. And look, I know that I get some stick for being a Giroud supporter (people who support Giroud but not Arsene Wenger live in a lonely world, believe me!) and I'm not at all advocating his head-to-head stupidity. However, I really think had Onouha not done his bit of theatrics and instead rivaled with Giroud's head, the both of them would have been on yellows. It's happened a lot of times in the league where two players have had a coming together, gone on each other's faces but stayed on the field. Maybe it's just my opinion, but I feel that Onouha contributed decisively to Giroud's sending off as much as Olivier did.

Another point to consider - why wasn't Rio Ferdinand shown a second yellow when he physically manhandled Giroud? Needless to say it's another joke on the FA when they choose to ban him for three games for abusing an internet troller but won't lay a finger when he catches the back of someone's neck on the pitch. I know it's a bit off-topic, but something has to be done.

Leaving aside the mitigations of the situation, the red for Giroud was expected and once again invited a mentally frail Arsenal to make hot water of an easy task. Wenger went with a weird ten-men formation which had Welbeck on the left flank, Sanchez as striker, Rosicky as a right attacking midfielder, Cazorla in left central midfield and Flamini playing defensive midfield. Picture that in your mind if you can. Of course, employing such a "formation" left only Debuchy guarding the right side. Harry Redknapp tried to exploit that by taking off Traore for Hoilett.

It started to work, but not before Sanchez took the team on his stocky shoulders again. Picking the ball dead center, he went past two Rangers defenders before finding Rosicky in space. The Czech showed his rustiness with an uncertain strike, but a kind deflection and an even kinder goalkeeper helped the ball into the net. Regardless, you could see what that goal meant to him. He wasn't different class on the pitch, so to say, but he did make himself known when he was given the time. Hopefully (ha!) Wenger gives him an extended run.

QPR brought on Zamora for Jordan Mutch. It was supposed to seem that they had nothing to lose, but on the pitch it seemed like Arsenal were 2-0 down! What particularly struck me as baffling was when Mertesacker and Debuchy went ahead for a corner around the 76th minute. It's one thing to go 10 men down and leave only Debuchy to guard the right hand side, but it's very much another for even the Frenchman to abandon his much-needed post.

Of course the corner came to nothing and QPR broke. They waltzed forward into the final third - where Rosicky was playing left back - and Hoilett found himself with space on Arsenal's right side. A retreating Debuchy stuck out a nervous foot at Hoilett, he went to ground and the ref pointed to the spot. The decision was debatable, but was partly the consequence of our own actions. Leaving a 10 men side that exposed is criminal.

Charlie Austin converted the penalty and then it was back to the walls stuff for Arsenal. We aren't very good at it in all honesty, and legs were also starting to tire. Wenger made his first change at - I kid you not - 83 minutes when he took off Rosicky for Chambers and later Welbeck for Coquelin. If you don't count Bellerin as a first-team defender, we had all of our fit defenders on the pitch at that moment.

They had a late Zamora penalty shout, which I felt should have been given. Obviously I was chuffed that it wasn't, but it was just another example of how panicky we tend to get under pressure. It isn't a personal thing for Gibbs by any means - it happens to almost every Arsenal player during the crunch time. Last season we kept our heads very well, but we seem to have regressed massively on that front this time around. It's cost us a lot of points already, and almost did yesterday.

Arsene Wenger has his own opinion of why Kieran sort of lost it, saying:

"The last five minutes were a bit edgy because we conceded a late goal last week and you could feel that was a bit in our mind. But overall I think we were in control for big parts of the game and in the end we have shown resilience and fortunately got the three points."

I always love me some Boxing Day points, but today was another example of how at Arsenal mistakes aren't rectified and minds aren't set straight. Today we were bailed out by a quite remarkable Chilean and an unconvincing opposition, but West Ham tomorrow won't be as polite.

There's a reason why they are above us in the table. We have to start exhibiting some of those, too.

Extra reading | Arsenal 2-1 QPR : Rangers fail to take man advantage [Crazy About EPL]

-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]

My predictions for Arsenal's 2014/15 campaign

With the Champions League die cast, the data is laid for me to make a prediction on how Arsenal will fare come May. Last season around, I had predicted Arsenal to finish third in the league and get knocked out by Bayern Munich, adding that the January transfer window would be part of the reason why. In that regard, I don't believe I was entirely off the mark.

Regarding the FA Cup, I did say that last year's team were strengthened, confident and united enough to potentially win it. However, I also said that Arsene Wenger's "insistence to play reserve players against a mediocre side is what's going to cost us another trophy, with a side like Swansea or Norwich possibly knocking us out in a shock one-niller." Obviously I was proved wrong, but Yaya Sanogo's looming figure against the likes of Everton, Wigan and Hull (games we almost lost) suggest that fine margins dictated my inaccuracy.

Anyway, this post isn't to check the validity of my previous prediction. Even if I had predicted Arsenal to win the Premier League and the Champions League last season I'd still be here, trotting away of what I reckon is to come. So, without further ado, here I go.

Season spoiler alert!

Premier League : 4th (sigh)

Let's not even consider Arsenal finishing above Chelsea. Manchester City may, on the off-chance, get close to unnerving Mourinho, but on the whole it's not at all unreasonable to suggest that Chelsea may well walk this league campaign.

On paper, I believe Arsenal have the squad to rival Manchester City's. However, we certainly don't have the manager to flourish the team's potency. That, according to me, leaves us with third or fourth to fight for.

I must confess that I didn't think Louis van Gaal would have the players and the know-how to get United above Arsenal after assembling an unbalanced squad. Don't get me wrong - their run of good form may have been a happy-go-lucky incident. However, their efficient dismantling of Liverpool would have done wonders to their confidence. And confidence, as we found out last season, can lead to tremendous dividends.

Even if I don't know the Dutchman, if I had to give the benefit of the doubt to either Louis van Gaal or Arsene Wenger, I'd reluctantly choose the former.

Champions League : Quarter-finals

Yes, we got Monaco out of all the possible monsters and parasites of Real, Bayern and Barca, and it's fantastic that fortune favoured us at last. But does it infinitely increase our chances of winning the competition? Of course not.

Monaco have delayed, not prevented the inevitable. Expecting to win the Champions League without facing any of the top teams is not going to happen, and even if it does, it won't feel deserved. Do you remember we had faced Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona on the way to Paris 2006? Picking random balls from the pot may help us infiltrate the outskirts to a certain extent, but it won't give us a safe and sure passage into the castle.

If we want to be the best, we have to take out the best. Most of the pretenders get filtered out in the Round of 16, as we have done all these years. When it comes down to the quarters, only the elite remain. And seeing that Arsenal find it difficult to hold on to a lead against a 10 men team without a striker, it's very hard to see the same team putting a sword to Europe's finest four months down the line.

FA Cup

It's always hard to predict what the Cup may present season after season, because the draw is completely random and there are no time to make amends if the team slips up. Looking at Arsenal, a team that have made hot water of Swansea, Hull, Leicester, Stoke and whatnot, there is an element of assumption in saying that draws against Coventry and Wigan. In addition, since the league is pretty much over with Chelsea comfortably leading the line, the likes of Manchester City and United may shift focus to the Cup.

I don't think Arsenal will get past Chelsea or Manchester United should we meet them in the Cup. There is a chance for us to beat Manchester City if that time comes, though, because they don't seem to be as good in holding their nerve as many would have you believe. Balance of probability still comes into play, though.

Obviously it's nigh on impossible to study the permutations and the probabilities and come up with the exact round where we may get knocked out and against which team, but if I have to guess, I think Arsenal will be eliminated somewhere beyond the quarters, because that is when the Championship and the League one and two teams exit and the Premier League teams remain.

While I would love another cup run, last season did have some element of luck to it. Granted, we faced Spurs, Liverpool and Everton, but we also never left London, rode our luck with playing Sanogo against Liverpool and Everton, and it was touch and go against Liverpool, Wigan and Hull. Of course it wasn't undeserved, but it still could have easily gone the other way.

So, yeah. Looking at the form and the morale of the team (not to mention the state of its players), I don't think we'll retain the Cup.

--

To end this post on a somewhat brighter note, I just want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas. Now I'm no huge believer in the origin story of Jesus Christ, but nevertheless I'd like to extend my gratitude to my regular readers on this joyous occasion. I have had a lot of disagreements and fights with Arsenal supporters on email, Twitter and in person, but I've tried hard to not think ill of any Gooner, regardless of their stance on the Arsene Wenger subject. In the end, the support I get is amazing and the banter on Twitter is awesome.

Thanks a ton for introducing me into the Arsenal world with such warmth!


-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]

Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal: Getting difficult to rephrase the same old

Match Report | Match highlights | Wenger's thoughts

Familiarity breeds contempt. It also breeds difficulty in blogging.

Let's be honest - much of what happened yesterday weren't anomalies. We knew that we are injury ravaged, yet we don't do the minimum rotation we can. I know it's an increasingly redundant debate and definitely not the father of the thought, but why isn't Lukas Podolski getting a game in? Danny Welbeck and Alexis Sanchez have to be in crimson zones, forget red. Such overplaying and elementary errors seek to compound already complex injury situations.

Arsene was forced into playing half-fit Oxlade-Chamberlain in a relatively unknown position. On second thoughts, "forced" may not suffice appropriate terminology. It's more of driving into a ditch he can see. Mikel Arteta, on his last legs, isn't physically capable of holding it together on one of the most physical positions in the park. Aaron Ramsey played a pointless game against Galatasaray. Mesut Ozil played in every game since he returned from international break, and was instructed to complete 90 minutes against Chelsea despite picking up a serious knee injury. Jack Wilshere is the exception to this norm.

Laurent Koscielny was overplayed. So was Monreal. So are Chambers, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Flamini, the aforementioned Ox, Cazorla, and the front trio. The Theo Walcott and David Ospina situations weren't well-handled. And we wonder why Arsenal pick up injuries?

It's not sheer misfortune, it's appalling man management from the manager. And, for obvious reasons, it's costing us.

I wish I could use the "less said about the game the better" phrase and try to run away from getting into the excruciates, but I don't see the point in keeping this blog, then. Which is why, for the zillionth time, I will trudge on.

To an extent I rate Brendan Rodgers tactical nous (especially in the attacking sense), but to me, it seems like Wenger made him look good. His 3-4-3 was meant to pack the midfield, and clearly it worked. Arsenal couldn't play the way they wanted to, which stung confidence and momentum. What does Wenger do?

Rodgers played Sterling as a false nine striker, but later switched him to the left flank in an attempt to discomfort Chambers. Clearly it worked. On more than one occasion Arsenal were exposed on their right flank. What does Wenger do?

Okay, despite playing abjectly (to say the least), the team managed to take the lead through the only discernible attack I can remember. Okay, there are lack of options on the bench owing to the injury crisis. I still don't see how that justifies removing Giroud for Coquelin. We needed Olivier's hold-up play, set-piece defending and ability to keep ball. Chances were we'd be lumping a lot of balls clear which meant he could have harried those clearances and made a nuisance of himself. Instead, we put a tiring, wishy-washy Welbeck as striker.

I can begin to understand the logic of Coquelin coming on. I like him, unlike others who have formed opinions on him solely on Arsene Wenger's say-so. But by looking at this objectively, won't hooking Flamini (treading lightly on a yellow) or Oxlade-Chamberlain (half-fit, lest we forget) be a better call? Not for Wenger.

Despite Arsenal's phenomenal attempts to throw the game away, Liverpool go a step further. Fabio Borini came on for Kolo Toure and promptly got sent off. At this point, Liverpool were 10 men with no strikers and Sakho and a bandaged Skrtel manning their defence. How could Arsenal possibly screw this one over?

By giving Skrtel a free header, of course. Arsenal probably decided to keep all men in their box to add to the banter than to genuinely try to defend it.

And so ended another innovative Arsenal methodology of Arsenal-ing a game up. As I had said weeks before - Wenger disappointing fans has become routine. The only question is how he does it. Against Stoke it was a fluke-ish half-comeback, which fed hope to Arsenal fans and poisoned their souls. Against United it was dominance followed by sucker-punching. Swansea was just hopeless. Today was more of well we played turd but by some happy accident we're in the lead but it doesn't look like we can keep it at all and oh shit we just gave away a free header and what the fuck and why bother pretending to be pissed when honestly it was pretty much expected and deserved.

I could go on about the management, the injuries, the fourth agenda, the Wenger Out propaganda, the Joel Campbell situation, the transfer window, but instead, I'm just bringing this post to an abrupt end. Because, while I was writing this piece, I just realized that I've ran out of different ways of saying it.

Besides, Wenger will give me plenty of opportunities to look out for them.

-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]

Waiting for this inevitable debacle to end...

Disclaimer: Even though I have used the phrases ‘AKB’ and ‘WOB’ in this post, kindly understand that I mean no offence to any Arsenal supporter. I don’t mean to classify or judge any group based on their stance, it’s just a matter of convenience for me to call someone an “AKB” rather than “a person who backs Arsene Wenger”. You may well be a WOB but not resort to personal abuse towards the manager, for instance.

Before I start this, I selfishly hope I'm not the only person who feels this way.
It's not that I don't love Arsenal anymore. I do. I really do. It seems ludicrous for me to have to justify it to people who have followed my blog. However, since the Stoke game I have been feeling a sense of detachiness from the club. It's hard to explain why, probably because even I don't know the exact reason.

Maybe it's because it's all become too repetitive. Football and Arsenal, when I started watching it, was unpredictable and exciting. There were twists and turns and what-ifs and roller coaster rides and memorable goals and down-in-the-doldrums moments, but they were always consoled by the fact that there was hope to negate the bad times with remarkable moments.

Knowing what I do about the precarious situation at Arsenal FC has made me envy the "Ignorance is bliss" phrase. This limbo phase that the club are currently in is getting hard to enjoy. Sure, the last couple of games were footballistically entertaining. Aaron Ramsey and Lukas Podolski scored some belters. Giroud literally pinballed a cross into the net. Santi Cazorla smiled. That was good.

But, upon comparison to how football has made me feel before, it's not good enough. Nowadays, whenever Arsenal win, my happiness is tempered by the ugly truth that tears await at the end. I don't get especially cheesed off when Arsenal lose as well, because when you think of it, there are no repercussions. There are no stakes. It's going to be a long while until Arsene Wenger faces the tangible consequences of his repeated incompetences.

The blog I wrote after Arsenal won the FA Cup seemed to echo some of these sentiments, even then:

"Amidst all this, I am a bit puzzled. While winning the FA Cup was undoubtedly the best moment of my life, a small part of me felt that it would feel better. I don’t know why, but I didn’t feel the joy that I thought I would. Maybe because it’s tainted by the fact that it seals Wenger’s future at Arsenal, or because I know that the summer to follow is going to be an embarrassment [LOL, look how that turned out!], but I really felt that winning the cup would have signaled greater euphoria from me."

The fanbase has reached a dangerously fickle phase. An Arsenal loss throws them off the fence, but a positive result reels them back in. A lot of Gooners are on the fence right now, but if you gave them the chance to be Stan Kroenke and take the ultimate decision on the fallen legend's future, they would keep him on. Not because most of them believe he's the one to win the club the Premier League again, but because they are fear change and fear making the judgement call.

It's going to take time for the fans to face the truth. I'd imagine they already know most of the reasons why the WOB (apologies for the labelling) say what they have been saying all these years, and on some level maybe they agree. However, it's only respect and love that's holding them from turning their backs on the man they idolized. A year or two of continuous predictable injuries, tactics, transfers and failures may wear that affinity thin.

A few of those fans (myself included) have already reached that phase. We already know most of there is to know about Arsene Wenger and Arsenal, while we watch the others catch up. Even if certain portions of the WOB tend to exaggerate it or communicate it in an unclassy manner, their opinions are accurate in essentials. They, like me, are likelier to feel equally frustrated in this no man's land, this unfinished divorce, this middle of the end.

Waiting for Wenger's removal has taken a lot out of me. You don't get a lot of WOB members where I come from, so it's not easy to vent my feelings aside from this blog. Every time Arsenal win I have to face stupid, redundant affirmations on why Arsene Wenger is a stud and every time Arsenal lose I have to hear the same fans blame the players, but not him. After a while you just get tired of the vicious cycle and think of jacking it all in. However, it speaks volumes of my loyalty that I won't abandon the ship even when it's facing rough waters.

The fans will get there. The board will get there. But until then, here I stand - an immunized, desensitized Arsenal supporter waiting for this ridiculous debate to end the way I know it will, hoping that these talented crop of players Arsenal have keep the patience and stick it out until then.

-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]