Why Arsenal wouldn't have won the league even without injury woes

Arsene Wenger played it well. He always does play it well. Amid one of the most insulting defeats against the Top 4 clubs (other than Arsenal, of course) and the exacerbating conditions in the away matches of English Premier League for Arsenal which gave rise to excruciating questions and a feeling of intense doubt among Arsenal fans, Arsene Wenger once again, politically correct as always – very beautifully veneered away the blames in the shadows of excuses that involved FFP, referee misjudgments and majorly injuries.

“When we came out of Christmas, we were in a strong position and what you want then is to have your strong players available in March and April, but we had too many injuries”, said the Frenchman as he looked up at the reporter with his blunt smile as usual, depicting the expressions that are never expected and the answers unprecedented.

Giving excuses is what a manager is good at, but with Arsene Wenger it has become a tradition. In a club as big as Arsenal that ranks fourth in the world in terms of revenues, money is really not as big a problem as it has been portrayed to be. The frugalness and economic spending that has been attached to the club is really not as much as Arsenal’s as it is Arsene’s. Getting the club to a decent position without spending much is what Arsene Wenger is good at, but the word ‘decent’ in Arsenal’s dictionary has been deteriorating year by year.

“If we don’t win it (Premier League title) I will take full responsibility."

These words spoken by Arsene Wenger in February 2014 still reverberate in the minds of passionate Gooners as they look up at the Premier League standings, which in a month saw Arsenal sliding to a position which was never even thought of this season. And towards the end of the season, all the words we find out of the mouth of the manager are ‘injuries and injuries’.

So now let’s get deeper into the scenario. Would Arsenal have won the Premier League title if all Arsenal players were fit?

The answer is as simple as it can be. No. 

Arsenal’s major problem this season like every other season has been a face-off against big teams. When the season started well off by defeating teams like Liverpool and Tottenham, people thought that this might just be what Arsenal needed. But in the next few matches Arsenal revealed their Achilles’ heel. The problem was the attack. 

All the teams could potentially judge the fact that Arsenal’s attack is just not good enough even with the help of world-class playmakers such as Cazorla, Ozil and the rest of the army. Even a layman could understand that Arsenal’s frontmen Oilivier Giroud and Nicklas Bandtner were far from able to helping Arsenal to the title. The team with full strength got defeated by Manchester United who were at their worst form in the past 20 years and soon after that a shameful 6-3 defeat at Etihad made situations worse. 

In all these matches, players like Ramsey and Walcott did not prove to be of much help. Reason? Because these players are in the process of being club greats but they still lack the potential of being consistent in every big game. It was clear as day that Arsenal needed a DM like rock, and a prolific striker that could convert the brilliant passes of Cazorla and match the speed of Rosicky.

Would you think that a match against Manchester City, in which Arsenal conceded luckily only 1 goal in the last 10 minutes inspite of City hitting more than 25 shots on target (and still making a total of 6 goals) was ever to be considered an even sided match? Clearly the team was not underperforming; it was incapable of matching the strength of Manchester City even with its full strength. 

Still, somehow other big teams stumbled and Arsenal managed to remain on top till January. But these rankings were a hallucination created which Arsene Wenger couldn’t foresee. While he was too complacent looking just at the then standings, the bigger picture could be seen by many. Teams like Manchester City and Chelsea ranked below Arsenal only because they stumbled in less important matches against weaker teams and they obviously had the potential to come back strong against these teams. On the other hand Arsenal lost to the teams against which it ‘could never win’. This clearly meant that even though Arsenal ranked ahead of the others, it needed reinforcements more than them.

Why then, did Arsene Wenger did not get a replacement of Olivier Giroud/Nicklas Bendtner? Only Wenger knows.

And the result we all know has been ever disappointing - shameful defeat in the hands of Liverpool by 5-1 which saw the first chance of the match missed by Olivier Giroud, and then conceding 5 goals. Wouldn’t the equation be different had Arsenal taken the lead then? 

And how can we forget the match which Wenger would never forget – his 1000^th against Chelsea, we all know what happened there. Same old story.

Arsene Wenger might be putting himself off the blame a little too much. The problem is more the attitude than the result. The man is too stubborn to accept mistakes. The ‘You cannot buy class’ thing has gone a little too far with Arsenal. On the other hand, Manchester City, inspite of losing their main striker Kun Aguero are managing to win the title because their bench of forwards are better than Arsenal’s main men upfront, and Manuel Pellegrini has been as quite as ever.

The FA Cup might be a trophy in itself, but it can never be redemption of the insults that Arsenal have endured in the Premier League. And what’s even more disheartening is the latest statement by Arsene Wenger in which he claims to buy a forward but openly states that it would not be a replacement of Olivier Giroud. In short – he assured you all that the main striker will still be Giroud. And the next season if the same thing happens – the answer will also be the same - ‘Injuries’.

-Vib_H (Follow me on Twitter @Vib_Hafc)

Everton, Wenger, Cygan, and my Wigan wish

I've been away, and I regret it.

I apologize for the recent lack of blogging. It was enforced due to work, and will not happen from now until a long time. A lot has happened in the space of a week - mostly, it's all depressing, nightmarish stuff. However, you might find a slightly upbeat mood in my post, as all these events has culminated to Wenger's possible departure. Will it happen? Read on.

The Everton massacre...
Bloody hell. I can't believe I convinced myself that we'd win the game. What I witnessed was beyond description. Could someone give me a word that covers 'abject', 'apocalyptic', 'inept', 'horrendous', 'shameful', 'pathetic' and 'comical' all in one go?

Even under the disappointment, under my growing loathing of this manager and pity for a good group of players being ripped by Arsene, I need to save a spot for Martinez. Dominating over a top side - even Arsenal, a crumbling team and a crumbling manager - takes intelligence and guts; Roberto certainly had that.

Monreal and Podolski played for Arsenal on the left, Martinez knew that area was defensively weak. He pulls off a masterstroke by playing target man Lukaku there, who torments a lazy Lukas and unconvincing Monreal all day. Wenger, meanwhile, sits clueless in the dugout instead of countering Everton's tactics.

Is this what he gets paid 6.5 million for?

Let's get one thing straight - the players did not let Wenger down. Let's not forget these are the same players who bounced back after a shocker of an opening game (Wenger's doing). These are the one's that compensated for Wenger's failure to buy a striker. These are the one's that, assisted by Bould's training, have defended leads at the Westfalenstadion and the St. James' Park with their lives on the line.

"I'm not saying that this season is destined for disaster. I'm just saying that Arsenal fans are expecting too much of the thin squad that we currently possess. I secretly am a bit scared that the depth of our squad and our nervy defence might be a factor to destroy what looks like a promising season."

Yeah, I said that in October.

"I'm having serious doubts over Wenger's tactical capability after I saw that he didn't make any change to our strategy in the game. I had stressed earlier that Dortmund would be a difficult matchup, and winning dirty should be the order of the day. However, instead of facing facts, Wenger didn't do anything to the formation, the tactics or anything, and thus witnessed a repeat of the first half."

Yeah, November.

"Our Premier League season is over. The only way we'll win the league is if Giroud remains fit and firing, Ramsey returns for the City and Chelsea matches in storming form AND we defeat our two direct title rivals. Don't get your hopes up people - there's not a chance in hell that such scenarios are coinciding over the span of 4 months. I'd be astonished if we finish second in the table, forget first now.

Look, the season isn't dead yet. We still have the FA Cup to look forward to, and can entertain ourselves over two legs against Munich. However, one would be optimistic - if not foolish - to expect more from this season."

On February 1st.


Look, we are Arsenal Football Club. We don't deserve shit like this. We don't deserve a pathetic excuse of a manager, we don't deserve his incompetent backroom team. We don't deserve to pay the highest wages to see Sanogo replacing Giroud and we don't deserve to get thrashed by EVERTON for fuck's sake.

Do you want another example of why Wenger needs to leave?

Wenger's injury comments...
Take a look at this.

Wenger: "Some of them [muscle injuries] are down to the medication that the players take that you don't even know about [egoistic]. Then you realize afterwards that they took this medication but that's not prudent."

Shouldn't the medical staff check on the apparent drugs that Arsenal players are taking? And how is taking drugs related to Walcott's Achilles heel injury or Ramsey's thigh strain?

"The toxins don't go as quickly out of the body as they should and they [the players] get tired."

Oh, and you overplaying them is not having an impact? Let's note that in yesterday's match, Ramsey came on as a substitute after 2 days of full training. Let's also note that even though Giroud was almost certain to not score yesterday, Wenger overplayed him and risked him further towards injury. And will overplaying an injury prone 33 year old to inevitable injury also be related to taking drugs?

"At the moment, we have not come to any conclusion."

Shame, as Le Grove, Arsenal Truth, Raymond Verheijen and me already have deduced the answer months ago. Injuring players is down to overplaying them, especially young legs. Keeping them injured for longer than expected is related to Arsene's incompetent medical staff and his tendency to train his team like the Marines.

You know what? Let's leave speculation aside and look at cold, hard facts that no Arsenal supporter would disagree on.

• Wenger and his staff don't know why his players keep getting injured, he said as much.
• Wenger sat with his chin propped on the touchline while Arsenal lost comprehensively to Liverpool, Everton and Chelsea.
• Wenger publicly said he doesn't know why Arsenal collapsed at Stamford Bridge.
• Wenger did not buy a striker in January after Ramsey and Theo got injured, and after Juventus publicly put Vucinic on the transfer list on January 29th. Our striking options, as of today, are Giroud, Bendtner and Yaya Sanogo.
• Wenger is paid 6.5 million a year under a supposedly financially constrained Arsenal.

Glaring blunders in one season - aren't these sackable offences in itself? Would any other club tolerate that? For a year I can understand, maybe even two, but for 7 consecutive years?

Wenger should go, I realized that this time last year around the Blackburn and Bayern losses. I have long since moved on, good runs and the team's toughness did not delude me. After our 3-0 hammering, it increasingly looks like Wigan will either end or prolong Wenger's reign. We can safely take this as fact, as I had a very reliable source confirm it seven days ago.

#Wenger update: My source confirms AW is indeed keeping his future secret. Players, backroom staff know nothing, dunno about board members.
— Freddy Dennis (@ArsenalBlogz) March 30, 2014

Isn't earth-shattering but at least confirms that #Wenger's having second thoughts and keeping stuff mum. #AFC #Arsenal
— Freddy Dennis (@ArsenalBlogz) March 30, 2014

Personally, I'm still afraid to let up hope. Even if Arsenal lose to Wigan, I reckon Wenger will still renew his contract. However, I am far from certain about the accuracy of my speculations, and would not want to pass any opinions as facts here. As it stands, I hope we see Klopp as manager come June.

Anyways, whether Wenger stays or not, at least we've added some quality to the board.

Pascal Cygan is to be confirmed as board member...

That is really good news. In honesty, I never really liked Cygan - he's always been in that 'deadwood' category for me. I'd have rather preferred getting Bergkamp or Dein in, because they might have been more firm and decisive on their opinions, not to mention really popular among the fans. I don't really know Cygan's character or mindset, he's always been one of those nobodies for me.

However, I'm more than glad that the board are getting footballing brain into the backroom. Lord knows that it's important to question the accountability of a manager footballistically, and while I don't think Cygan would have the backbone to question Wenger, I think he'll come down hard on a different manager should he underperform.

Cygan might be a clever addition, but I can only judge him after minutely looking him up. The same goes with Jurgen Klopp, as his current injury crisis at Dortmund worries me. What if he's the same as Wenger, overplaying key players and blaming others? Now that I have a lot of free time, you should expect proper reports on Klopp and Cygan. I want to know if they're good enough for us.

I want us to lose against Wigan...
Here comes the most controversial one.

You may have realized that judging from my opinions, this season is as dead as possible to me and I'm looking forward to 2014/15 without Wenger. However, I'm certain that my dreams would be in danger of crushing should Arsenal defeat Wigan.

I know the mentalities of all kinds of Arsenal fans, trust me, I do. I've been a huge admirer of Wenger for over 6 trophyless years, I've been in the neutral (to want Wenger to change) for around 6 months and have been a staunch anti-Arsene man for half a year. In a year and a half, I've been all three kinds of Arsenal fans.

I know that if we reach the FA Cup final (and lose it), Wenger's backers would still want Arsene to stay even if we finish fifth. I am completely sure that people would view FA Cup runners-up and top five for 18 years as progress, never mind dropping off four places in four months. Such is the mentality of Wenger's supporters that they glorify mediocrity in the hope of saving their beloved manager's legacy.

So, I'm sorry. It is difficult to describe how hard the decision was, but I don't need to justify it. I know that if we lose against Wigan, the chances of Wenger leaving almost become certain. Even if he renews, angry fans will force Arsene to revoke his decision.

I want Arsenal to lose tomorrow. You may hate me for that, heck, I hate myself for that. However, I know in my head that Arsenal losing will only be a good thing for Arsenal in the future. It will create pressure, and pressure creates the conditions for change. The emotions in my heart cannot and will not overrule that.

I'd give anything for Arsenal, but I'd give even more for an Arsenal that actually progresses. Sometimes life's weirdest and boldest decisions could turn out to be the best. If Arsenal lose to Wigan, that decision might as well be forced upon the board.

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )

Contract updates + dissecting Wenger's injury comments

On Ramsey's and Cazorla's deals...
Once again, it shows the club's willingness to retain their star players (as well as youth players like Zelalem, but let's face it, he isn't the elephant in the room). While renewing the contracts of Ramsey and Santi were not exactly necessary, it nevertheless comes as welcome good news to the Arsenal community. Renewing the deals of this season's best player and last season's best player has shown foresight from the board, boosted the positive atmosphere around Ashburton Grove and also been a positive by-product of Ozil's signing.

I hardly need to emphasize how important these players are. Especially Ramsey, who was one of the league's best midfielders (at 23!) before injury struck. Cazorla's renewal might not be as exciting (or perhaps, as wise), mainly because he hasn't really lived up to his expectations and is approaching the dreaded 30. However, he still remains a vital component of Arsenal's creative hub and is far from a liability yet.

While he may not be out-and-out world class, one would rarely find a player who is gifted with such a variety of traits. Two footed dribbler, passer, long striker, goal getter... the list is endless, and possibly more than Ozil's merits. These are really important players to Arsenal, so it's good to see them tied down for long-term.

Having said that, we still might witness an exodus...
Bacary Sagna has remained stubbornly quiet on his Arsenal future. I have already said that I reckon his future at Arsenal depends on whether we win a trophy the FA Cup or not; yesterday's events don't change that. The solution is literally simple - defeat Wigan and Sheffield/Hull, and in all likelihood Sagna stays. At least that's what I think.

Fabianski is departing as well, not to mention possible follow-ups from Vermaelen and Podolski. If Tommy and Poldi do leave, then I shall solely lay the blame on Arsene Wenger's door. Even though he had talented players in reserves to call upon (read Fabianski, Vermaelen, Podolski) he chose not to rotate.

Instead, he overplayed his first team members until they got injured (read Ramsey, Ozil, Walcott) and then sent out his reserves to cover their absences. It truly is frightening to imagine what happens if the reserves fall prey to overplaying as well, especially young legs like Gibbs' or Chamberlain's.

I think Arsene can convince Podolski to stay if he tries. However, if he wants to keep Vermaelen, he must rotate him in place of Koscielny and Gibbs much more often than he is currently. I don't think Wenger would handle the situation well though, another reason why I want him gone.

And that's become a real possibility now.

There really couldn't be a better time for Arsenal to announce Wenger's renewal...
Yet here we are. The club is wise enough to know that the coming fixtures (Chelsea, Swansea, Manchester City, Everton, Wigan) have a lot of potential to destroy the club's current upbeat mood. However, they have strangely chosen to announce Aaron's and Santi's deals instead. Wenger's contract remains unresolved, three months from expiration.

It's getting clear now that the board are rightly stalling over Wenger's contract. I have no doubt that Wenger wants to stay at Arsenal, but I'm having doubts that the board want to keep him. Either the board want to see how the season ends before making hasty decisions, or Wenger's holding the club to ransom (for a better deal) or there already is a mutual agreement in place regardless of how the season ends... I really don't know what's happening behind the scenes.

I'm oddly hopeful that he will depart, though. The below example is one of many that illustrates why I want him out.

--

Talking about Arsenal's injury crisis, Wenger said:

[P.S. I know that the below comments were last week in the pre-Bayern press conference and that it's a bit outdated to dissect now, but I wanted to do this for a long time and work prevented me from typing this out.]

"I am concerned that this happens. If you look at our overall injury list going into such a decisive part of the season, we have no Wilshere, Ozil, Ramsey and we went to Bayern without Gibbs and Monreal. It's very difficult to find an obvious reason why."

I'd like to congratulate Wenger on noting that there were regular injury crises even though it was apparent for five years. It's shocking and almost laughable for one of the world's supposed best managers to bear half a decade of injury crises and then make the startling conclusion that maybe, maybe it isn't coincidence that Arsenal top the injury list every season.

Wenger not blaming himself for Arsenal's injury woes is yet another instance (of many) of how out of touch he is with the real world and why he's long overdue a departure from Arsenal. Getting players injured has been purely Wenger's fault (most of them, at least). Keeping them injured for more than the required time is perhaps the fault of the meds - who are hired by Wenger, by the way.

Let's analyze Arsenal's currently injured players, shall we?

Abou Diaby: A special case, but we don't need any special cases at Arsenal. Even if he makes an indispensable contribution for Arsenal towards the season-end (a tall order), the fact remains that he has still cost a bomb for Arsenal in wages. He is injury prone and always will be, and I can't believe that Wenger rejected a £10 million bid for him in 2011.

I don't hate Diaby, but I feel that his plight is a perfect symbolism to show how far the board have cluelessly allowed Wenger to carry on his flop 'Project Youth', and how much he has cost the club financially (like thousands of other duds). At Manchester United, Liverpool or Everton, Diaby would not be paid more than £15,000. At Arsenal, he's paid £50,000. 

Aaron Ramsey: Injured against West Ham in December 2013. Wenger overplayed him even when he had the chance to play Flamini. Here's an extract of my blog about that match:

"As it happened, it was Ramsey who fell prey to Wenger's incompetent man management, suffering a thigh strain which would rule him out of the Christmas schedule. I still don't know why Wenger decided to field him ahead of Mathieu Flamini, who had 12 days of rest going into this match."

Relevant much?

Jack Wilshere: Injured on international duty, which wasn't Wenger's fault, it was Agger's. However, most of his niggling ankle injuries have been a direct effect of Wenger overplaying him towards the end of the 2010/11 season, pushing him to the red zone. After he recovered (after 17 months!), Wenger threw him back on the field instead of easing him back in. Wilshere promptly got injured again.

Wenger doesn't seem to understand that young legs - while fresh - are also quite tender. He's overplayed countless amounts of youth talents who were around their twenties (Gibbs, Ramsey, Wilshere, Cesc, Nasri, Theo), so much so that they succumbed to regular injuries and/or became permanently injury prone.

There were some who survived this gross mismanagement - tougher players like Adebayor, Song - but on the whole, Wenger has been key in ruining key players.

Mesut Ozil: The number of minutes for which he's been thrown on the field by Wenger is frightening. Mourinho (at Real Madrid) always took Ozil off around the 70th minute because he knew that Ozil didn't have the legs and the workrate for it. However, Wenger threw Ozil in the English game for 90 minutes straight; flu or no flu.

Add to that the fact that the EPL does not have any winter break, and it's actually surprising that Ozil survived until March before falling prey to Wenger's man management.

Again, buck stops with Arsene Wenger.

Theo Walcott: Returned from injury in the end of November. Encouragingly eased into the game by Wenger. However, is then forced to play 90 minutes for five straight matches until he injured his anterior cruciate ligament (as pointed out by Raymond Verheijen). Enough said really.

--

Clearly, Wenger is the problem. While his medical staff might be incompetent enough as well (Ramsey's injury stretched from four weeks to three months; Diaby's injury stretched from eight months to more than a year), the fact stays that they are Arsene Wenger's medical staff. In the end, he hires them and he fires them.

If Wenger is too polite/blind/stubborn to fire his staff (if they are at fault, mind you), then they can kindly sod off from Arsenal Football Club and help Moyes destroy United instead. We don't want you at Arsenal, we'd rather have progress, thanks.

Imagine if that happens, though.

P.S. Once again, I apologize for not being that active on Arsenal-related stuff recently. For two weeks, I was at work making a website which was finally launched yesterday. Give it a whirl, it's called 'Brangled Minds' and has a football section as well.

Would love to hear your feedback at brangledminds@gmail.com or the comments sections. Until then, stay safe and stay a Gooner.

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )

Theo injured for the rest of the season: a signing is imperative now

Well, I hoped that the injuries would clear up by the 13th, in time for the Villa game. On the contrary, they've taken a U-turn and dealt our league chances a sickening blow. Official confirmation from Arsenal.com that Walcott is facing six months out with an anterior ligament tear has not made our trophy hopes any better, quite clearly.

I feel sorry for Theo, really. After experiencing a bad run of form from February 2013 till the season end, he's bounced back from an injury to become indispensable to this new-look Arsenal side. I'd argue that he is the best winger we have in our team, and even though he can be frustrating at times, he does deliver tangible results.

This season, we all saw a new Theo Walcott. As Jose Mourinho aptly put it, he has evolved from a boy to a man. Even in appearances from the bench, he provided assists against Cardiff and Everton. On starts he scored 5 against the likes of Manchester City, West Ham and Cardiff, not to mention provide a crucial assist to Giroud's goal at Newcastle.

His crossing had markedly improved too, apparent from two glorious chances he had created for Per Mertesacker against Cardiff. While Theo is a player that has never ceased to frustrate me, his recent performances suggested that he had cut down on his moments of poor finishing or wayward passing. At a time where he seemed like becoming a nightmare to left-backs, his injury would be a notable loss for the club, and also for him. It ends his chances to make a further impact on our title chances, not to mention effectively miss out on the World Cup for the second consecutive time, especially when England could use his pace.

I was in a state of shock when I first heard the news. While initial speculation suggested that he would be out for a month at most, I actually thought that he would recover quicker. His cool reaction on the stretcher suggested that his exclusion was a bit precautionary rather than signs of a genuine injury. Make no mistake, Theo's shocking news is a crushing blow to everyone connected with Arsenal FC.

It means that there will no longer be an injection of fresh pace in the final third. It means that we don't have one of our key men (an Arsenal through-and-through too, I might add) at the business end of an important campaign. Most importantly, it means that we have suffered a massive setback in a long overdue title challenge that was going according to plan till now.

However, we've long since learnt that there's no use crying over spilt milk. In a way, it's better that we've learnt about Theo's injury now in January, when we have the time and money to get in a player. It's telling how bad our striker situation has gone to that an injury to Lukas Podolski would pave the way for Park Chu Young to take to the field. (Who? Good question).

Do I still believe that Arsene Wenger will not get a forward? I don't think I do anymore. I don't think that even Wenger can be so blind to not get in a striker or a winger. However, Walcott's injury means that nothing less than a world-class striker would rejuvenate our team. While I think that Wenger would go for a convenient purchase of a half-decent player late in the window, I pray the manager has realized how Theo's injury has changed everything.

Our team, which was already lacking in cutting edge with a fit Walcott has been severely weakened with the loss of this prolific winger. With goals drying up from players like Ramsey, Ozil and Giroud, I honestly don't know where the goals are going to come from apart from Lukas Podolski, who Wenger is yet reluctant to field.

Right now, we need a very good striker who can also play as a winger, someone like Julian Draxler. I cannot possibly imagine a team without its most productive winger and only one decent striker to  find the back of the net in any game, let alone hold on to our league lead till May. Let's face it, we're a team in a bit of a striker crisis, and a signing is a clear antidote.

It's true that a replacement for Walcott is not an issue in terms of quantity in the squad. Oxlade-Chamberlain is quickly regaining fitness, and might be an acceptable replacement for Walcott's pace. Serge Gnabry's promising performance against the Spuds also mean that he can add reliable depth at this turbulent time.

However, even both of them combined cannot even come close to replacing Walcott's maturity and his goals. It would be utter madness by Wenger if he refuses to buy a forward with the excuse of having Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Serge Gnabry and Yaya Sanogo in the team. The need for a striker (or a winger) is getting clearer by the day - I hope that Wenger is wise enough to notice it.

That's not to say that delving into the transfer market is the only answer. It's about time that we see players like Santi Cazorla, Tomas Rosicky, Mesut Ozil and Jack Wilshere score goals and provide more assists. I can only hope that Cazorla's and Rosicky's goals pave the way for many more from them, because we could certainly use some now. The steeliness of our defence has masked the toothlessness of our attack, in stark contrast to previous Arsenal sides. It goes without saying that our forward needs addressing to continue our successful season, preferably THIS WEEK.

With all things said, it goes without mentioning that we need to avenge Theo's injury by conquering the league, just like with Robert Pires in 2001/02.

Come on Arsenal. For Walcott?

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )

West Ham 1-3 Arsenal: Merry Christmas!

This game was a perfect example of how fickle an Arsenal supporter can be over the course of 90 minutes. After all the mixed emotions that I witnessed (which I yet vividly recall), in the end I can only say I'm glad it ended on a happy note.

It started with the team sheet. While I knew that Wenger's appalling man management skills meant that Ozil and Giroud were set to start, a little part of me hoped that Wenger would have the teeny-tiny foresight to realize that Mesut and Ollie needed to be benched for a game like this. That little part of me was killed off when Wenger yet again decided to overplay them, and field Cazorla on the wings. I believe that the only reason that Santi had a good game was because he took matters into his own hands, opting to drift into the center rather than stay on the flanks.

Despite practically everyone's wishes, Podolski was benched again, with Arsene opting to play Giroud ahead of him. Why Wenger thought that Giroud would perform well after missing great chances against Chelsea just 3 days ago is beyond me. Even though Arsene's hand was forced on overplaying Giroud earlier, he should be giving him some rest now, especially due to the arrival of stand-in strikers like Walcott and Podolski.

Honestly, Wenger is making horrible decisions regarding the man managements of Ozil and Giroud. He's failing to find the balance between form and fitness between the two players, instead choosing to start them in every match. Ozil is coping with it well - he had another good game yesterday - but that is because he is a professional. Robin van Persie and Mesut Ozil are world-class players, which is why they could perform consistently, even though they were overplayed by Wenger.

Of course, not every professional footballer can handle being sent to the field twice every week. Witness Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and even Jack Wilshere to some extent, who used to suffer injuries due to constant overplaying by the manager. Ozil and Giroud are dangerously close to entering that dreaded 'red zone', and unless they are benched for fresher legs like Rosicky and Podolski, we might witness Arsene plunge us in another injury crisis.

As it happened, it was Ramsey who fell prey to Wenger's incompetent man management, suffering a thigh strain which would rule him out of the Christmas schedule. I still don't know why Wenger decided to field him ahead of Mathieu Flamini, who had 12 days of rest going into this match. The good news is that we have Jack Wilshere back from his ban to cover up for Aaron and provide more options. The bad news? I don't think that Wenger is going to use those options.

I had said in the match preview that it would be Wenger's team selection that would catch my eye rather than the final result, and so it proved. Wenger's failure to rest Ozil and Giroud, playing Cazorla on the wing and overplaying Ramsey has led to a bad game by Giroud, Ramsey getting injured and we almost bottling this match.

Giroud missed a handful of chances in the first half, sometimes looking downright lazy by failing to move his foot half an inch more to poke the ball home. And while the goal we conceded in the second half was against the run of play and a sloppy one really, it was actually a blessing in disguise, because it finally gave us motivation to go on and snatch this match.

Arteta failed to clear the ball away in the box, instead handing it to Nolan through a poor clearance. He shot straight at Szczesny, who inexplicably failed to catch that ball. It fell straight at Cole's feet, leaving him to tap the ball in. Advantage West Ham.

I actually think that Wenger wouldn't have got Podolski on had Ramsey not been injured. Even though his loss is a blow to the club, at least we can focus on the silver lining - how Podolski's introduction changed the match.

After Walcott scored what I felt was a fluke equalizer, Podolski stole the show by assisting Theo's header and getting a goal himself. Right from when he came on, he was lively and dangerous, the mark of a striker. His goal showcased a striker's instinct and lethal finishing. He's now got 3 goals and 1 assist in his last 125 minutes of Premier League action, indicative of his usefulness to the team. I've already said it a million times - we should try Podolski as a striker and see how that works out. If he thrives in that position, we can get a really good winger like Marco Reus or Angel Di Maria to replace his vacated position. If he doesn't, tough luck, but we can concentrate on getting that striker.

However, I don't want Arsene to not buy anyone in January and say that we have Podolski and Giroud as striker, with Walcott, Cazorla, Podolski and Oxlade-Chamberlain as wingers. Wenger needs to make up his mind - either Podolski should be played as a winger or as a striker. If Arsene sees Podolski as a winger, then we need to buy a striker, and vice versa.

It's good that we got 3 points, especially since Everton, Spurs and Liverpool slipped up on the same day. It's even better that we got it in dramatic fashion, coming from behind to get the win, something we haven't been able to do this season. Amazingly, this is the first time that we've won a game after trailing in this season, something that would hopefully give us a boost in our coming matches.

Compared to our title rivals City and Liverpool, we have a really low goal difference. The one point lead we have at the top currently is paper-thin, and we need to make sure that we maintain that distance at least. If we ever go level on points with either City or Liverpool, we'll slip behind them in the table. That would be a tremendous shame, considering that we have 6 easy matches coming up.

Such is the competitiveness of EPL that we have absolutely zero margin for error now. To keep our lead, we have to win all of the 6 matches that we are playing, starting with a trip to Newcastle. With Liverpool facing a match against Chelsea - unbeaten at their home ground also - the chances of either team dropping points are high. We need to take advantage.

Let's enjoy being on top of the pile for the moment. Be back on Sunday with a match preview.

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )

A thought on Arsenal's injury crisis

Injuries aren't exactly fair to us, huh?

With Theo, Podolski, Santi Cazorla and the Ox all out for long term, it is quite incredible that Arsenal have all of their four wingers injured already at the start of the season. However, it is not just them. Bacary Sagna and Laurent Koscielny have also picked up knocks recently which will undoubtedly put a strain on our already thin defence. Yaya Sanogo, our backup striker, is out with a back injury before he kicked a ball for the club. Our squad, which is thin enough due to the sale of the deadwood, is already starting to give way. Oh, and don't even get me started on Abou Diaby.   

Even so, we are on top of the league. It is quite remarkable that a team which is missing their last year's most influential player, along with two reliable wingers in the form of Podolski and Walcott, are still managing to be on the top of Europe's most competitive league. While it is early in the season and we still haven't faced tough opposition apart from the Spuds, no one can deny that the early signs are good. However, the niggling problem of the constant injuries plaguing us won't leave the minds of every Gooner, because we know that we need to end our drought this year, and we don't want anything messing up that road to success.

Which is why the recent news of Koscielny picking up a thigh strain was met with groans and grumbles. It was just another blow on our injury list which seemed to be easing after Wenger said that he hoped that Cazorla and Podolski would be back after the international break. As it is, we have only 3 center backs in this squad, and injuries there only worsen our weakening condition. Add to that the loss of key wingers, and that forms the black lining in an otherwise silver cloud.

And it's not like this is the first time this has happened to us. Over the season, this Arsenal squad have been losing key players to injury, so much so that their return has been hailed as a "new signing". Last year it was Jack Wilshere, the year before that it was.... well, Wilshere, and the year before that it was Thomas Vermaelen (in form!) and Cesc Fabregas. Also, constant injuries to van Persie meant that we never really had a proper, fit squad. Were we unlucky? It's certainly a possible explanation, but I'd like to float a different theory.

Let's not kid ourselves, the only player in our squad last season who could be classified as a world-class player was Santi Cazorla. If he wasn't Spanish, he would've got a lot more international caps for his country. My point is, our only world class player played EVERY SINGLE PREMIER LEAGUE GAME of last season. That is like, the definition of overplaying, which hardly makes it surprising that he is injured right now. If Arsene Wenger overplays his world class players so much with such poor man management, the players are likely to succumb to injuries.

It's not only Cazorla. Wilshere was overplayed in the 2010/11 season, even when he was 19 and the season was already dead towards the end. Even though he was in the red zone, Wenger continuously played him, and after he recovered from his 1 year rehab, the manager did not ease him into the squad. Instead, he rashly made him start every game until he got injured again. I mean, what the hell?!

Our deadly attacking trio of Fabregas, Nasri and van Persie were injury prone too. Even though van Persie did indeed have his own "glass ankles" agenda, I was infuriated by watching how much Wenger overplayed Fabregas and Nasri - especially Fabregas - which led to hamstring and ankle injuries. One particular example on how dependent we were on those players was a game against Aston Villa 3 or 4 years ago, when Fabregas, who was unfit, was forced to come off from the bench after a goalless 60 minutes. He then proceeded to score 2 goals and aggravate his injury again, which was inspirational, yes, but ultimately symbolic of how horrible a man manager Wenger is.

We have 6 quality midfield players, out of which the likes of Arteta, Wilshere and Rosicky are benched. I hope Wenger rotates his midfield regularly to stop injuries happening to Flamini, Ramsey and Ozil due to overplaying, but if he doesn't, he would have no excuses, having had suitable replacements raring to take to the field. However, needless to say, I have no faith in Wenger's man management skills, and at this rate, I expect Ozil and Giroud to be out for long term and Arsenal fans failing to see Wenger's fault in it.

Olivier Giroud has been playing as our only recognized striker for more than a year, and it's surprising that he hasn't been injured yet. He was considered injury prone at Montpellier, yet he managed to go through the whole season without picking up serious injuries. The burden already seems to be getting to him, because his performance against the Baggies was a bit below-par. However, failing to buy a striker and keeping Bendtner as backup is ridiculous, and I expect Giroud to find injury soon.

After two seasons, we genuinely look like title contenders and the other teams are beginning to take us seriously. We have a decent defence, a strong midfield and a good attack. The only remaining requirements in this squad are a center back and a striker. It's no use blaming Wenger and crying over spilt milk, instead, all we can do is hope that he rotates the current team we have to mount a sustained title challenge until January, when the winter transfer window opens. However, I don't think that he is going to buy anyone in the January transfer window, which will lead to another disappointing campaign.

I feel that the season is destined for disaster. Let's hope that I am wrong.

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )