St Totteringham’s Day – Report & Player Ratings

That was a very, very nervous experience made all the more intense by the fact that we were expected to win. Some how being the underdog in crucial games makes it just that little more bearable when a loss is inevitably considered before and during the game. But win we did and by doing so we secured the chance to play Champions League football next season which I believe makes it sixteen seasons on the trot, no mean feat when you consider just how desperate and disappointed those around us were at missing out again.

Does that introduction work? Nah, it was nail biting hell, ninety four minutes of torture before the release of the final whistle and the opportunity to laugh at the pained faces of those left wondering “if only” at White Hart Lane. That’s better, that’s more like the introduction that this game deserves.

It was in fact a very professional win, every player followed the game plan, nobody panicked, all of which lead to our just desserts safely being locked away at the home of football.

As I sit hear in the afterglow, looking back at the season I think it has to be said that the single most important decision made was that to drop Vermaelen. This is not meant as a poke at the Belgian, I am convinced he remains a very popular player amongst Arsenal supporters; it’s just that everything points to him being put on the bench as the spark that galvanised the defence.

Do any of you remember the debate that divided us over which centre back paring would be the most successful? Half the people said Vermaelen and Mertesacker and the other half said Vermalen and Koscielny, I was one of those arguing that the later combination would be more mobile. But I think it is fair to say no one argued for Mertesacker and Koscielny.

Well there you go, those two flanked by Gibbs, Nacho and Sagna have proved to be a very solid defensive unit indeed.

Did you notice how much more controlled Sagna was in his attacking play today, no wild crosses and solid as ever in his defensive duties.

I can’t finish the defence without giving Koscielny special attention; he was the standout player of the day and the Man of the Match by some distance. Koz, you have no idea how much happier you have made all of our summers; for you, your performance and your goal we salute you.

The midfield worked well together. Ramsey was immense and will rightly pick up the AA award for the most improved player. He started the season coming on as a sub on the right wing and did very well; he then got his chance to start in the middle and was poor, poor to the point of serious abuse. From there he disappeared back to the bench, reappearing after the spud loss to progress to being undroppable which is where he is today.

Sadly for our Spanish Captain couldn’t lead us to the end of the game but the Ox came on and added fire to the midfield belly. Have you noticed how well he and Walcott work together? Theo is the senior player and is able to tell the Ox exactly what he wants to happen, the upshot is that Theo plays with a greater confidence.

If I have one minor moan it would be that Rosicky was a bit sloppy by his usual high standards. Many will not like me saying this but I think we were a bit fortunate that Wilshere got injured when he did because if we had carried on playing the same way we did against spuds I believe we would not be in this happy position today. Rosicky is an attacking midfielder who interacts well with the most talented player we have at the club and Wilshere is nowhere near that yet.

And on the subject of the most talented player at the club I am sure we are all agreed that the AA award for best player of the season goes to Cazorla, he ran his socks off again and boy what a great buy he turned out to be.

Podolski, not being so brilliant in the air, forces Sagna and Gibbs to send the ball into the box along the ground rather than hoofing it high which is one of my pet hates; his tally of assists this season is very impressive. As to whether he is the answer to our number nine issues I neither know nor care today, I am just pleased with our not quite so BFG.

It was a good day to be an Arsenal supporter, we need to push on from here with some quality summer signings but I will leave you with my favourite image of the day. Remember the end of the game when the Sky cameras went over to White  Hart Lane? Well think of despair of their faces and chuckle.

Have a great day.

Written by LB

Following on from LB’s excellent report Rocky would like to offer these player ratings:

Szczesny: little to do but exuded confidence. 7

Sagna: very solid performance. He still seems a fraction slower than before his leg breaks but he defended well against Newcastle. 7

Gibbs: got pulled out of position a bit in the first 20, but played very well thereafter. 7.5

Mertesacker: typically good showing from the BFG. He is one of the best CB’s in the EPL. 8

Koscielny: a perfect performance at the back, augmented by as coring the all-important winning goal. 9 (MOTM)

Arteta: it was clearly a risk starting him, but he played with his usual efficiency before having to retire with injury early doors. 7

Rosicky: not everything came off for TR7 but he was involved in some of our best moves and his work rate was incredible. 7.5

Ramsey: phenomenal effort as we’ve come to expect. Some of his best work is unspectacular and, therefore, is missed by many. An invaluable player on the day. 8

Cazorla: drifted out at times but was a persistent threat to Newcastle and fought very hard for the cause. 8

Walcott: plenty of effort and skill from Theo, who was double- or triple-teamed throughout. It was a relief that his late effort that hit the post after great solo play did not turn out costly. 8

Podolski: Lukas was up for this one and fought hard in both attack and defence. Got a head on the ball to set up Koscielny’s winner. 7.5

Subs

Oxlade- Chamberlain: it was a surprise when Oxo slotted in to the holding midfield role vacated boyar teat, but hE did well. 7.5

Giroud: his hold-up play was good and his presence helped see us through to kids debating. 7

Wilshere: not time enough to do anything special. 7

 

More to come from Theo Walcott …….

I am a straight talking person and I don’t beat around the bush, so let me get this one out of the way – I love Theo Walcott and I think that he is Arsenal’s player of the year. I expect many readers will be leaving this page now – good bye!

This has been a long and nerve wrecking season. Seldom did we go to games confident that the team would perform and that we would bag 3 fat points. And what was worse was the fact that we lost several games we were sure we’d win.

The first part of the season was a real rollercoaster and we needed to dig deep to rescue the season and at least finish in the top four. Many ardent supporters doubted that we could climb back from the mid table, and the real doomers predicted relegation battle for the Club; they went as far as to suggest that both Wenger and Walcott should leave the Arsenal.

Yes, Arsene Wenger and Theo Walcott are the two top names that have divided opinions amongst us for more than one season now.

Theo entered the season with knowledge that not only has he lost his captain and mentor, but that he is expected to fill the gap left by the departure of the Judas. His contract negotiations were underway; the process with all its conundrums can put strain on even much more mature professional. As all of the above wasn’t enough, Theo had to learn to play alongside 3 new key teammates. This season must have been the turning point in Theo’s footballing career.

So how did he perform given the extreme circumstances weighing on his young shoulders? He was Arsenal’s top goal scorer and had the highest number of assists (17). He signed a new contract pledging his immediate future to the Club, which given the number of high profile Arsenal players leaving for pastures new is in itself a welcome event at the Emirates. He worked hard and succeeded in forming good working partnership with Cazorla, Podolski and Giroud. And above all he showed great character strength by being completely unfased by all the shenanigans going on around him.

His speed is legendary, he can run faster than any other EPL player. Yes, it can be frustrating when his spectacular runs amount to nothing much, but in the past months we saw his technique and accuracy greatly improving and his individual and team performances growing from strength to strength. He led the way against Wigan, has scored the fastest league goal this season and had a memorable hat trick against our next opponents.

But that’s not all – he is a young gentleman with both professional and personal integrity, well spoken, polite, immaculately groomed, a shining example to all young footballers. What is there not to like about Walcott? Not much from where I am standing! And I firmly believe that he is not a finished product yet. Wenger has a knack of turning wingers/midfielders into strikers, and it would not surprise me if Theo became an outright striker soon.

Which is your favourite Theo moment? The winner at QPR, or the opener against Manchester United or perhaps the way he led the way against Wigan on Tuesday?

Written by evonne

Third, Fourth or Fifth Will Not Affect Arsenal Spending Plans

Arsenal will spend significantly this summer to reinforce the first team squad regardless of where we finish in the league.

This statement is not based on having spoken to a bloke who did the plumbing at Vic Akers’s second cousin’s house.

Nor is it directly attributable to anyone in a position of authority at the club (Stan is famously silent, Ivan only talks babble and Peter Hill Wood has not seen his mate from the Daily Star for some time).

It is a statement of what used to be called “the bloody obvious.”

Just think about it for a second.

After years of austerity prompted by the stadium move, the cash is finally starting to roll in from multiple sources.

The Club has announced a string of big sponsorship deals, culminating in the kit deal with Puma which will bring in £30 million a year and which, according to some sources, includes a large up-front payment.

The new TV rights settlement for the Premier League comes into force next season bringing oodles of cash for all the clubs. A commentator in the (North American) coverage of our Wigan game this week observed that, next year, the club that finishes BOTTOM in the Premier League will be paid as much as Manchester City were paid last year for finishing TOP.

Meanwhile Arsenal’s competitive environment is also undergoing tectonic change between now and the start of next season.

All three of our main competitors for the league title will embark on the 2013/14 season with new managers – and all the upheaval in personnel and playing styles that that brings with it.

Mourinho will almost certainly resume the helm at Chelsea and will be welcomed as a returning messiah by the fans. But fans have short memories. The scars between Mourinho and Abramovich have not healed, they have just had some cosmetic touching-up and if things don’t go quickly to plan for Chelsea, they could reopen even wider than before.

Manchester City, meanwhile, will probably have Pellegrini in charge. I love his sparkly water, but he has never managed in the English Premier League and there is sure to be a period of adjustment. On paper their players should walk any league in the world, but this season has shown that – as military commanders have known throughout history – mercenaries can’t always be relied on when the fighting gets dirty. Even with the riches at their disposal, it’s far from certain that City will slot straight back into title-challenging form.

And, most significantly of all, Surralex Ferguson has stepped down at Manchester United, replaced by David Moyes. He may have been a misanthropic, cranky, malevolent, spiteful, chip-shouldering, sputum-spewing bully with a bloated winesack for a face, but he knew how to win football matches. Moyes may turn out to be the right man for United’s future, but it feels like a hell of big gamble to me.

The upshot of this managerial merry-go-round is that no team should be better placed that Arsenal in terms of stability when the new season begins.

Finally, for the first summer in a long time we will not spend the close season in protracted agonies about whether one or more of our best players will listen to the call of filthy lucre (or filthy DNA) from places distant.

There really is a “perfect storm” of reasons why next season should be a good – even, possibly – a great one for Arsenal.

And if we are all aware of these facts, clearly Arsene Wenger and the people who run our club are too.

With the recent crop of commercial partnership announcements, the much-criticised Gazidis (Ivan the Not Terriby Good?) is beginning to show why we hired him. He and the Board of Directors will be fully aware that this is the summer to make a big statement and that next season we should be having a real tilt at the title.

I have never been more confident that we will be bringing in at least one huge name (be it Higuain, Rooney, Jovetic, Fabregas, Eboue or whoever) and that several other astute buys will also be made.

And it makes no sense to think that the club’s strategy will be any different if we finish outside the Champions League places. If anything, finishing fifth would be an encouragement to spend even more than if we finished third or fourth.

Yes, there may be some players who will not join a club that’s not in the Champions League, but there are plenty of superstars who would be only too happy to join Arsene’s Arsenal regardless.

Our form since late January has been that of a title-challenging team. The core players responsible for that run – the likes of Cazorla, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Ramsey, Walcott and Podolski – will all be in harness at the start of next season.

We have continuity, confidence and money.

As someone once said: The Ghosts of the Thirties are Stirring.

RockyLives

Cazorla Conducts : Arsenal 4 Wigan 1

Last night was the next in a long line of must win matches, must win if staying ahead of that lot down the road is important, which it is.

This will be a slightly more sketchy report than I usually do because:

a) I was there so did not have benefit of copious replays
b) I’d met other AAers in the Tavern prematch.

Everywhere you looked every conversation you caught was tense and nervy, the Dean effect was discussed, the ability to throw away good work with a defensive lapse, the lack of a much needed finisher.

Come full time we were happy Gunners wondering why we were so worried.

The early goal a poachers header by Podolski from Cazorla’s corner took some fingernails away from teeth, the ball had gone over Mertesacker’s head and Wigan defenders failed to clear the danger, the story of their season.

Unfortunately the team then found the handbrake as they have done so often during this run in and seemed to decide one was enough.

This affected the crowd, tension grew as we sat deeper allowing Wigan to play their patterns, I really like the way Wigan play forward, they always seemed to have an extra man even when we were well set defensively, we got pulled about left and right. But with a bit more quality when we were in possession we should have been able to punish them on the counter, however we didn’t appear to want to leave our half.

Everyone put in a shift, then Dean started to try and influence the game, allowing some robust challenges on red and white shirts to go unpunished, one particularly memorable one was on Santi which led to a Wigan attack while Dean surprisingly to everyone but the conspiracy theorists waved play on.

Not so long after Dean awarded what appeared to be a very soft free kick on the edge of our area. Maloney stepped up and looped it over our wall into the corner of the net, it was a well taken free kick, but Pod could have been a little braver in the wall.

The boos at half time were reserved for Mike Dean as he left the pitch.

The second half started and we were still a little nervy but at least we were now on the attack a bit more, and trying to use the ball better in possession.

It wasn’t until the 63rd minute that we could breathe a little easier, Santi released down the right flank produced the best cross of the game, Theo had taken a good position in the centre and met the ball to finish. Theo Theo reverberated around the Emirates, but the real difference was Santi’s cross, we had put in many a poor cross from the right before that or chose the wrong options, Santi just looked up saw his target and put it on a plate.

Moments later we were on our feet again, Santi helping the ball through to Podolski who flicked it over the approaching Wigan keeper.

Ramsey then rounded off a very productive 10 minutes and another high energy display from himself with a much deserved goal, you could see the relief in his celebration. It was a very good goal, finding himself on the left wing he was released by Santi again, he ran with purpose towards the area, and without many options he decided he would have one for himself, cutting onto his right foot and finishing high into the net.

“Are you watching Tottenham?” Asked the Emirates faithful, I’m pretty sure they were, and the thought of them crying in their beer was very heartwarming.

The only worrying development towards the end of the game was Arteta limping off with a calf pull, which leaves us a selection dilemma come Sunday, Podolski’s goals also give Arsene another decision to make with Giroud available for the final game.

At the final whistle celebration in the home end quickly turned to respect for Wigan players, manager and fans, with most around us applauding Wigan players as they came over to commiserate with their fans. The Premier League will be a less entertaining place without them.

The team then went on its traditional lap of appreciation, BFG walking closest to the fans, fist pumping his way round, the crowd sang to the players, after this troubled season it was as if some of the wounds have healed, we can see they care, they know we care, and in unity we can only grow stronger.

Player ratings

Szczesny 7 could have done better with goal

Sagna 7 solid at back, crossing poor

Koscielny 7.5 solid

BFG 7.5 solid

Gibbs 6.5 not his attacking self in the run in

Arteta 7.5 keeps us ticking

Ramsey 8 Another high energy display wrapped up with a goal

Rosicky 7.5 took up good positions, moved the ball on

Cazorla 9 Genius

Theo 8 worked hard tonight, good finish

Podolski 8 two good goals

Written by Gooner in Exile

The Bould Supremacy?

OK, the thesis I am about to set out is pretty simplistic and I expect it to be the biggest shooting-down-in-flames since the Hindenburg, but here goes:

To start with, cast your mind back to the beginning of the season.

We were nervous, but hopeful as we entered the new campaign. Our captain and lead goal scorer had abandoned us after hearing that Manchester United had a better medical room.

But we had signed Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud with Santi Cazorla to follow, giving us grounds for cautious optimism.

We started with clean sheets at home to Sunderland and away to Stoke. Admittedly, we didn’t trouble the opposition net ourselves, but after our calamitous defending of the previous season it felt good to be tight at the back again (no sniggering please, we’re all adults here).

Then we went to Anfield and beat the Scousers 2-0 with an outstanding performance. Abou Diaby, risen like Lazarus, was a titan in midfield. We followed up with a 6-1 thrashing of Southampton at the Emirates, we beat Monpellier in the Champions League and gained a creditable away draw at the league champions, Manchester City.

In six games we had conceded just three goals and scored 11. Robin van Who?

It was, at the very least, a decent start. Most encouraging of all was our defensive solidity. We had gone from conceding almost 1.3 goals per game in the 2011/12 season to conceding 0.5 this time round. The omens were good.

Then something a bit strange happened.

The media started to take notice of our improved defensive performances and identified the man they believed to be responsible for them.

Who was that man? I’ll give you a clue: He’s Big, He’s Bald, He’s…. that’s it – you’ve got it – He’s Stevie Stevie Bould.

Bouldie had taken over in the summer from the long-serving Pat Rice as Arsenal’s first team coach.

As a member of George Graham’s famous back six (Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Bould, Adams, Keown) no-one could dispute that he knew a thing or two about how to shut out the opposition.

And the press were quick to credit his influence for Arsenal’s better defensive start to the season. Journalists started asking Arsene Wenger about it and after initially priaising Bould’s influence, Arsene reacted a little, shall we say, ungraciously.

The BBC correspondent who covers Arsenal, David Ornstein, said recently that at the start of the season Bould was having extra defensive sessions with the team but that Arsene put a stop to them when Bould started getting a lot of praise.

Ornstein said Wenger did not want Bould to take too much credit for Arsenal’s defensive improvement because it might intensify feelings of disenchantment towards him from the fans.

He (Wenger) had already been prickly on the subject of defensive coaching in the previous season. When journalists asked him in September 2011 whether he should get a specialist to coach the back line he said: “I’ve just completed 30 years of coaching. I don’t want to answer this kind of question.”

If Ornstein’s report was accurate (and his contacts within Arsenal are said to be very good) it does not reflect well on Arsene. The same allegation was made by Stewart Robson, who said: “Steve Bould is not allowed to coach the defence. Wenger wants to do everything himself but doesn’t give players any explicit instructions.”

Given what an Arsenal hater Robson is I would normally lend no credence to what he says, but the corroboration from Ornstein adds weight to the story.

Whatever went on, our early defensive solidity tumbled like a Bale in a breeze and we went on to lead the league in goals conceded directly from individual errors. We started to lose touch with the top of the table and we were humiliatingly turfed out of both domestic cups by lower league opposition.

When we lost at the home of the N17 swamp dwellers in early March, the pundits had a field day about our defensive naivety and how it was costing us any chance of success. At that point we looked like no-hopers for the Champions League spots.

But that loss turned out to be a watershed moment. From then until now we appear to have switched focus back to the defensive side of the game. Wenger made (or was persuaded to make?) the significant move of dropping his captain and his “first choice” goalkeeper.

We stopped conceding stupid goals (apart from the Sagna tragi-comedy act against Manchester United) and clawed our way back into contention for the Top Four.

My theory? The stories about Arsene having initially given Bould his head with the defence, but then changed tack are substantially true. Whether it was because Arsene didn’t like someone else getting the praise or whether he felt it was leaving us too short in attack, I don’t know.

But I also believe that after the defeat at the Spuds – and staring non-qualification for the Champions League in the face for the first time in his Arsenal career –  Arsene did another U-turn and allowed Bould to take control of defensive duties once again.

I expect to be duly slaughtered for having my opinion shaped by newspaper tittle-tattle (is the tittle still on Page Three these days?). But it is also based on the evidence of my own eyes: we were much more defensively minded early in the season; something changed; then it changed back again after the defeat in N17. We are now less fun to watch, but we are grinding out results.

The effect has been to leave us with a chance of sneaking into the top four after all.

There has been a cost: we are not creating as many goal scoring chances and the balance of the team is clearly not quite right. But better defending was undoubtedly what was needed to put us back on track for the remainder of the current season. The rest we can work on in the summer.

Steve Bould, it seems, may have won an important battle.

RockyLives

Man United Should Be Ashamed of Themselves

Well, hands up if you were surprised that Manchester United rolled over and gave up three points to Chelsea without so much as a squeak of opposition…

No hands

I thought not.

Of course United owe us nothing and if I was a United fan (eeeugh * gag *) I wouldn’t give a toss about whether or not the non-performance of my team was grossly insulting and unfair to others. I would just sit there stuffing more chips-with-curry-sauce into my fat northern face and quaff another Boddingtons or six.

But as an Arsenal supporter I am annoyed.

Just over a week ago United came to the Emirates, played their strongest possible team and put in a fully committed performance. Fortunately we played well and a draw was probably a fair result even though we gifted them their equaliser.

After that game the Purple Conked Gorbalian who runs Surry United talked about “honouring” the likes of us and Totteringham by promising to put in a similar effort against Chelsea.

I had my doubts, but Fergus the Bogeyman reiterated the point again during the week, saying: “There are three teams chasing those two positions… and I will play my strongest team out of respect for those two other teams. I said to Arsene Wenger after the game last week – don’t worry we’ll play our strongest team, we’ll play a team to win.”

What a lying piece of Glaswegian dog turd.

The “strongest team” he sent out meant dropping his first choice goalkeeper and his best central defender, as well as England’s golden boy, the granny shagger.

Even so, you might say, a United team with a bunch of second stringers should still be able to put in a good performance: and they did have the Premier League’s deadliest goal scorer in Robin van Wotsisname.

All true, but unfortunately this particular Manchester United eleven approached the game with all the enthusiasm of a stallion off to see the gelders.

Chelsea weren’t much cop, but it was obvious to me from early on that they were going to end up winning and they duly did.

You would have to go a long way back to find a United performance with as many misplaced challenges, half-hearted tackles, aimless boots into touch and woeful attempts at finishing.

In the first half I counted four clear chances on goal for Brave Sir Robin alone, including a one-on-one with the Chelsea ‘keeper. I have no doubt that against us one or more of those chances would have ended up in the back of the net. Yesterday the Dutch Skunk fluffed them all with an air of studied non-interest.

I had been harbouring a vague notion that BSR might put himself out a bit to do us a favour. Why a favour? Well, you know, there were all those years where we paid him millions of pounds to lie on a physio table and trot out for half a dozen games a season and still get brilliant support from the fans.

But the more I thought about it the more it dawned on me that it would suit BSR for us to fail to make the Champions League. I am pretty sure that the poor, abused little boy inside Sir Robin is wracked with guilt about the way he stabbed Arsenal and Arsene in the back. Sure, the mountains of cash and the new shiny medal will make up for it a bit, but he knows what he did and he can’t be happy with himself about it.

So anything that justifies his decision to crap on us will be clutched at eagerly. And if we don’t make top four this year he can say: “See, I knew I was right to leave. They are on a downward spiral.”

So I believe that even if the entire Chelsea team had suddenly collapsed to the ground mid-game from a strange Chav-borne illness (Coleosis? Macrotising Terryitis?), leaving BSR to run towards goal unopposed, he would still have put the ball wide.

Anyway, the Chelsea win means that Top Four is still not in our own hands.

I also watched the Totts against the Saints on Saturday. They were rubbish – the world’s first ever One Primate Team. And to be fair, when Gareth Bale popped up to score exactly the same type of goal he scores in most games, there was a bit of me that thought he deserves to play in the Chimps League next year.

But the wins for both our London rivals mean that we all need to become Chelsea fans on Wednesday (eeeugh * gag *).

If the Spuds make a monkey of the Chavs and get all three points, we can still finish fifth even if we win our final two games.

The best result is a Chav win, as Bayonne Jean explained very clearly in comments last night: “Many think that a draw is more desirable, but not if you look at the maths:
Baseline: Arsenal maximum points is 73.

“Chelsea win takes them to 71 with two fixtures left. Downside: they would then only need one win to pip Arsenal, and they are highly likely to do that. Even two draws might be enough for them, as they have current +3 gd on Gunners, which may be enough even if Arsenal win remaining two. But upside is that Spurs would stay at 65, with maximum of 71. This gives Arsenal chance to finish with a win and a draw, giving Arsenal 71 as well, and hold on to fourth based on current +13 gd vs. Spurs.

“On the other hand, draw between Spurs and Chavs doesn’t buy much. Draw takes Chavs to 69, where they would only need win and a draw to tie Arsenal at 73, and they would likely maintain gd tie breaker. Spurs at 66 after the Chelsea draw means that Arsenal would still need to win both remaining fixtures to ensure staying ahead of Spurs at the end.”

It is what it is. All we can do is win our games; we can’t influence what happens elsewhere as the can’t-be-arsed match-throwing antics by Manchester United yesterday demonstrated very clearly.

All I hope is that one day, very soon, the tables are turned and United are desperate for us to do them a favour in a game that means nothing to us.

When that happens I hope that Arsene and his players remember Buster McBloodvessel’s “promise” to field his strongest team and that we pay him back in kind.

Bitter? Me?

You bet!

RockyLives

Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey : QPR 0 – Arsenal 1

On Saturday morning this was a must win game, by the time Bale FC had finished it was a must must win game.

Redknapp it appeared had instructed the groundsman not to water the pitch it looked a bit bobbly to say the least.

Despite that we got off to a flying start, poor QPR defending gifted us possession, former Arsenal employee Traore who headed the ball inexplicably infield, Rosicky receiving Podolski’s knock down crossed to Ramsey who headed down to Arteta, Mikel found Theo in space he turned and finished past Green. 1-0 Arsenal nerves settled.

We had the ball for the next half hour but other than passing it around between players we didn’t try often enough to move after we had passed it. This is the difference between tika taka to win or tika taka to bore into submission. There has to be a centre forward to play off, and there has to be movement, preferably with pace. The only one trying to move for the return was Rosicky but more often than not the intended recipient was on a different wavelength.

We managed I think one more attempt on goal from Theo which Green managed to touch on to the post, it was a shame Rosicky had been blocked off after setting up the chance as the rebound waited to be touched home but he could not get close.

After the half hour mark QPR found their cojones and looked the better side up until half time and for half hour or so after it. We looked short of pace almost as if we had geared down when all was so comfortable and then couldn’t really pick it up again. That said QPR were restricted to long range pokes by the defence when they had too easily bypassed our midfield, but there was always a chance of one flying into the top corner and it created some nervy moments for the away fans and us watching at home.

For the last fifteen minutes it was mostly all us again, Cazorla made Green make a fine save but again no one had reacted in the box and the ball bounced harmlessly away.

There was still time for QPR to provide us one more scare the ball falling to Remy who tried to curl the ball into the far corner, Szczesny got a strong hand to it and pushed it wide, one of those that people think he should make regularly and thankfully for our CL qualification chances this time he did.

The pitch did not make the game easy, the players are limping over the line concerned with protecting the lead than going for the jugular but we have seen that kill us before chasing more goals when games are won and drawing or worse losing (Newcastle 4-4 anyone?). Some will call it a winning mentality when others do it, those that paid attention during the 2010-11 title run in will remember how we failed on too many occasions to get the job done.

The first point of football is to win, winning beautifully is a close second, losing beautifully third, losing ugly fourth.

I wondered yesterday as I watched whether there is a problem in the mindset of some of our players….ones I would call Big Time Charlie’s, players who believe they know where there better position is. Neither Walcott or Podolski can play centre forward for us in the PL currently, Theo is too small, Podolski doesn’t quite understand what is required of him in Wenger’s system. To me they are inside forwards from yesteryear, but maybe I’ll leave that for another post….at the moment lets just say their weaker foot does not allow them to be played on the best side of the pitch for the team.

Ratings:

Szczesny – 8 an important save to keep the clean sheet, struggled a bit under some high balls

Sagna – 6 solid at the back, although Park rarely threatened, not enough going forward

Monreal – 5.5 still adjusting to life in the PL, Loftus Road would have been a new experience for him.

Mertesacker – 7.5 reliable as ever, did what was necessary in his own way

Koscielny – 7.5 unflappable put another good performance in

Theo – 7 good finish

The Rest of the attack and midfield – 5 dull

Gooner in Exile

ARSENAL FANS: “Look Down”

I am a bottom man, whereas My Uncle Earnest Didit was more interested in the top half, as the “allegations” testified. Happily, the Old Git was cleared after the Judge mysteriously ignored the overwhelming evidence, following the wonderful gift of the all-inclusive holiday for two in Barbados that he had just enjoyed. Interestingly, there ensued a scandal when it became public knowledge that The Judge had enjoyed said holiday, not with his Wife, but rather his twenty six year old Eastern European “Friend”. Some of you think The Premiership is corrupt. Piffle.

We have “looked up” and discussed the top four battle as played out through the fixtures of the protagonists themselves. I believe that by “looking down” we’ll see that results of the Villas and Wigans will play an equally important role.

At the top end, Utd play Chelsea, and then Chelsea take on Spurs. While these games will have a significant bearing on the outcome in the fight for top four places, let’s look downwards for a moment as I believe the “bottom” people are going to be having much of the fun.

Here’s the order of play, and it’s the order that could be the all-important and decisive aspect of the run-in.

Firstly, brilliant chart isn’t it? Yes, it is.

Secondly, you can immediately start making crazy scenario plans. Example, Wigan lose on Saturday and Tuesday while the others pick up a point or more, and it’s all over for them before they get to the FAC and The Emirates.

Looking ahead to the final day of the season, it’s very hard to imagine us (Toon) or Spuds (Sunderland) playing opposition with anything other than pride to play for.

To my mind, Villa and Wigan could play the starring roles. Wigan get a result at WBA, while Villa lose at Norwich, and oh boy, could Chelsea have a fight on their hands when they visit Villa three days after a battle at the Bridge against Spurs. Ooo, and that Villa came will be three days before The Europa Final. Our Chavvy chums are going to have one heck of a fight on their hands if they lose at Old Trafford.

For this weekend, and aside from the small matter of a game in Shepherd’s Bush, I’ll be gunning for a Utd win, a Wigan win and a Norwich win. From where I’m looking right now, if I were to re-enter The DidIt Competition, I’d have Chelsea missing out on the Top Three.

Written by MickyDidIt89

Why I’m Loving Van Persie Now

So the melodrama is over.

Brave Sir Robin returned to the club that stood faithfully by his side in sickness and in, er, more sickness.

He walked on to the pitch through a guard of honour. He got booed by most of the home supporters. He took a few kicks and gave a few kicks. He scored.

That’s it folks… all over, nothing to see here.

I still have mixed feelings about BSR. I completely understand why many fans are angry that he chose to leave (and that the club sold him to Manchester United, of all people).

But I also appreciate the great memories I have from the one proper season he gave us during his Arsenal career: all those “did you see that?” goals; all those volleyed finishes from Alex Song golf chips. It’s just a shame it turned out to be his last season with us.

Anyway, the dust has now settled on his return to The Home Of Football and we can get back to worrying about the important business of winning our final three games.

The problem is, it’s not as simple as that, is it?

We don’t just have to worry about our own games, we also worry about those of the teams competing with us for third and fourth spots in the Premier League.

And this is why I have decided to become a Robin lover again. It won’t be with the passion that I once had for him and I can guarantee it won’t be a long-lasting affair. In fact, it will be all over by 6pm on Sunday.

Because shortly before then the referee will have blown the final whistle to end Manchester United’s home fixture against Chelsea. And I am sincerely hoping that Brave Sir Robin, who has been in superb scoring form for two full seasons, will have done us an immense favour by banging home a hat trick against the Chavs.

If United beat Chelsea, it will give us some additional margin for error in our run in. Hopefully we won’t need that margin and we will spank QPR, Wigan and Newcastle in turn to guarantee a top four finish, but even then, it might make the difference between third and fourth place.

I hope that United will put in a proper amount of commitment and effort against Chelsea.

The Purple Conked Gorbalian has said that they will. He talked of “honouring” Chelsea’s rivals for the Champions League places by competing properly, but I have my doubts.

They have won the league already at a canter and, psychologically, I just can’t see them being as committed as they should be.

In fact, the “Van Persie returns to Arsenal for the first time since joining United” sideshow probably worked against us at the weekend. It fired up the crowd and added spice to the occasion.

Arsene Wenger said that our players started with such energy and bite because of the way they had prepared. That may be part of it, but I have no doubt that the heightened passion of the crowd also played a part.

It encouraged our boys to snap into tackles, win the second balls and harass United all over the pitch.

But if you start bullying people, eventually you’re likely to provoke a response. The United players, being the competitive people they are, could not help but be roused into fighting back eventually.

But when they entertain the Chavs it will be a very different matter. It will be a game played in front of a complacent home crowd who don’t really care what the result is. Many will have consumed a fair few drinks on the way up from Surrey and – if it’s a nice afternoon – will probably doze through the match.

Let’s face it, the place is hardly a hotbed of atmosphere at the best of times. If the Emirates is a library, Old Toilet is a mausoleum. Without the fun.

In other words, I wouldn‘t be at all surprised if Chelsea come away with all three points.

My only hope is that Brave Sir Robin himself, despite the abuse he received from his former worshipers on Sunday, will feel he owes it to us to try and help us get a top four place.

I hope that his friends in the Arsenal dressing room – the ones he was so eager to pop in and see after scoring against them at the weekend – have urged him to do his bit.

How ironic would it be if goals from Robin van Persie played a part in keeping us in the Champions League next year?

RockyLives

A Hard Fought Draw

This was on paper always going to be the most tricky game of our run in and chase for a Champions League spot. Added to the normal nerves of entertaining United was the return of Brave Sir Robin, and the indignity of having to give said Dutchman and his new teammates a guard of honour on to the pitch after winning the title last Monday. As a mark of my disgust I did not enter the living room until that silly business had been completed.

On to the match, Arsene had picked the side most of us would have expected before the game. Podolski in for the suspended Giroud and with a chance to prove that his future in the team rests in a central striking position.

I posted the following comment before kick off yesterday:

What do I want today? 3 points obviously…..but more importantly I want us to take the field showing a belief that we can win. Too often this season we have gone out in games against Top 4 competitors with a look of a team destined to lose and given a performance to match.

From the start the team set about United in a fashion we have not seen for quite some time. We pressed the ball, were quick to the tackle and competing for the second ball, so much so that within 1 and a half minutes we got our reward, Brave Sir Robin gifted possession to us in the centre circle, Cazorla picked out Podolski who moved it on to Rosicky who picked a lovely pass in to the feet of Theo, despite the tight angle he dispatched the ball past a static De Gea.

Maybe this would be a good day after all, the best thing about this was that we did not stop or slow down for the next thirty minutes, continuing to press and fight for possession and being quick to block out United attacks.

Cazorla tried a curler to double the advantage but De Gea saved well (although a bit dramatically) and Ramsey breaking fed Podolski who shot from a tight angle when perhaps he should have squared it to where Theo was waiting, perhaps he was trying a little too hard to prove a point. Maybe young Aaron chose the wrong option with Theo looking better placed to shoot.

United started to get in to the game, but in the main were restricted to crosses and deep runners trying to get on the end of them, Szczesny saved well with his face from the Dutchman in the one clear chance they created.

The second goal of the game would be vital and it looked like it was only going to be ours but from half hour onwards we seemed to be paying the price for our frenetic start opportunities to counter attack were being slowed down, a few loose passes appeared when previously we had been precise and quick.

With the half time whistle approaching Bacary Sagna made a poor backpass to BFG, he has played in the same team long enough to know BSR would be looking for it, he picked up the ball and raced towards goal, Sagna worked hard to get back and the angle for any shot was tight but Sagna, red mist fully descended, lunged into a risky tackle, his outstretched studs made contact with the ball but from behind as he was the tackle would be a foul anywhere else on the pitch. In Sagna’s defence he must have been surprised to see BSR as he had been firmly tucked in Koscielny’s pocket up to that point. The Dutchman picked himself up and scored the penalty to level going in at half time.

The goal could not have come at a worse time. With legs starting to tire we needed to go in ahead and to be able to be lifted to push on, unfortunately we went in to the break heads down and regretting yet another individual mistake that have cost us too often this season.

From the restart it was clear United had been given a piece of the managers mind, it also looked like any rebuilding of confidence in the home dressing room in the second half had not worked. United were waiting to kill us on the counter attack, that they didn’t was testament to the defending of Koscielny and BFG and the keeping of Szczesny.

Mertesacker so often taking up positions to deny passes or make a large obstacle to surpass, Koscielny was his normal dynamic self quick into the tackle and clean interceptions, it is a shame that the appointment of Vermaelen as captain robbed Koscielny of so much game time this season. We have sorely missed his pace and power and it has been an important feature of our recent form.

Sagna had some more troublesome moments and most of United’s threat came from that side combined with midfielders struggling to match runs.

Going forward we were toothless, the ball got in the final third but there was no zip around the pitch either passing or running. Podolski appeared to have run out of steam after 55-60 minutes, he was failing to win any high ball or compete meaningfully. We missed Giroud’s workrate and ability to occupy defenders….he is an aerial threat that centre backs have to actively mark, which opens more space for the technicians in the team to use.

By the end it appeared that neither defence wanted to lose it and both attacks wanted to win it, there were large amounts of space from defence to defence and that gave us less chance to create a winner.

Wenger tried to force the issue bringing on Wilshere for Rosicky, Gervinho for Podolski and Ox for Ramsey. This did inject some more pace in to our play but we were restricted to more long shots, one from Cazorla just not carrying enough pace to beat De Gea.

Dowd brought the game to a close with a point acceptable to both. It was a shame that we could not get a winner, but as I have said before you get what you deserve in football and if you make mistakes like Sagna’s you do not deserve to win a game of football.

But the performance especially that in the first half was what I was looking for when I posted my early morning comment, we refused to be bullied, we stood up to the challenge, and we matched them physically man for man.

Only a fool would argue that BSR would not make our team better, but on yesterday’s performance not many of them impressed me enough to think they would make us better in other positions.

Ratings

Szczesny – 8 some good saves and a confident unflashy performance from the under fire young keeper

Sagna – 4 offensively poor, and cost us the equaliser

Mertesacker – 7.5 another solid performance from BFG, his experience and reading of the game makes him a far better defender than people give him credit for.

Koscielny – 8.5 (MotM) tucked BSR in his pocket where many other top strikers have sat before. Quality performance from the best Centre Half at the club

Gibbs – 7 not his attacking best but kept Valencia quiet most of the game

Arteta – 7 because of the way United play his defensive role was different today requiring him to track runs rather than intercept and clean up loose balls. He didn’t do this to the required standard too many late runners hitting the box untracked. With the ball he was his same reliable self.

Ramsey – 7 looked to tire early, some good passes and touches early on, was getting in good offensive positions all game without always being picked out.

Cazorla – 7 a relatively quiet game but forced De Gea into two good saves.

Rosicky – 7.5 good pass for the goal, lively about the pitch and unfortunate not to get a bit more curl on a well imagined shot.

Walcott – 8 great finish for the goal, and a constant threat to slower defenders. Needs to be much better without the ball. Did Evans a favour by keeping him at arms length when Evans appeared to want to come in and rub foreheads.

Podolski – 5.5 very poor in the centre forwards role, hope he improves over next two games, we will need him to help bring the midfielders into the game.

Subs
Wilshere – 6.5 very quiet didn’t really get into the pace of the game

Gervinho – 7 we became much more mobile with him on the pitch but with United defending deep there was little or no space to exploit.

Oxlade-Chamberlain – 7 looked to get hold of the ball and attempt to influence the game.

Written by Gooner in Exile