Aston Villa Feels Important

I don't know how many will agree with me, but Sunday's defeat to Manchester City just didn't feel that bad. Maybe it's because it's nearly Christmas, maybe it was because it was a significantly better defeat than our last trip to Manchester. Whatever it was, I just didn't feel as gutted on Sunday evening as I usually do after a defeat. I suppose it goes back to what I said before the match about us being underdogs.

Further mitigation came from the fact that we not only have no fit full backs, we also lost Djourou mid-match. Miquel came on and there was a reshuffling at the back, but City's goal came not long after. I blamed Koscielny at the time, as he gave Balotelli far too much space down our right, but I suppose it's only natural that he would be drawn into his natural position in the centre. If we are to blame anyone, it should be that clown Phil Dowd. The habitually-useless tubber failed to give what I thought were two pretty evident penalties, Micah Richards' handball, which was admittedly arguable, and the very obvious foul on Ramsey in the box. If that sounds like bitter excuses, that's because it certainly is. We didn't deserve a win, but I think a point would have been pretty fair.

As it was, though, we lost, Spurs, City, United and Liverpool won. Chelsea drew (ha) but still gained a point on us. My fear now is that, because the City defeat didn't feel as painful as some of our others this season, we will take for granted that we will get back on track against Villa and continue our rebuilding. That is a dangerous assumption. I know that Villa are dire, and that they have no forwards. I know that watching them play at the moment is akin to watching a pay-per-view paint-drying marathon. But make no mistake, to keep this top-four push going, we need three points tonight. Spurs and Chelsea play each other tomorrow. so one or both of them will be losing points. Only three points tonight will do, otherwise we will go into tomorrow four or five points behind Spurs and two games out of hand. Not a position I fancy at Christmas.

So, whilst I am glad that the loss against Man City was not the kind of loss we suffered twice earlier this season- namely the confidence-sapping, month-ruining disasters of United and Blackburn- I hope that we can ensure it is just a blip in a run of form that was beginning to look really impressive. That starts against McLeish's yawn-inspiring bore-circus tonight, and continues on Boxing Day.

In other news, we drew AC Milan, as everyone knew we would. Anyone surprised? The gloss of coming top of the group is certainly lessened when you come up against a team that came second only because they were in a group with Barcelona. Milan are a great team. We will have to see if we can do what we've done in the San Siro the last two times we've had the pleasure of visiting. More on that nearer the time. For now, let's focus on collectively asking Santa for three points tonight, and hopefully a foul-ridden goalless draw between Spurs and Chelsea tomorrow.

Until then,
Joe

Round-Up and General Ranting

As I’m back in the swing of things, I thought I’d write a quick summary of the state of the Premier League, in light of the games that we have seen take place over the last weekend. We’ve all now played 15 games (well, except for teams whose fan bases are formed of trainer-stealing criminals who decided to break up the dreariness of their summer with a spot of rioting) and so the table is starting to settle into the shape that it will maintain until May.

Firstly, a look at the relegation zone. My birthday wish, which sadly is going ungranted, was that Stoke ‘Football’ Club would be relegated. I put the word ‘football’ in inverted commas for obvious reasons. They are a football club in name alone. A better moniker might be ‘The Stoke Association for Woefully Untalented Cloggers Who Can Throw a Ball Quite a Long Way’, or SAWUCWCTBQLW. Apparently, this was considered but wouldn’t fit on the badge. Sadly, SAWUCWCTBQLW are well away from danger, so the bottom of the table is made up of Wigan, Blackburn and Bolton. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Some snobbish types will tell you that they want Wigan to stay up because they ‘play good football’. No they don’t, they’re shit. They play football on the ground, which I suppose is admirable, but with a group of players who are seriously ill-equipped for the task. The only problem with them going down is that it means Wolves will probably stay up. I’m not sure why, but I hate Wolves. I also hate Blackburn and Bolton, the other two seemingly-doomed clubs. It may seem irrational, but consider this: both have been managed by Sam Allardyce. That man immediately makes me dislike any club. I have genuinely woken up at night sweating from a dream that he became manager of Arsenal and set about selling any players that could use both their left and right feet. Worrying.

Skipping over the rest of the dross that makes up about 70% of this league, it’s the top 6 where it gets interesting. I’m not just saying that because I’m an Arsenal fan. Look at the teams in between 7^th (Newcastle) and 17^th (Wolves). All achingly mediocre. Villa? Meh. Everton? Yawn. Newcastle, to be fair, have played some entertaining stuff this year, as have Swansea on the very few occasions I’ve seen them play. A few exceptions aside, this league really is average below 6^th place. Maybe I’m just in a mood because I remembered my Sam Allardyce nightmare. Shudder.

So, the drama that will most occupy us, as Arsenal fans, this season, is the four teams fighting for the two spaces below the Manchester clubs. Some are predicting that Tottenham might be able to make a title challenge, or overtake United in second. 'Win their game in hand and they are two points behind United,' these misguided fools mumble. Don’t make me laugh. A Spurs title bid looks about as likely at the moment as an Andy Carroll hattrick. They will soon hit their first hurdle, be it injuries, suspensions, or a bad run of form brought about by Del Boy’s upcoming trip at the expense of Her Majesty. They’ll soon be looking about, trying not to be overtaken by the rest of us also-rans.

This weekend was a good one for Arsenal, in the sense that our three points made sure that Spurs’ dropped points at Stoke didn’t go unpunished. For anyone who didn’t see the match, can I suggest you see the highlights? Well worth a look. Spurs were absolutely robbed by a hilariously bad refereeing performance. I would have sent Chris Foy a letter of congratulations, except for the fact that the main beneficiaries of his incompetence were Stoke, and I refuse to celebrate Stoke victories. Man United’s simple win against Norwich means the only other team we gained on was Man City, and I don’t want to countenance us catching them up when we’re this far behind. I know I have just shot down Spurs’ chances of catching either of the Manchester clubs, but I don’t see it as impossible that we should overtake United. Unlikely, but stranger things have happened. I think we’re more likely to do it than Spurs.

Finally, a congratulations to United and City for their well-deserved qualification for the Europa League. When faced with a group like United’s, containing the likes of FC Basel, Benfica, and Otelul Galati, it was always going to be tough to get into the Europa League, but United just managed to shade Galati into third place, meaning they will have the chance to cement their place among Europe’s elite. Teams like PAOK Salonika, Red Bull Salzburg, FC Metalist Kharkiv, and the Mighty Stoke City Football Club stand in their way, so best of luck to them.

Reading through, I realise that wasn’t a coherent analysis or summary so much as it was a simple way of allowing me to express my disdain for Blackburn, Bolton, Wolves, Sam Allardyce, the Premier League in general, Chris Foy, Manchester United, Andy Carroll, Harry Redknapp, and lest we forget, the wonderful Stoke City.

Until tomorrow, when I’ll have a summary of our inevitable draw with AC Milan.

Joe

Follow me on Twitter @joeblogsarsenal

The Long-Awaited Return of the Blog

A wise man once told me that the blogosphere waits for no man. I have seen that this is true. In recent weeks I have had to put this blog on hold as the real world has intervened. Deadlines and work have all got in the way of what some have described as my true calling in life- writing occasional musings on a team of men paid to kick a ball into a net. The wise man’s prophecy came true. As soon as I stopped writing regularly, ratings went on a downward curve steeper than the profits of Pukka Pies when Frank Lampard instigated his New Year’s resolution. Luckily, with deadlines met and Christmas approaching, I’m back and better than ever. Or at least, no more ill-informed and misguided than previously.

Since I last posted here, we have played two matches, losing to Olympiacos and beating Everton. Certainly, both matches deserve posts of their own but I won’t bother as they were both some time ago now. I’m a forward-thinking kind of guy. Suffice to say that the Olympiacos game was sort of embarrassing, and the Everton game was sort of brilliant. I love 1-0 wins: the sensation when the final whistle goes makes the previous however-many minutes of agony almost worthwhile. I think it is fair to say that a hard-fought, ‘ugly’ win like Saturday’s can sometimes be more enjoyable than delivering a thrashing. Hmm, unless that thrashing is delivered at the home of your foulest rivals, and involves scoring 5 goals, a heroic hat-trick, and your rival’s beloved captain plunging to the floor in despair as the world’s deadliest goal-scorer glides away effortlessly, carrying both the ball and his foe’s dignity. In cases like that, thrashings are more fun.

The purpose of this post is not to comment on what I have missed, though, but on our current position and what we can expect over the festive period. Firstly, there is the matter of Manchester City at the weekend. Whilst I always want Chelsea to lose, I did at least see the benefit of their beating City on Monday, namely that the Invincibles will not  be matched for another year. I’m not sure if that feat gets enough coverage. If it had been a Ferguson side, members of the press and public would be queuing up to get commemorations of the feat tattooed on various parts of the body. As it is, the anti-Wenger media like to wash over the fact that the man achieved arguably the greatest accomplishment possible in football. Did you know it’s been 6 years since we last won a trophy? Where was I, my paranoia has sidetracked me?

Ah yes, the Manchester City match. Abramovich’s deprived paupers showed in ‘El Cashico’ that City can be beaten. I won’t be all that nervous on Sunday morning. We’re the underdogs, after all. If we lose, it’s more or less to be expected. It’s not like we ever get beaten that badly in Manchester anyway, ahem. If we win, it will be something of a coup and we would start to be seen as a team that can actually do something this year. The media (back to them) might start treating us as a team that has taken 22 of the last 24 points available to us. Did you know we had quite a poor start to the season? My paranoia pills seem to be wearing off. The reality is that the media have already woken up to the fact that this Arsenal team that they wrote off is actually beginning to look decent. Luckily, our star player is involved in some contract wrangling, so the hacks have got their Christmas present.

After the Manchester City match, and I hate to write it, our next few matches look winnable. Villa away, QPR and Wolves at home, Fulham away. I won’t put a number on it but if we take a certain amount of points from those games, and you know roughly what number that is, we will be in good shape going into the new year. Look at the table. We are only 2 points behind Chelsea, who are in third. I don’t think that a push for third is out of the question. Neither Spurs nor Chelsea fully convince me (as football teams, not as individuals, the nature of whom I am fully convinced.) Spurs are Spurs, and Chelsea have reverted to the tactic of giving it to Drogba and allowing him to plough his way through defences. When he goes to the ACN in January (has he retired from international football or was that a bizarrely-specific dream?) they will perhaps have to return to the method that saw John Terry exposed for the lumbering playground defender that he is. Maybe I’m clutching at straws, but I feel that their position is far from secure. As for Spurs, they look good now (Stoke hilarity aside) but soon their manager will be doing time and their current goal-threat, GreedyBarnDoor, will soon do his usual, and simply stop being good for a while. What then? Having Donkey Kong racing up the left wing is no good if his crosses are being met by Roman Pavlyuchenko.

So, all in all, Sunday aside, I’m pretty confident. Of course, there’s every opportunity for things to go wrong, but that’s football.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a bit of analysis of other recent results. For example, Stoke-Tottenham, a game that had me wishing there was a way both teams could lose a football match.

Until then,

Joe

Follow me on Twitter @joeblogsarsenal

Wigan 0-4 Arsenal: 4 Goals, 4 Goalscorers

We've got to be very happy with that win. Away from home, any win is great, but to score 4 and keep a clean sheet is even better. Before we get carried away though, Wigan were truly awful. Really poor. Apart from a decent opening spell where they were actually playing like a team who needs points, they really provided nothing. I'm not complaining. This straighforward win gives us as many points as the inspiring demolition of Chelsea or the hard-fought win against Sunderland, and if there's one thing that puts me in a good mood, it's points.

Prior to the game I was nervous. I am quite a nervous fan naturally, but I was particularly so considering we were playing against a Wigan team who had scored just 12 goals so far this season and were bottom of a league table containing Blackburn and Wolves. The reason for my anxiety was this: most people had accepted the Fulham draw and the Man City loss. In the former we seemed tired, and the performance was decent enough, in the latter we played excellently and lost to a great counter-attacking goal against an expensively-assembled super-team. However, any sign of a poor result today would  have really thrown our momentum, which, as we know, takes a great deal of time to build up and not long to lose. A failure to win at Wigan would have meant a failure to win in our last three games, and the more pessimistic of us would have started to recognise that sinking feeling that we suffered pretty much continually from March to October.

I needn't have worried. As it is, we have now taken 19 of the last 21 points available to us. We've conceded 2 goals in our last 4 league games. Van Persie has now scored more goals this year than the number of times Theo Walcott says 'you know' in the average interview. With Newcastle's loss earlier, we have overtaken them and moved into 5th place. Momentum is maintained.

The actual match itself needn't be dissected in too much detail. For those who didn't see it, apart from the opening quarter of an hour, we were in complete control. Van Persie was fantastic, showing that he can dictate a game as well as just score goals. He really can only be compared with the very best players in the world at the moment. Wonderful to watch, and I for one hope Wenger gets a new contract out over Christmas and asks the Dutchman to name his own price. At any other big club he would be earning more than he is now, so I hope Wenger sees the prudence in spending big in this case.


Arteta also impressed. The opening goal aside (which the keeper would have saved but for a momentary attack of Gomes syndrome), Arteta did what he has been doing all season for Arsenal: linking the play between defence and attack, keeping the ball moving, keeping momentum going. He's not a fancy player, although he does have the talent to be. For Arsenal he plays a different game to what he did for Everton, where his role was more forward-thinking and glamorous. It's hard to put your finger on exactly what he does that makes him so impressive at the moment. I think it's because he does the simple things right almost all of the time. He is coming to symbolise this Arsenal team's habit of performing better than the sum of their parts.


In defence, playing three centre halfs seems to have made us quite solid. Again, this Wigan team was so poor that judging anything against them would be a bigger mistake than hiring Harry Redknapp as your accountant. I do feel, though, that when we get Sagna back we will have a back 5 of quality, experience (Szczesny aside), and discipline, with competition in all areas. Nice to see.

Overall we've got to be very happy with that result. It keeps momentum going that looked liable, after two 'meh' results, to wobble. We're now through our period of obviously 'winnable' games in the league, but looking over the Christmas calendar, there are points for the taking this month. We have now established the basis for a proper assault on fourth and beyond in the next few weeks.

Until tomorrow,
Joe

Follow me on Twitter @joeblogsarsenal