Wednesday was a huge win for us for more reasons that just 3 points. It was like the Arsenal of old, we scored early and defended our lead, really, really well. Koscielny was brilliant as was Song in getting back. But the standout player was Vermaelen who Ian Dowie said "was a different class". Aside from scoring he really showed why he's such a rated defender. It was a performance that we needed to give the defence some confidence. It looked to be the perfect night for us until Van der Vaart scored an annoying equaliser in the 90th minute of the yids game with Stoke but still, the result was enough to see us climb to 3rd our highest position of the season.
We now have a run of games where we need to keep the pressure on Tottenham and Chelsea who rather conveniently play each other this weekend. I personally think the winner will end up 4th, but we shall see. Its really one of those games where any result works for us depending on how you look at it. Chelsea win, it pegs Tottenham back, Tottenham win it pegs Chelsea back and a draw gives us the opportunity to make some ground up on both of them. Of course this only applies if we beat Aston Villa.
Villa are a team who we always seem to have a problem with, they were the first team we played at the Emirates and it was a 1-1 draw. Aside from the cup comeback earlier in the season, they seem to have a decent run against us at home. But this season they have been all over the place and currently sit 15th. On top of that Darren Bent is out for the season (thank god) as is Fabian Delph, so hopefully we can turn it on and get 3 more points. Team news is pretty similar to Wednesday, I would expect a similar team to start but I have my suspicions that Ramsey may fall back to the bench given his poor run of form at the moment.
So Aston Villa, players to watch for are obviously Agbonlahor, Petrov, Ireland and N'Zogbia. They can be dangerous going forward but at the back they lack pace and I think that's where we'll get in behind them, its the sort of game where if Walcott plays as we know he can, he'll have a good game. The momentum that we have at the moment is great, we just need to keep it up.
Now I'm sure some of you are aware that we don't exactly have the best relationship with Villa fans, mainly because they're all wankers, but hopefully there's a good turn out and we really make some noise. COGY!
Prediction: Arsenal 3-1 Aston Villa
Sometimes things happen in football that mean the weekend pales into insignificance, sadly the weekend just passed was one of those. I as thousands of others settled in to watch Tottenham play Bolton in the FA Cup and for 41 minutes it was a perfectly normal game. Then a horrible moment for everyone and anyone connected with the world of sport. Watching 6 paramedics surround Fabrice Muamba and try on multiple occasions to resuscitate him was absolutely horrific, White Hart Lane was silent as the 32,000 stunned fans looked on as players broke down and began to pray on the pitch. Muamba was stretchered off as both sets of fans chanted his name, Howard Webb made the decision to call of the game and it was absolutely 100% the right decision. Now I'm no fan of Howard Webb but he was professional throughout what was clearly a very distressing situation and does deserve some credit. Along with him both sets of supporters aside from being shocked were brilliant, there were no jeers as he went down and everyone realised the seriousness of the situation.
Memories of Marc Vivien Foe in June 2003 were fresh in my mind and we all feared the worst as it took ages for news filter through. Thousands of messages from fans, players and even people who weren't connected with football flooded Twitter and Facebook, then eventually the news that his heart had been restarted was broadcast much to the relief of everyone. It was a true display of everyone regardless of team, nationality and race coming together in support of Fabrice Muamba. The latest statement is that his condition has been downgraded from "critical" to "serious" and he appears to be gradually improving. Fingers crossed he makes a full recovery.
Moving away from the story dominating football, we face Everton at Goodison Park on Wednesday, a team who despite losing the derby against Liverpool last week seem to be on the up and are picking up some form. Make no mistake this game will be no walk in the park (no pun intended) and Everton will give us a real good game. Having beaten Tottenham and Manchester City there recently, they will have no fear going into the game.
Team news is well, sketchy at best. With the Muamba incident there has been very little out of the club which in a way is understandable but bear with me as I attempt to guess our team lineup. So: Szczesney, Sagna, Kos, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Walcott, Song, Arteta, Rosicky, Alex OC, RVP. Ramsey and Gervinho offer cover and competition for places but I think Arsene will stick with this lineup. Rosicky is on form and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain just has that aura of a player who can make some happen. Santos also returns to give Gibbs a run at left back. But as many have pointed out its better to have competition for places rather than forcing players into unnatural positions. Diaby however is out after playing for an hour and scoring for the reserves against Liverpool.
Everton are on real form at home and I thought were unlucky not to progress in the FA Cup against Sunderland. Jelavic can worry defences on his day and although I've seen little of him Dennis Straquialdkeiksafhkelarsi looks to be a tidy player. Drenthe will give Gibbs a challenge on the wing and obviously Cahill and Osman are dangerous on their day. They have physical players which in the past will have troubled us, but with the likes of Oxlade-Chamberlain and Song we have some powerful players of our own.
I think it will be a close game and with Chelsea away at City and Sp*rs hosting Stoke we have a chance to move further up the table. Could look very different at full time tomorrow. Fingers crossed, COYG!!
Prediction: Everton 1-2 Arsenal
After an impressive game midweek, we have all accepted that this won't be our year for Champions League glory so now we focus on ensuring we're in with the running of winning it next year. Newcastle are a team that have really sprung up this season, the squad are all pulling in the right direction and they deserve to be where they are. However tonight hopefully we can knock them down a peg and put them 8 points behind us. More importantly a win will restore our 3 point gap over Chelsea and bring us within a point of Tottenham who conveniently lost at the weekend.
Newcastle will be no pushover though they play good football and have a real sense of belief about their style of play. It must also not be forgotten that in recent seasons they have had a good run against us, unbeaten in the last 3. Over the long run we have a much better record though. 9 win in 12 PL games or something like that anyway.
Our team tonight is a bit of a guess, we have Arteta, Benayoun and Ramsey fit to return. However Ramsey I don't think will feature as Rosicky has hit some form. Arteta may well start alongside Song in the middle. Assuming we play 4-4-2 I think Wenger will play Gervinho and Oxlade-Chamberlain on the wings with Walcott in the secondary striker role behind RVP. But there is a lot of talk about Rosicky perhaps slotting in behind RVP. The team is a tricky one to pick but we shall see what occurs as the evening plays out. Santos also returns but I don't expect him to play as he's been out for around 4 months.
Newcastle much like us seem to be quite reliant on Demba Ba scoring, or they were until they sign Cisse. The two form strikers in the league will be on show tonight. That said Ba hasn't been as prolific since his return from ACoN, but he has to score at some point or does he? (Torres). Anyway aside from those 2 Leon Best and Ben Arfa are the other two that I think you need to be wary of. The defence are in for no easy ride tonight despite the fact that Newcastle are at 7s to win??
In other positive Arsenal new Thomas Rosicky has signed a new deal for us tying him down for another two years and nobody could argue that he doesn't deserve it. He's had a good season and recently has scored twice in 3 games. Hopefully his form will continue.
So big game tonight in the run in for the Champions League places lets hope our solid form can continue.
Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 Newcastle
Firstly apologies for not posting pre-match its been a busy few days due to one thing or another. Last night we went knowing that our team had almost an impossible job of beating AC Milan 5-0, after the first 45 it suddenly seemed much more likely. I arrived at the Emirates thinking if we win tonight I'll be happy and I left very happy. The stadium was surprisingly more busy than I anticipated, obviously the usual empty seats from those who couldn't be bothered or just saw it as a total lost cause. As we took our seats I noticed a lot of Italians knocking around in the home end which might have been problematic but actually made for some light hearted banter especially at the half. The atmosphere was very strange pre-kick off, I'm not really sure how to describe it, those that were there will know what I mean.
So we kicked off and it was immediately clear that Allegri had set out to defend, after a raft of early warnings, Koscielny nodded it past Abiati from a Chamberlain corner just 6 minutes in. This lifted the crowd and swiftly silenced the Milan fans behind me. 20 minutes later after a RVP shot was parried and poorly cleared Rosicky side footed it into the corner, 2-0 and now we started to feel it was possible. The atmosphere had shifted from that weird, anxiousy feeling to one a belief. We continued to press and looked threatening, Milan sat back and tried to absorb it all but it simply wasn't working. Then with less than 5 minutes to go Alex Oxlade Chamberlain darted into the box and was shut off but 2 Milan players, after thinking for what seemed like an age the ref (who was bollocks by the way) pointed to the spot. RVP stepped up and cooly sent the keeper the wrong way. Now the Emirates was pumping.
Obviously at the half everyone was up for it and the Milan fans were deflated and looking severely worried. Clearly Allegri had some thinking to do and the second half was different to the first. We kicked off and looked sluggish and didn't really look threatening at all. Milan sured up and the back and were more dangerous looking for that decisive away goal that would have killed the game. We had our chances though notably from Van Persie and Gervinho that would have drawn the tie level and made the remainder of the half very interesting. Gervinho was poor last night always looked to go down the wing where he found no joy rather than cutting inside trying to find the space. Apart from that we didn't look threatening at all really.
As Laurent Koscielny put it "we just ran out of steam" and it appeared that way. Despite our best effort the match finished 3-0 Arsenal and despite losing the tie last night the players were giving a standing ovation. It was well earned and everyone seemed happy with the result, hopefully we can take the momentum into Newcastle on Monday. We've scored 15 goals in the last 3 home games which is very impressive.
Until Sunday have a good week. COYG!
So attention now turns to tomorrow and we have the early kick off at Anfield. We've had mixed fortunes at Anfield in recent years, I distinctly remember Arshavin scoring twice giving us the win a few years ago. Last season a certain Moroccan scored, well I say scored, basically Reina cocked up and gave him a goal. So you know...
I'm afraid this one will be short and sweet. So it appears that there are a few injury concerns mainly that of Robin Van Persie who went off at the half against England with a tight groin. Lets hope its loosened? before tomorrow. We probably won't know until tomorrow now, so fingers crossed. Other concerns include Vermaelen who was forced to play the whole game for his country on Wednesday and now appears to be suffering a knock. Rosicky worrying has a back problem which sadly is a reoccurring injury for him and he's been playing really well recently so lets hope its not as bad as it sounds. Back injuries are normally pretty bad.
However there is good news. Abou Diaby is back after his horrific injury that has kept him out for so long. I'd like to see him make an appearance if he really is ready. I remember him scoring a good goal against Liverpool a few years back now. I think he's really underrated as a player so let's hope for good things. Andre Santos is also making good progress and is a few weeks off according to Wenger. For Liverpool Gerrard is a doubt which is promising.
However the rest of their squad looks fairly normal apart from Daniel Agger whose injured along with Lucas and others we already know about. So threats from Suarez, Kuyt, Adam and as reluctant as I am to say this Carroll. The only reason I'm including him is because of his height, without Mertesacker we don't have a tall centre back to challenge him in the air so he might cause problems there. Let's hope he's a shit as everyone thinks he is.
We'll still be on a buzz after Sunday but we need to make sure that we keep that momentum and go forward.
Prediction: Liverpool 1-1 Arsenal
I don't normally do a match report, but after Sunday I thought I'd enjoy the moment and do one anyway. Within 4 minutes we were 1-0 down thanks to a lucky deflection that painfully looped over Szczesny, there was luck with the deflection but we got carved open at the back. We came back into the game and looked threatening then in typical Arsenal style we gave away a penalty that from where I was looked like one, although I was up the other end of the stadium. A message from my friend however confirmed, the chimp faced, big eared Welsh shit had in fact dived (it's nice to see how the media fawn over him yet never any mention of the many times he's been caught out for simulation). Adebayor stepped up and of course scored. 2-0 down and we all feared the worse.
After 6 minutes of contemplating just how bad this could get we were celebrating and very much back in the game as Sagna powered his header past Friedel. His subdued celebration showed that we really meant business, he ran back to the centre plonked the ball on the spot and the team galvanised. From this point onwards it was all Arsenal, we went forward with purpose and a poor attempted clearance from afro-man saw the ball fall to Van Persie. He turned 2 defenders and curled the ball past Friedel, a magical moment from a magical player, sparking wild celebrations from me and 57,000 other gooners. We showed real fight and spirit trying to win every ball and we looked the much better side.
I was concerned that we'd come out the second half with Tottenham pressing again and we wouldn't show the spirit we needed to try and take the points. I was wrong. We came out and 5 minutes later Rosicky who played brilliantly gave us the lead, The Emirates was now truly rocking. Along with Rosicky there were some real stand out performances from Benayoun, Sagna, Song and Szczesny. One the other hand Walcott had been abused by nearly everyone in the whole stadium including myself for a truly awful first half performance. We were calling for his head but the manager stuck by him, now I'm not going to say he was great in the second half because he wasn't, more on him at the end.
The demolition continued as Walcott was freed by RVP and after a few lucky touches he finished superbly showing what he can do, chipping the oncoming goalkeeper. By this time Arsenal were cruising and The Emirates had a real party atmosphere, it was a day that I'm proud to say I was lucky enough to witness. The day was completed as Song floated a wonderful ball over the top for Theo who completed his brace firing the ball across Friedel and into the corner. Victory is sweet.
Now it doesn't paper over the cracks and there's a way to go yet but this week is all about enjoying it. We've been without something to enjoy for a while so make the most of it. Now onto Walcott. This is a sticky subject as he's out of contract in the summer. Now suggesting that he deserves £80,000 a week to me, is absurd. Yes he scored twice in the derby but he's far too inconsistent and on the tube on the way back I was next to two fans discussing whether we should stick with him. One of them made the point which I quite agree with "remember when he went one on one against QPR? He didn't even hit the target" and that's what it all boils down to. He just doesn't produce enough and until he does I'm struggling to see justification of the wages he deserves.
Anyway, enjoy this week and we're off to Anfield on Saturday. Adebayor what's the score?
I don't want to talk about the weekend gone, all I can say is 7 years, time for a rethink Arsene. Your 5 year plan has failed, act this summer.
The game on Sunday is the biggest home game of the season and possibly for many the biggest of the whole season (bar cup finals). The derby is something completely different to any other game. The form guide goes out the window, table position goes out the window, the only determining factor is who wants it more. This is highlighted by the fact we're favourites, bookmakers simply put the home team as favourite. Most people, myself included would put Tottenham as the team to win, but derbies throw up all sorts of different results.
After recent weeks, this is a game that we simply cannot afford to lose. The team needs to get up for it and put in a good shift, we've lost our last 2, now we need to react positively. Wenger has come under heavy fire recently, but I just don't think the players are giving him everything which they need to do. I understand the manager should be getting players up for games but when they don't perform what can he do? sub them? with 10 injuries that just isn't possible. We just have to hope the team come out all guns blazing on Sunday.
Anyway enough of the problems and onto what we know about Sunday. Team news is sketchy at best, unfortunately. Gibbs who played against Milan didn't make the squad on Saturday and instead was replaced by Coquelin. Watching on Saturday our players were dropping like flies and that means its difficult for me to pick a team. The site are keeping pretty quiet. Ramsey went off but he appears to be OK the same with Coquelin. Koscielny was out after going off against Milan, Wenger said "He should be back for next week", we can only hope. Don't take this as a given by any means but I'd guess at: Szczesny, Gibbs?, Vermaelen, Kosicleny?, Sagna, Song, Ramsey?, Arteta, Oxlade, Gervinho, RVP.
To Sp*rs, who The Mirror decided to suggest were having an "injury crisis". What a piss take. The word is that Adebayor will be fit to play (cue abuse from every Arsenal fan) but they have the option of Defoe as well as Van Der Vaart. There are a few doubts over that afro prick at left back meaning that the Chimp may have to slot in at left back but I doubt that will happen. Apart from that the squad will be relatively normal. Obviously Adebayor, Chimp man, Van der Vaart and the usual suspects will be the main threats. However I have my doubt about Dawson at the back, I just don't think he's up to scratch so hopefully we can get behind them that way.
Anyway in other news it appears season tickets will remain at a fixed price next season. For those of you who have Club Level season tickets, yours will be going up 2%, don't worry your bonus will cover that and the rest. Ivan Gazidis said when questioned about general tickers said
"We haven't made a decision on general admission just yet...the objective there has been to make those tickets more affordable for fans"
Interesting stuff, but I wouldn't expect a drop in general ticket prices so lets not get excited just yet.
So roll on Sunday and lets have it! One team in London...
Prediction: Arsenal 1-2 Tottenham
