The Modern Gooner: An Arsenal Blog

We Need This One

2012-01-28T00:00:00.001-05:00

If there is one game that Arsenal Football Club absolutely must win this season, this is it.

The Manchester United result has been flogged to death, specifically THAT substitution and our captain's reaction to it. I won't revisit it for long, it being eons after the fact. All I'll say is that if Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain really was ill and or carrying a knock (though that explanation reeks of Manuel Almunia's "injury" to me), Yossi Benayoun was on the bench. He may not be banging in the goals this season, but he invariably puts in a shift defensively. He'd have been far less likely to give the Manchester United attackers the old bullfighting "ole!" treatment. Right word, wrong context, Andrei.

Oh, while I'm at it, I drunkenly e-mailed myself my ratings of the match - here they are for completion's sake:

Szczesny 7, Vermaelen 6, Koscielny 7, Mertesacker 7, Djourou 4 (Yennaris 6), Oxlade-Chamberlain 7 (Arshavin 5), Song 6, Ramsey 6, Rosicky 6, Walcott 5, van Persie 7

Man of the Match: I may have to destroy all copies of my season preview - Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was awesome against the defending champions.

With that out of the way, allow me to explain why I put so much importance on today's match. While Arsenal supporters are (in a broad sense) sharply and at times angrily divided into "Arsene Still Knows" and "Arsene's Head on a Pike" camps, all can agree that the club is in a right old state this season. Qualification for the Champions' League looks questionable at this stage, which in turn puts serious doubt on Robin van Persie's future. This is well-trod ground, of course.

For me, the one thing that can get us onside again is some beacon of positivity. In short, we need a trophy. There's a reason why last season's League Cup debacle remains so vividly in our nightmares, whereas in seasons past it would have been no more than a minor inconvenience. The mentality of a club is often self-perpetuating. I swear, the only thing that keeps Manchester United ticking is the equivalent of muscle memory. This lot are not exactly their 1999 vintage. But, they know how to close games out, how to win when a match hangs threadbare on the margins.

Then, you have us. Whatever our frustrations can be at times, there are flashes of greatness that appear ever so fleetingly. These are for the most part highly skilled players who at certain times have shown immense will and desire to win. People who rage at the side's apparent lack of mental fortitude - myself included in moments of red mist - miss the point. These are professionals who badly want to reverse their fortunes and start winning games and shiny metal things.

I wonder if they can ever re-learn how, barring major changes.

Losing teams often have personnel that are just as skilled, if not more so, than the ones celebrating at the end. But, put United or increasingly their city rivals in a match like Fulham where the referee's out to get them, and they get at least a point out of it. Put them in a match against a frisky Swansea side, and they still win. Against a United team ravaged by injury and playing poorly for long stretches, City probably wins that game.

It's inertia, borne from a mindset that doesn't begin from a belief that calamity is just around the corner.

Andrei Arshavin, to me, is a perfect example. We all know what the man can do when the stars align - that magical day at Anfield immediately springing to mind (just imagine if we had our current defensive line and keeper for that one - it'd be 4-2 to us at worst). I was just thinking on the train today how, with the passion that this sport elicits, the pelters come at him doused in vitriol, without clear thought as to how things got this bad.

Don't get me wrong - I don't believe that Arshavin should so much as make the bench these days. It's just that I think we lose sight of the fact sometimes that these guys are human beings, and subject to the same twists of fate that real life brings to all of us. Frankly, I think the guy would be a fucking riot to have a vodka with - trust me, you'd probably feel the same if you ever saw the answers to the questions fans send him on his website. He's kind of like football's answer to Ilya Bryzgalov (start from 1:40 or so).

What I'm getting at is that in a vacuum, Andrei Arshavin is a fantastic player. But, I don't think it will ever happen for him again at Arsenal. He is one of a few, along with Marouane Chamakh, Lukasz Fabianski, Johan Djourou, and increasingly Theo Walcott who I think need to move on in order to have the best chance of getting their careers back on track. I honestly don't bear them any ill will, it's just that things have not remotely worked out here at Arsenal, and I fear it not only contributes to a self-perpetuating cycle of doubt and pessimism for themselves, but it seeps into the squad as a whole.

If we are to rescue the development of the shining young talents here like Wojceich Szczesny, the rapidly-developing professionals like Laurent Koscielny and if we are to capture the very best of Robin van Persie's prime, then the winds of change badly need to roll through Ashburton Grove.

That said, the one thing that may salvage not only the season but this version of Arsenal itself would be winning the FA Cup. Sure, it's not the league championship that we so badly desire. But, let's face facts - we lost in the League Cup to the same disinterested Manchester City side that was summarily dispatched by Liverpool this past weekend...you know, the same Liverpool going through an eerily-similar situation to ours. It wasn't a bad effort by any stretch of the imagination, but it was one of those matches decided on the margins where once again we fell short where others have succeeded.

Then, you have the Champions' League. My hope of course is that we somehow can repeat past glories in the city of Milan and defeat the side currently nipping Juventus' heels at the top of Serie A. My heart believes it is possible, but my head looks at their defensive record and the fact that they're banging in goals for fun domestically, and I just don't know how it'd be done...especially in our state right now.

Should the above all be true, that the league is gone and so is Europe after this round of fixtures, then that leaves the FA Cup. Here, even my Debbie Downer head believes that anything is possible. Manchester City are already out. The conclusion of this round will also guarantee the departure of either Liverpool or a reeling Manchester United (don't believe the hype, their win over us was far more down to our frailties than anything they did). Even if it is United that advances, this last game showed that we can stand against them on something approaching even terms and give them everything they ever wanted barring any more mystifying substitutions.

Aston Villa is a winnable game...they're not that strong. Beat them, and let's see who we get in the fifth round. This is a straight knockout tournament, and goofy stuff happens all the time. Win this one, go one step at a time, and maybe we find our lady Gooners wearing yellow ribbons come August.

Lose this one, though?

It doesn't bear thinking about.

Preview by Numbers: Arsenal v. Aston Villa, FA Cup Fourth Round

2012-01-27T00:01:00.002-05:00

Emirates Stadium, London

Sunday, January 29

11:00 a.m. EST, 4:00 p.m. GMT
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Match Officials

Referee: Michael Jones
Assistants: David Richardson and Dave Bryan
4th Official: Neil Swarbrick

All-Time in All Competitions: 73 Arsenal wins, 65 Aston Villa wins, 44 draws
All-Time in the FA Cup: 6 Arsenal wins, 3 Aston Villa wins, 3 draws
Arsenal's Path Here: 3rd Round: 1-0 win v. Leeds United
Aston Villa's Path Here: 3rd Round: 3-1 win at Bristol Rovers
Arsenal's League Form: W-D-W-L-L-L
Aston Villa's League Form: L-D-W-L-D-W

"Substitution? Well, I could do a better job than that,"
says a fan in Block 3, Row 15. Sure you could...
Photo: Guardian.

At the end of August, Arsenal were three games into their season and had just one point. They were coming off an embarrassing loss at Old Trafford and things looked grim. They were already six points back of the top four. 16 matches later, as the season reached its halfway point after a New Year's Eve win over Queens Park Rangers, Arsenal were sitting in fourth place with 36 points, two points clear of Chelsea in fifth. Arsenal had made up the six points and gained two more in 16 games. Those 16 matches still included three losses and two draws.

Three games into the second half of the season and Arsenal still have 36 points. They lost at Fulham, they lost at Swansea, and they lost at home to United. They are five points back of the top four. So why now are people talking as if Arsenal has no shot at Champions League football next year? There are 16 matches left. Over the final 16 matches in the first half of the season, Arsenal picked up an eight point swing on Chelsea. Is five completely unmanageable? Arsenal gets to play Chelsea at home within these 16 fixtures. Win that and the point swing is just two.

Everybody relax, it's January. The sky is not falling. Arsenal's world is not ending. But they do have to start beating the teams they're supposed to.

We'll worry about that for Wednesday's game at Bolton, but for now, it's the FA Cup once again. Arsenal will play host to an Aston Villa team that pretty much just has this trophy to play for this season. They're good enough to not have to worry about relegation, but not good enough to be in serious contention for European qualification through their spot in the table. So really, you can bet Alex McLeish will throw everything he has at Arsenal on Sunday, because this is what Villa are playing for. This game has no direct ramifications on Arsenal's top four aspirations, but a win is required to turn the ship around and to, quite honestly, shut the doom-and-gloom fans up.

Onwards and upwards and all that. AND RELAX!

Arsenal Squad News

Look at little Nico Yennaris as the club mascot from this
Arsenal - Coventry game in 2000. Also, I'm freaked out
that Mike Dean was the referee that day and then a
decade later in Yennaris's debut. Photo: Flickr.

Out: Gibbs (groin), Sagna (leg), Jenkinson (back), Wilshere (ankle), Santos (ankle), Diaby (hamstring)

Doubts: Arteta (calf), Henry (calf), Coquelin (hamstring)

Africa Cup: Gervinho, Chamakh

Arsenal play on Sunday and then again on Wednesday in the league, so the question of whether or not there will be squad rotation will obviously come up. Maybe if this cup tie were against lesser competition, there would be some, but this is a must-win game against mid-table Premier League opposition, and it's followed by a must-win league game to halt Arsenal's losing streak in the Prem at three. As a result, I honestly can't see there being that much squad resting in two matches that Arsenal absolutely must win to bounce out of the downward trend in which they are currently engulfed.

The Gunners have sorely missed Mikel Arteta in the midfield over their past two losses; speaking before the Manchester United game, Arsene Wenger said "the earliest for him" in terms of returning from a calf injury "is Aston Villa," so before any official team news comes out, Arteta looks to be on the more positive side of 50/50 for a return. Thierry Henry did not pass fit before the United match, but could return this week from a calf injury of his own. Meanwhile, it's been about three weeks since Francis Coquelin injured his calf, so he could be in line for a return as well.

Most of Arsenal's long term injuries are now "a few weeks away" from their respective returns. Bacary Sagna is back in full training and will return in "2-3 weeks." It's a similar time frame for Kieran Gibbs, while both Carl Jenkinson and Jack Wilshere are back running. They could all be back around the same time, possibly by the fifth round of the FA Cup. An optimistic return for any of them would be the first leg of the Champions League against Milan on February 15.

Lukasz Fabianski has returned from his knee injury to play for the reserves, so he could feature in this cup tie. Andre Santos will miss two more months as of about last week, while there is no longer anything close to a time frame for a return of Abou Diaby.

I won't try to predict an XI for this match, because I could be dead wrong about the rotation thing. My biggest stretches in terms of guesswork would be Fabianski starting in goal (even that could be doubtful) and Nico Yennaris getting the nod at right back. Other than those choices, I think Wenger will pick the strongest squad available for both games this week.

Aston Villa Squad News

Arsenal killer Darren Bent missed December's fixture
through injury, but should start Sunday. Damn it!
Photo: Daily Mirror.

Out: N'Zogbia (heel), Cuellar (hip), Herd (ankle), Lichaj (hip)

Doubts: Ireland (hamstring), Agbonlahor (illness), Heskey (Achilles)

Charles N'Zogbia visited a specialist on Wednesday in an attempt to treat a heel injury which has kept him out of action since January 2. He's missed three straight matches for the Villans and Tim Abraham of the Midlands-based evening newspaper Express & Star has stated that he's "definitely out."

Villa hope to be boosted by three potential returns to their squad. Stephen Ireland and Emile Heskey both missed last week's 3-2 win over Wolves with hamstring and Achilles injuries, respectively. Both returned to training at the end of this week. Meanwhile, Gabriel Agbonlahor was removed from that match at halftime with an illness, but he has recovered, and returned to training.

Carlos Cuellar has been out for the month of January with a hip/thigh injury, while Chris Herd has ligament damage in his ankle that will keep him out until next month, and Eric Lichaj is on the cusp of returning from a hip injury, having returned to training a few weeks ago.

Current Form

Aston Villa have been flipped out of the FA Cup by the
eventual champion for the last two years.
Heh, see what I did there? Photo: Zimbio.

Well, as you may know, Arsenal have lost three straight league matches for the first time since March-April of 2007 (a streak which included West Ham becoming the first opposing team to win at the Emirates.) But you know what?! This isn't a league game, so let's toss all of that negativity aside for a bit. Sure, it's still a late Sunday match, which I first mentioned last week has seen Arsenal fail to win in now 11 tries after the loss to United, losing eight of them. No time like the present to snap that streak, right? Law of averages, etc...

Even though Arsenal struggled in the league earlier this season, their form in other competitions wasn't bad, which means this is the first time all season that Arsenal have lost consecutive matches across all competitions.

The last time Arsenal lost an FA Cup tie on home soil was in Arsene Wenger's first season, 1996/97. On February 4, 1997, they lost in the fourth round to Leeds United, 1-0. In 15 previous seasons under Arsene Wenger in the FA Cup, Arsenal have never lost in the third round and have only been eliminated in the fourth round on four occasions: the aforementioned loss to Leeds, to Leicester on penalties in a replay in 2000, to Bolton in 2006, and to Stoke in 2010. Arsenal have won the FA Cup on the same number of occasions in the Wenger era.

Aston Villa's form has been a bit up and down in the league. After losing to Arsenal just before the festive period, they drew Stoke, but then beat Chelsea at the Bridge, then lost at home to Swansea, drew Everton, and beat ten-man Wolves at Molineux after Emmanuel Frimpong left hurt. You try to make heads or tails of that form. It's all over the place.

Last year in the FA Cup, Aston Villa lost to the eventual champion Manchester City, 3-0. Villa reached the semi-final in 2010, losing 3-0 at Wembley to the eventual double winner, Chelsea. So, basically, if Arsenal wins this match 3-0, recent history suggests that Arsenal will win the FA Cup. In 2009, the Villans were knocked out by Everton, 3-1, in the fifth round. The last time Villa did not progress from the fourth round was 2008, when the draw pit them against Manchester United in the third round. Villa lost at home, 2-0.

Match Facts

Yossi Yossi Yossi! Oi Oi Oi! Photo: Official Site.

Over their last 26 meetings in the league, Arsenal have lost to Aston Villa just twice, though that includes the last time these two sides met at the Emirates, when Darren Bent scored twice in the early going to see off Arsenal 2-1 in the Gunners' final home match of last year. Villa have actually won two of their last three trips to Arsenal. The Villans also won 2-0 in November of 2008, with goals coming from a Gael Clichy own goal and Gabriel Agbonlahor.

Arsenal won the only league meeting between these two sides so far this year, 2-1 at Villa Park, just before Christmas. Robin van Persie opened the scoring from the penalty spot, Villa equalized when Marc Albrighton scored the 20 millionth goal in Premier League history (oh, 20 thousandth,) and Arsenal won when Yossi Benayoun headed in a corner late in regular time.

Arsenal and Villa have met for nine FA Cup ties in their history; this is the first since 1983, when Arsenal won 2-0 in sixth round. Arsenal have won six of those cup ties (1926 in a replay, 1928, 1931 in a replay, 1954, 1956, and 1983,) Villa have won three (1929, 1934, and 1974 in a replay.) In matches played at Arsenal, Villa won once (in 1934) and have earned a draw twice, winning the most recent of those replays.

The Referee

"Relax, I've got this."

The referee is Cheshire-based Mike Jones, working his first Arsenal match of the campaign. He took charge of four Arsenal matches last year: their 6-0 thumping of Blackpool in August, the 1-0 win over West Ham in late October, won late by Alex Song's diving header, the 0-0 draw with Manchester City in early January, and the exasperating 2-1 loss at Bolton in late April. I remember Jones calling a terrible penalty for Bolton in that last game, but then it was missed and Arsenal came back the other way to score the, at that point, equalizer.

This is Jones's first match of the season for Aston Villa as well. Last year, he worked a 1-0 win over Everton, a 2-1 Carling Cup win over Burnley, a 3-1 FA Cup win at Sheffield United, a 2-2 draw at Everton, and a 1-1 draw with Wigan. Despite wins in both of those cup ties, Villa ended each of those matches with ten men following red cards.

Around the Fourth Round

For the second straight round, the Arsenal match will be the final match of the weekend to be played. Thankfully, for the sake of my own ability to get to the pub, it wasn't moved to a Monday this time.

As in the third round, fixtures start on Friday this time around, too. It all starts with those boys from up the road you love to hate; that's right, Watford. Oh, and, I guess Tottenham Hotspur fits that description too. In any case, it's kind of like a North London derby, except that Arsenal's not playing... and Watford is a few miles too far north... yeah... anyway, Everton hosts Fulham as well on Friday.

REMATCH! Photo: Guardian.

12 matches will be held on Saturday, starting off with the two bigger of the glamour ties of this round. The fact that both are rematches of the two big racism incidents of this season proves interesting as well. At 7:00 a.m. Eastern time, QPR hosts Chelsea in a West London derby, while at 7:45, it's Liverpool and Manchester United.

Nine matches will kick-off in the 10:00 a.m. slot, and honestly, I'd be at a loss if I were an executive at Fox to choose which two to air on Fox Soccer and Fox Soccer Plus. So, what did they end up picking? Well, it's Derby County and Stoke City on Fox Soccer and it's Leicester City and Swindon Town on Fox Soccer Plus. Really? Because there were two all-Prem ties that you could've chosen... Anyway, the other seven matches are: Blackpool hosting Sheffield Wednesday, Bolton hosting Swansea, Hull City hosts Crawley Town, Millwall hosts Southampton, Sheffield United hosts Birmingham City, Stevenage hosts Notts County, and West Brom hosts Norwich.

Saturday's late game sees Brighton & Hove Albion host Newcastle at the Amex. Sunday's early match is an enthralling North East derby that has not been contested in a while, as Sunderland hosts Middlesbrough at the Stadium of Light.

Preview by Numbers: Arsenal v. Manchester United

2012-01-20T00:01:00.332-05:00

Emirates Stadium, London

Sunday, January 22

11:00 a.m. EST, 4:00 p.m. GMT
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Match Officials

Referee: Mike Dean
Assistants: Stuart Burt and Adam Watts
4th Official: Phil Dowd

Reverse Fixture: Manchester United 8 - 2 Arsenal
This Match, Last Year: Arsenal 1 - 0 Manchester United
All-Time in All Competitions: 79 Arsenal wins, 89 United wins, 46 draws
Arsenal's League Form: L-W-D-W-L-L
United's League Form: W-W-W-L-L-W

No caption required. Photo: Daily Mail.

I was at an open mic comedy night (not performing myself) in Bushwick, a few blocks from my apartment, on Wednesday night and the host, in between performers, went into a joke about watching the Premier League. Basically, he stated the obvious about how the sport makes it more socially acceptable to shout profanities and drink booze in the mornings. He also made some comparisons to watching American football, and commented on the New York Giants' demolition of the Green Bay Packers from last Sunday's NFC Divisional playoff game. He talked about how the Packers were terrible in that game and lost by 17, but they looked great in comparison to Arsenal from earlier that day.

So, that's where we stand right now, after last week's loss to Swansea. Arsenal is a punchline. It's familiar territory after what happened between Arsenal and Manchester United in the reverse of this fixture in August. And from there, Arsenal slowly picked themselves up, went on a nice run of form in October and November, and by New Year's Eve, they were sitting in fourth place.

But, 2012 has brought about some disastrous results, and the Gunners are falling back down the spiral again. The performances have been poor. The dedication doesn't seem to be there from everybody on the pitch, and in other cases, players are trying to do too much and end up failing to succeed at anything. For as much as pundits may call this a one man team, it is not just the Robin van Persie show. There have been solid performances from many others, game in and game out, like Wojciech Szczesny, Alex Song, and Laurent Koscielny. But there have not been enough, and if that trend continues, then Arsenal can kiss Champions League football goodbye.

Lapses in concentration are costly at this level; it is inexcusable to concede a goal just seconds after scoring an equalizer, like Arsenal did for Swansea's winner last week. The confidence is low and results are showing it. This is not the time to dwell on past errors. It's time to turn things around.

And there's no better situation to help turn it around than a good revenge game. The players should not need any extra motivation than what is being presented to them right now. A chance to right the ship and get some level of retribution for August's embarrassing loss at Old Trafford. Both teams are light at the back right now, conceding goals at a higher clip than ever before. Maybe somebody on this Arsenal squad can find their scoring touch again.

It's time to make a statement. It's time to get revenge. It's time to fight back into the battle for fourth.

It's time to stop being a punchline.

Arsenal Squad News

That's a handball, Robin! Photo: Citroen.

Out: Arteta (calf), Gibbs (groin), Coquelin (hamstring), Wilshere (ankle), Sagna (leg), Diaby (hamstring), Jenkinson (back), Santos (ankle)
Doubts: Henry (calf), Vermaelen (calf)

Arsene Wenger's press conference is on Friday, but as you have probably noticed, I like writing these on Thursday and having them posted on Friday mornings, because people are more likely to read them on a work day than early in the morning on a weekend. So, deal with it.

That means, at the time of writing this, there are some doubts over the inclusion in the squad of a few players. Mikel Arteta, out with a calf injury that I heard nothing about until he missed the Swansea game, looks like he won't be featuring. And that's a shame, because I thought the midfield was sorely missing him in Wales last week. The result of Arteta's absence was increased pressure on Aaron Ramsey to do too much, a situation in which the young Welshman did not exactly thrive. The good news regarding this pair of overplayed midfielders is that Jack Wilshere is returning to training next week. Rejoice! It's like a new signing! I wonder who will babysit Archie...

Thierry Henry picked up a calf strain in training and now faces a late fitness test to feature against United. Meanwhile, it'll be another late test to decide if Thomas Vermaelen will pass fit to return from his calf injury. His return for this match would be a huge boost to Arsenal's back line, but the last I heard on him was "doubtful."

So, what back four do you select for a test like United? One hopes Vermaelen can start on the left, otherwise it'll have to be Ignasi Miquel again, no? Nobody can be worse at left back than Armand Traore and his chewing gum were at Old Trafford in August. The other three pick themselves: Johan Djourou, Laurent Koscielny, and Per Mertesacker.

In the midfield, if Arteta's not available, then I would imagine it would be Yossi Benayoun to start again, alongside Alex Song and Aaron Ramsey. Benayoun was a bit invisible against Swansea last week, but experience can't hurt in a match like this. Alternatively, it could be Tomas Rosicky. Up front, the trio will likely again be Andrei Arshavin, Theo Walcott, and Robin van Persie, though I know there are a ton of people that would be thrilled to see Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain get a start.

Predicted XI: Szczesny, Djourou, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Song, Ramsey, Benayoun, Arshavin, Walcott, van Persie.

Manchester United Squad News

Danny Welbeck drew a penalty last week, which was
eventually saved, then left with a knee injury. He's a
doubt for the trip. Photo: Guardian.

Out: Cleverley (foot), Owen (thigh), Young (ankle), Fletcher (illness), Vidic (knee)
Doubts: Jones (knee), Smalling (thigh), Welbeck (knee), Anderson (knee)

United have been decimated by injuries all season, just as Arsenal have, though with a little more depth in their line-up, they have masked it well. They currently have five players who are certainly out for this match. Nemanja Vidic's season ended the same day as United's Champions League campaign in Basel in December. His knee ligament damage will keep him out until August. Darren Fletcher is still missing for an indeterminate period with illness. Ashley Young, who had a brace in the reverse fixture, is out until next month with an ankle injury. Also out until February are Michael Owen (thigh) and Tom Cleverley (foot.)

A number of players are doubtful for this week's match, as well. Danny Welbeck, who opened the scoring in the 8-2 fiasco, left last week's match with Bolton after hyper-extending his knee. He could possibly return for this encounter. Chris Smalling is doubtful with a thigh injury and fellow defender Phil Jones is a doubt with a knee injury. Last week, United's back four included Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Jonny Evans (himself returning from a calf injury,) and Rafael. It was the Brazilian defender's fourth appearance of the season. His twin brother Fabio returned from a hamstring injury to make the bench last week. Also a doubt is fellow Brazilian Anderson, who returned from a long term knee injury on New Year's Eve in the loss to Blackburn, with a knock as he returns to full fitness.

Current Form

I know how you feel, Arsene. I'm just glad Pat Rice is
wearing pants in this picture. Photo: This is London.

We all know Arsenal's form has tanked a bit since the middle of December, starting with the hard fought loss at Manchester City, and we've obviously touched ad infinitum on the fact that the injuries to the back line are a major contributing factor. As such, I'm going to use this opportunity to point to a particularly disturbing trend involving Arsenal's result in this specific time slot, and what it means about their ability to perform in big games.

4:00 p.m. on Sundays (that's 11:00 a.m. here in New York) is the time slot where Sky Sports usually puts their biggest match of the weekend, on "Super Sunday," with very few exceptions. When Arsenal takes on a big opponent, whether it be United, City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, etc., it's usually played either in this slot or in the early slot on Saturdays (7:45 a.m. in NYC.) Arsenal have a mixed bag of results in those early Saturday matches, but in the later slot on Sundays, the Gunners are now without a win in ten consecutive matches. They've lost seven of them.

The last time Arsenal won in this time slot was October 24, 2010, benefiting from a fifth minute red card to see off Manchester City 3-0 at Eastlands. Since then: they drew Leyton Orient in the FA Cup 1-1 (that wasn't on Sky, but it was still a late Sunday kick-off,) they lost the Carling Cup final, they imploded late to draw Liverpool 1-1 in the eight billionth minute of added time, they lost late to Bolton 2-1, they lost at home to Aston Villa 2-1, drew Fulham in the final game of last season (when every game is in that time slot,) lost that game to Manchester United in August, lost the North London derby at the Lane 2-1 in October, lost to City in December, and lost last week in Swansea.

I'm not really sure what this might tell you specifically, though ten matches is certainly enough of a trend to warrant concern and mention. Not all of these matches were against the top of the table competition, so it's not just that they can't win "big games;" they've been alright playing top competition at earlier times (like the 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge in October.) Maybe it's all just coincidence. It's not like Arsenal was winning much in other time slots at the end of last season anyway. Just something to ponder, considering this and Arsenal's FA Cup tie next week with Aston Villa are at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Sunday.

As for Manchester United's recent form, they had lost two in a row against Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United before rebounding with a win over Manchester City in the FA Cup. They benefited from hosting relegation candidate Bolton Wanderers at home in the last round of fixtures, which they ended up winning comfortably 3-0, despite a shaky start and having a Wayne Rooney penalty saved.

Match Facts

Don't forget. Arsenal won this fixture last year.
Photo: Daily Mail.

In 2006/2007, Arsenal did the league double over Manchester United. They won 1-0 at Old Trafford, thanks to an 86th minute winner from Emmanuel Adebayor. At the Emirates in January of 2007, Arsenal won 2-1, thanks to late goals from Robin van Persie and Thierry Henry to cancel out Wayne Rooney's second half opener.

Since that season, Arsenal have played Manchester United 13 times. The Gunners have won just twice. They've picked up a draw twice. United have beaten Arsenal nine times. The first match of that stretch was one of the two draws: William Gallas had a goal late to cancel out a first half own goal, as the Gunners pulled level to draw 2-2. Later that year, United thumped Arsenal out of the FA Cup 4-0, then won 2-1 at Old Trafford. In 2008/09, Arsenal won the meeting at the Emirates, behind a brace from Samir Nasri. Then, United thrashed Arsenal out of the Champions League before only needing the 0-0 draw at Old Trafford to win the title. In 2009/10, a Rooney penalty and ridiculous Abou Diaby own goal canceled out Andrei Arshavin's opener to give United a 2-1 win, then the Red Devils coasted to a 3-1 win at the Emirates in January. Last year, United won twice at Old Trafford (once in the FA Cup) before Aaron Ramsey gave Arsenal a 1-0 win at the Emirates in May. Then, some embarrassment happened for Arsenal in August.

The Referee

Mike Dean sends off Arsene Wenger on the advice of
fourth official Lee Probert and that guy from "Lost."
Photo: BBC/Getty.

The referee is Wirral-based Mike Dean, which I consider to be the worst case scenario for Arsenal, due to a trend that, like the one I talked about with losing on Sundays, has been going on for far too long to be coincidence. Arsenal have won once in their last 12 matches with Dean as the referee. This set of games goes back to 2008. After beating Chelsea 2-1 at the Bridge with Mike Dean in the middle, Arsenal's form with the balding man is: 0-0 draw at Spurs, 0-0 draw at Manchester United (where the Red Devils won the title,) 2-1 loss at Manchester United (where Arsene Wenger was sent off,) a 1-1 draw at Burnley (where Cesc Fabregas first had an occurrence of the hamstring injury that plagued the end of his Arsenal career,) a 2-0 loss at Chelsea that was never competitive, a dreadful 0-0 with Manchester City at the Emirates, another 2-0 loss at Chelsea, a 1-0 loss at home to Newcastle, the lone win in the string in an FA Cup replay at Leeds, 3-1, the Carling Cup Final loss to Birmingham, this year's 2-1 loss at Tottenham, and the 1-1 draw at home to Fulham. One win, six losses, and five draws.

Let's look at his form for United, then, shall we? His most recent United match was their shock 3-2 home loss to Blackburn Rovers on New Year's Eve. Before that, his only other United game this year was their 1-0 win at Swansea (still the only league team to win at Swansea.) Last year, he worked the season ending match at Old Trafford as United beat Blackpool 4-2 to send the Tangerines down. Before that, Dean worked their FA Cup loss to City at Wembley in the semi-final. It was a 0-0 draw at Spurs before that (United were reduced to ten men in both that match and the cup loss to City.) Going back further, there was a 2-2 draw at Aston Villa, and a 5-2 win over Scunthorpe United in the Carling Cup. That's not the best run of form either, though it's not as bad as Arsenal's.

I hate Mike Dean.

Around the League

Sad Tottenham. Photo: Inoculated City.

Arsenal v. United, as mentioned at length in the Current Form section, is the final match of the weekend, in the 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast time slot. It's the second of two games on Sunday, just as it was in late August. Just like then, the early match sees another North London vs. Manchester battle, as City hosts Spurs at Eastlands.

That means there's a full slate of eight matches on Saturday, complete with an early game and a late game this week! It's almost like a normal schedule! The early match will see Chelsea visit Carrow Road to face Norwich City. The late game will see another team battling Arsenal for the top four, Liverpool, travel to next-to-last place Bolton Wanderers.

Speaking of last place, that's now Wigan Athletic, who play a relegation six-pointer in one of the six 10:00 a.m. matches. They visit West London to face QPR at Loftus Road, who are now in the drop zone after Blackburn's win last weekend. The Rovers, meanwhile, are at Everton. Elsewhere, Fulham hosts Newcastle at the Cottage, Stoke welcomes West Brom to the Britannia, Sunderland hosts Swansea, and Wolves host Aston Villa in a bit of a local derby at Molineux.

These are the reverse fixtures of those played August 27-28.

Preview by Numbers: Swansea City v. Arsenal

2012-01-13T00:01:00.127-05:00

Liberty Stadium, Swansea

Sunday, January 15

11:00 a.m. EST, 4:00 p.m. GMT
RSVP on Facebook!

Match Officials

Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistants: Peter Kirkup and Mike Mullarkey
4th Official: Lee Probert

Reverse Fixture: Arsenal 1 - 0 Swansea
This Match, Last Time: Swansea 1 - 2 Arsenal (November 20, 1982)
All-Time in All Competitions: 6 Arsenal wins, 3 Swansea wins, 1 draw
Arsenal's League Form: W-L-W-D-W-L
Swansea's League Form: W-D-L-D-D-W

What do you think Henry is yelling here? I think it's
something along the lines of AHHHHHHHH I SCORED
FOR ARSENAL AGAIN AHHHHHHHH I'M THE BEST
AHHHHHHHHHH!!! That's gotta be it. Photo: Guardian.

Did you hear that Thierry Henry scored on Monday!? Yes? Oh. Well, okay then...

We here at The Modern Gooner have already waxed poetic about the Henry goal and the match that saw Arsenal through to the fourth round of the FA Cup, where they will face Aston Villa at the Emirates at the end of this month. It's time to get back to business: the league.

Tottenham played their game in hand on Wednesday and won it, meaning Arsenal sits nine points back of their North London rivals. I, of course, started to get really depressed about how wide that gap looked, then thought, Spurs still have to play Arsenal away home from, which could cut the gap back to six. They also have trips to Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester City ahead of them. As our recap writer Sean said to me, "until proven otherwise, they're still Spurs."

Meanwhile, Arsenal's main battle of concern at the moment is for fourth place and the Champions League qualification that comes with it. Let's face it, dropping three points from a winning position at Fulham was not good news in this endeavor. Arsenal are one point back of Chelsea for fourth. They are two points ahead of Liverpool, who are in sixth. Newcastle, in seventh, is fading. There are still 18 matches to play. There's a lot of points still left to be earned, so let's start taking them.

United comes to town next week, but over the next five fixtures, the other four opponents are Swansea, Bolton, Blackburn, and Sunderland. Nice, on paper, though three of those four are away from home. Arsenal have done well to turn around their away form this season and had won four of five league matches away from the Emirates before the set back at the Cottage. Swansea are tough at home, conceding a joint-best four goals at Liberty Stadium.

It boils down to simply this: if you want to finish in the Top 4, you have to win the games you're expected to, plain and simple. Repeat performances such as those against Fulham will not be tolerated. Thankfully, those players who are still fit (unlike the entire defense) should be well rested for this match. Three points. Let's do it.

Arsenal Squad News

Here, Henry shows how he wants to squash Spurs with
his fist. More of this, please. Photo: Guardian.

Out: Vermaelen (calf), Coquelin (hamstring), Gibbs (groin), Sagna (leg), Jenkinson (back), Wilshere (ankle), Santos (ankle), Diaby (hamstring)
Africa Cup of Nations: Gervinho, Chamakh

Wow, look at that list. Francis Coquelin joins the list of the wounded, with a classic hamstring pull he suffered in the first half of Arsenal's 1-0 FA Cup win over Leeds on Monday. As soon as it happened, I said "a month," but it sounds like it's more "2-3 weeks." Of course, when you have eight players injured and six of them are defenders, any amount of time spent out hurt is too much.

Among those hurt, it sounds like Thomas Vermaelen will be back the soonest, possibly as early as next week against Manchester United at the Emirates (one seriously hopes.) Arsene Wenger said on January 6 that the Belgian would be "the first to be back after Swansea." Kieran Gibbs says he could be back in 10 days, which would also put him in contention to play against United. It'll be the end of the month for Coquelin. It should be early next month for Bacary Sagna, maybe the end of this month if we hope really hard, and mid-February for Jack Wilshere. It's still March for the return of Andre Santos.

Abou Diaby remains out with a hamstring injury that has now required the visiting of a specialist in Qatar, according to Mohammed Saadon Al-Kuwari, an Al Jazeera sports reporter working from their headquarters in Doha, the Qatari capital. There's no time table for his return, nor is there a time table for the return of Carl Jenkinson from a stress fracture in his back.

Okay, so, after spending a good 250 words on who is out hurt, it's time to focus on who's available, and that includes THIERRY HENRY. Did you hear he scored a... oh, we've been through this already, haven't we? In any case, it's doubtful he has a full 90 minutes in the tank right now, so I feel like he's still going to be an impact sub rather than a starter right now. A well-rested Robin van Persie will start up front, as will Theo Walcott, but who starts in the place of Gervinho is the question. Seems like it would have to be Andrei Arshavin right now, and as poor as he's been this year, you can't disparage the fact that at least he was trying hard against Leeds.

I would think the midfield trio of Alex Song, Mikel Arteta, and Aaron Ramsey will remain intact.

Predicted XI: Szczesny, Djourou, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Miquel, Song, Ramsey, Arteta, Arshavin, Walcott, van Persie.

Swansea Squad News

Out: Tate (bizarre golfing accident), Bodde (knee)

A re-enactment of the scenario which has seen Alan Tate's
season come to a halt. Photo: Some Law Firm.

This section allows us to return to the ridiculous story of Alan Tate, who is just as out injured as he was in September when Swansea first played Arsenal. Basically, Tate was out golfing during the last week of August and was the passenger in a golf cart that crashed. Tate broke his leg.

Meanwhile, Ferrie Bodde is out with a knee injury. Bodde, plagued by injuries throughout his career, has not played a league match since February 27, 2010. His injury woes date back to the fall of 2008, when he suffered ACL damage after a tackle from ex-Gunner Sebastien Larsson, then with Birmingham.

Both of these long term injured players are on the mend, however, and both started a reserves practice match on Wednesday. Tate's return was particularly swift; he was expected to be out six months at the very least, but is now playing again after three. Either of these players could theoretically make the bench on Sunday, though I'd be surprised to see either play.

Swansea has the rest of their side available.

Current Form

Sad Gareth Bale, after Swansea picked up a point from
Spurs at the Liberty Stadium New Year's Eve.
Photo: Guardian.

Since the end of November, Arsenal's form has been very up and down. After qualifying for the Champions League knockout round by beating Dortmund, their form, across all competitions is D-L-W-L-W-L-W-D-W-L-W. Since late November, over the course of 11 matches, Arsenal have not won consecutive games. Four times, they have dropped points somewhere following a win. First, it was the Olympiacos game, a blip on the radar from the second string. Then, it was 1-0 at Manchester City, hard fought and nothing to be ashamed of. But then, it was a 1-1 with Wolves at home. And after bouncing back by beating QPR, it was defeat from the jaws of victory at Fulham. The trend is worrying, so it would be nice to stop it now. Arsenal have lost three of their last four away from home across all competitions, a drop in form after they had won four straight away from the Emirates.

Arsenal's drooping form away from home does not bode well for this match, considering how formidable Swansea have been at home this season. In 10 league matches at Liberty Stadium, the Swans have conceded just four goals. Their only loss was a 1-0 match with Manchester United. They came back to draw Tottenham 1-1. QPR picked up a draw at the Liberty Stadium the day after Boxing Day, 1-1. Blackburn scored a goal at the Liberty but lost 3-1. Swansea have, therefore, picked up six clean sheets on home soil: 2-0 wins over Stoke and Fulham, 3-0 over West Brom, and 0-0 draws with Sunderland, Aston Villa, and Wigan Athletic.

Given Arsenal's defensive frailties, if they want to win on Sunday, they'll either have to become the first team to score more than once at that stadium this season, or they'll have to play for a good ol' fashioned one-nil to the Arsenal, something we've seen a lot in recent weeks.

Match Facts

Arsenal's winner against Swansea in September was from
such an odd spot on the pitch, finding Arshavin in this
photo is a bit like finding Waldo (or, Wally, if you're in the
U.K.) That said, there should be "Where's Arshavin?"
Photo: Daily Mail.

Arsenal's last match on Welsh soil came in the FA Cup in 2009's fourth round, when they played Cardiff City. That match ended 0-0 and Arsenal won in a replay at the Emirates 4-0. After that, the reverse of this fixture was their most recent match against a Welsh side. That was a 1-0 win for Arsenal, their first league win of this season, in the first match played after Arsenal finally decided it was time to buy some players at the end of the summer transfer window. The win was, of course, a bit fluky; this team was not there yet, as evidenced by losing at Blackburn a week later. Andrei Arshavin had the game's lone goal, which came from a poor clearance by Swansea's goalkeeper Michel Vorm, from an impossibly tight angle. It was a bit of a gift, but at that time, and of course, even now, you'd take it. That considered, Danny Graham had the chance to equalize deep into injury time, but fired over the bar.

In previous league meetings all-time, Swansea won both in the 1981/82 season and Arsenal won both in the 1982/83 season, when the Swans were relegated. Swansea won 2-0 at home in October of 1981 (Swansea was top of the league as late in the season as March 20 that year and finished 6th) and lost 2-1 at home in November of 1982 (when they finished 21st and relegated.) In North London, Swansea won 2-0 in February of 1982 and lost 2-1 on New Year's Day 1983.

Swansea's record home attendance at Vetch Field came in a cup tie against Arsenal on February 17, 1968. Arsenal won that FA Cup fourth round tie, 1-0.

The Referee

Who? Me? Photo: Zimbio.

The referee is Northumberland-based Michael Oliver. Oliver has taken charge of only one Arsenal match thus far this season, the comfortable 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion in early November. He has also taken charge of only one Swansea match this season, a 2-2 draw with Wolves at Molineux.

Oliver appeared out of his depth in the two Arsenal matches he worked last season, both losses for the Gunners. Those were the 3-2 loss to West Brom and the 2-0 loss to Aston Villa; both of those came at the Emirates. For as terrible as Oliver seemed with Arsenal last season, having made numerous dubious decisions, especially in a failure to give a penalty in the loss to Villa, he wasn't very noticeable in Arsenal's win with him in the middle earlier this year, which bodes well.

Oliver took charge of one Swansea match last season in the Championship: a 2-0 win at Millwall.

In 18 games this year, Oliver has shown 49 yellow cards and three red cards; one of those red cards was to a QPR left back you might have heard of named Armand Traore.

Around the League

This sad sack is suspended for what would have been his
return to his old team, removing the only possibly
interesting sub-plot to this weekend's round of fixtures.
Photo: Guardian.

Oddly, no games were moved for television on Saturday this weekend, meaning a whopping seven fixtures will kick-off in the standard 10:00 a.m. Eastern / 3:00 p.m. England time slot. Sky Sports 1 has Heineken Cup rugby on all day. Watford v. Reading occupies the late time slot on Sky Sports 2.

Anyway, those seven matches include: Chelsea hosting Sunderland at the Bridge, Manchester United hosting last place Bolton at Old Trafford, Spurs host Wolves at the Lane, Liverpool welcomes Stoke City to Anfield, Aston Villa plays host to Everton in Birmingham, Steve Kean Out Rovers host Fulham in Blackburn, and Norwich City pays a visit to the Hawthorns to face West Brom. Wow, this isn't really a weekend for big matches, is it? Perhaps that's why Swansea v. Arsenal is in the prime Super Sunday time slot.

Before Arsenal's match kicks off, Sunday's early game will see suspended Joey Barton not back at his old stomping ground, whatever the hell Mike Ashley is calling it these days. Newcastle hosts QPR, is what I'm getting at. On Monday, Manchester City faces Wigan at the DW Stadium.

Seriously, are any of these matches can't miss viewing for a neutral? These are the reverse fixtures of those played on the weekend of September 10-11.

My Thierry Henry Mea Culpa

2012-01-11T22:14:00.010-05:00

I sit here in a hotel room in Rocklin, CA - a brown and barren place accurately described by my boss as looking like Tatooine from Star Wars. The journey here sadly coincided with Arsenal's home FA Cup tie against Leeds United, the talking points of which have already been rightly discussed to death in the last few days. Why then do I add my belated voice to the chorus?

A fair question, that.

Here's the thing - it is the realm (and arguably the responsibility) of a blogger to hold strong opinions and express them in an entertaining enough fashion that people want to read it. Sometimes, those opinions will be controversial or unpopular. Other times, it will spring from emotion and a knee-jerk reaction to events in the topic at hand.

Back on December 28th, I wrote a piece entitled "Let the Past Stay in the Past", which I concluded as follows:

This season has felt like it's been one crossroads moment after another, and yet this transfer window may be the most crucial of the lot. Our identity, our place in the hierarchy of the league, our cachet with future transfer targets...all of it is at stake. If the manager's big idea is a left back whose last encounter with us saw him responsible for three goals conceded and a striker who with all due respect is a museum piece at this point, then I fear we may find ourselves bringing a knife to a gunfight as the season approaches the serious bit.

I don't regret writing those words - it was an accurate representation of my thoughts at the time, and my feeling that additional bodies need to come through the Arrivals gate of Heathrow still remains.

However, there is nothing easier for a blogger than to cherry-pick their greatest prognostications and trumpet them to the heavens as evidence of their great genius. It is inversely just as difficult for the same blogger to hold their hands up and admit their moments of failure.

In this case, I was wrong. Dreadfully, horribly wrong.

Don't get any crazy ideas, now - all of our problems are not solved, we're certainly not title-chasers because Thierry Henry scored one goal against second-tier opponents. Wins and results and trophies are all inexorably important, and nothing will change that.

Sometimes you have to take a step back and wonder what you're in this for, though. I don't want to travel the same treacle-thick sentimentality that the better corners of Fleet Street have produced in reaction. You can get diabetes reading some of that. But, at some level, they aren't wrong, either.

The moments that stick with us and have the greatest meaning are rarely unblemished in their perfection. I will take Landon Donovan's game-winner against Algeria at the last World Cup to my grave, but ultimately it was just the prelude to a punchless loss against a Ghana side that they frankly should have beaten. At my own humble 7-a-side level, the championship I'm proudest of had a final that finished 1-1 and went to penalties - their goal is perhaps the single worst I've conceded and I didn't actually save any of the spot-kicks (they hit the bar twice).

This is no movie - we're not going to see Henry parading a shiny metal thing around Ashburton Grove at the end of the season. To that, I would ask why must that be our only focus?

Long-time readers of this blog know that no club inspires visceral hatred in me quite like Barcelona. It's not just their galling conduct in the Cesc Fabregas saga, or their endless supply of cash, or even their rank arrogance in the way they carry themselves. Believe it or not, their off-pitch antics contribute far less to my river of bile than how they play the game on it.

In one sense, what they've contributed to our knowledge of what is possible in team play has been invaluable - like a high-powered telescope probing the edges of the known universe, the Catalans represent our best guess as to the game's ceiling. I just don't know how anyone can watch it. They are soulless and joyless in their perfection. Except for the too-rare wobble, they are metronomic in their predictability. If you were to replay this season 100 times in Football Manager, there would be precious little variation in their results, personnel or the sheer amount of desire I would have to beat Xavi about the head and shoulders with a cricket bat.

In a world embodied by Barcelona, Ivan Drago knocks Rocky out, the high seeds always survive to the Final Four in March Madness, the girl miles out of your league always tells you to sod off.

How crushingly dull.

There are two things that filled me with the most joy when watching the highlight of the goal. First, I imagined what the reaction must have been like at the Blind Pig when Henry's slide-rule shot beat Andrew Lonergan in the Leeds goal. My mind's eye watches with jealousy and longing as I see friends, acquaintances and merely familiar faces jumping in full-throated joy...a wave of sound that wordlessly exclaims "Holy shit, that just happened!" I can't tell you how much I regret not being part of that...I can only wish that this business trip happened at some other time.

Second, it was so deliriously unpredictable. The Premier League annals are filled to the brim with tales of desperate sides turning to faded heroes in order to turn their seasons around. The overwhelming majority of these yarns end not with a Roy of the Rovers flourish, but with the faded thud of inevitable failure.

This one? This one ends with Thierry Henry pounding his chest in adrenalized fury and an FA Cup win that his red-clad compatriots hardly deserved. One last time, Henry single-handedly decided the result of a game of football.

For that alone, this transfer was worth it. We may finish outside the top four, and/or behind our nearest and dearest at season's end. Perhaps AC Milan embarrasses us in the Champions' League, and we tamely go out to the worst Aston Villa side in living memory in the next round of the FA Cup. Unlike the Spanish champions, all things are possible in our world. The flip side of that is that in our world, all things are indeed possible...like the second-greatest attacking player in our history (Praise be Bergkamp's Name) coming back and scoring a goal that maybe...just fucking maybe...might be the fillip our season needs.

Early on in the first Henry piece, I wrote: "Necromancy never ends well." Perhaps it doesn't, but this goal reminded me that sometimes Chaos does.

The Return of The King

2012-01-10T09:46:00.007-05:00

If someone had told me beforehand how things would have played out in the Arsenal v Leeds FA Cup tie yesterday, I'd have accused them of being overly optimistic, even sentimental. Because that's really only the sort of thing that happens in sports films, right?

The beloved figure, looking past his prime, returning to the club where he made himself a legend? Check. An encounter with an old rival? Check. A must-win scenario, the once-great player called upon to rescue his team one last time? Check. An immaculate goal that sends the crowd and players into euphoric frenzy? You better believe that's a Check. That's a Check like Tom Rosicky is a Czech.

For the match itself, I was surprised to see Arsenal fielding such a strong lineup to start; Gervinho having gone to bless the rains down in Africa, we started Arshavin on the left and The Ox was given a rare start on the right. Theo began on the bench, next to his idol, and Robin van Persie was given a well-deserved night off with Chamakh taking his place. Otherwise, the only other change from the strongest available side was Squillaci for Mertesacker.

As it turned out, we needed a strong side, so difficult to break down were Leeds. Arsenal dominated possession (not exactly shocking), but despite a number of chances in the first half were unable to find the breakthrough. It was dismaying, largely because of the players' unwillingness to shoot when we got the ball in the box. Chamberlain and Ramsey seemed be the only ones unafraid to have a go, while everyone else, once they had the ball in scoring range, seemed to be looking for Robin to pass to. Leeds rarely threatened at all, and the match remained scoreless at the half.

The biggest event of the first half was a negative for Arsenal, when promising young midfielder Francis Coquelin, deputizing at right fullback on the night, pulled up lame with what appeared to be a hamstring injury with just a half hour gone. The even younger (and more untested) Nico Yennaris replaced him, and played fairly well, I thought. Otherwise, while Arsenal were bossing the game, the players were certainly far too casual, sloppy even, in their passing and possession. Arshavin didn't look as lethargic or hopeless as he has otherwise this season, and The Ox was the most direct and exciting player on the pitch in the first half, in my opinion.

However, it felt that in the absence of van Persie, Arsenal had fielded a cigar store indian. Marouane Chamakh's form has completely deserted him, and he is so bereft of confidence that when he gets the ball, his first instinct seems to be to get it away from himself out of fear that he'll botch the job... and one thinks that one will fail, one inevitably does. I don't want to spend any more time than I have to on the state of Chamakh; we know where he stands for us and how poor he's been, and harping on about it solves nothing. We can only hope to find a buyer for him this month and ship him out, for his sake and for Arsenal's.

The second half began much the same way as the first, with Arsenal in control despite carelessness, yet unable to make anything happen in the final third. Arshavin continued to look dangerous, and Chamberlain's slashing runs into the box looked like he just needed a bit more time and a goal would come of it. Sadly for the youngster, that time was fleeting. The crowd roared to life when Arsene Wenger had Arsenal's all-time leading goalscorer, in his first appearance in an Arsenal kit in five years, warm up to come on. In the 68th minute the legend himself, the King of Highbury, Thierry Henry, came on for the struggling Chamakh:

henrycomeson by arsenalist

Seconds earlier, Theo had come on for Chamberlain, which I disagreed with at the time. Surely one of them can play on the left? In any event, we now had a front line of Arshavin, Walcott, and Henry. Arsenal was in a goalless draw with the 8th-placed side in the nPower Championship. If something was going to happen, it had to happen soon.

And then it did:

<a href='http://www.bing.com/videos/browse?mkt=en-us&vid=cd28e29c-0f75-42a1-a360-30aa409899ce&from=&src=v5:embed::' target='_new' title='Thierry Henry makes his mark'>Video: Thierry Henry makes his mark</a>

A vintage goal by Titi. Makes the run in behind the defenders from the left (brilliant pass by Song, btw, who was otherwise not great), takes one touch to settle, another to side-foot it past the 'keeper to score inside the far post. C'est magnifique. If I'm honest, I don't recall the next few minutes after that ball went in, other than screaming and jumping up and down with the rest of the Gooners in the pub. Henry's celebration is what I imagine my own would be like if I were ever to score a goal for Arsenal. There was a sense of delirious happiness that accompanied that goal, and once Henry scored for us again, surreal as the whole thing seems even now, I felt sure the only outcome that day would be an Arsenal win.

As it turned out, there would be only that one goal on the day. Leeds had only one real chance on the night, which Szczesny handled without issue, and while Arsenal continued to press their advantage, a few opportunities went begging. In the end, everyone but the away support got what they wanted: An Henry goal, an Arsenal win, and plenty of shots of David Beckham in the crowd for the ladies at home. Also, I think I saw KD Lang in the stands, although it might have been Samir Nasri... tough to tell.

Henry's postmatch interview when he was named Man of the Match was simply fantastic as a fan, and did nothing to lessen the man-crush I've got on Thierry Henry. He just seems to be a genuine, likeable person, and that he is really an Arsenal Legend who is sincerely an Arsenal fan is evident from his words and his actions. Do give the video a look if you have a few minutes free.

Finally, to those Arsenal fans who seem incapable of enjoying Henry's second and final run with Arsenal because it's only for six weeks, please, please please lighten up. Yes, he will be gone in a month and a half, and no, we haven't signed anyone else yet. Because it's the 10th of January and no one else has either. One of the reasons I believe TH12 (still feels weird to write that) signed was to give us cover while Arsene looks at other options on the market. That's not to say he WILL sign anyone... No one else knows Arsene's mind but Arsene himself. And since it's only six weeks that we'll have him back for, you're really only hurting yourself by not enjoying the time he has with us.

Arsenal have drawn Aston Villa in the next round of the FA Cup, which, oddly, might be an easier match. It seems we have a harder time beating lower league opposition for whatever reason. It's a funny old game, this football. Back in the Premier League, we play away at Swansea on Sunday, so if anyone is attending the match, wear some kind of body armor. Those Welsh fans are not fucking around.

Ciao for now. COME ON YOU REDS!

Player ratings: SZCZ 6, Coquelin 6, Squillaci 6, Koscielny 7, Miquel 6, Song 6.5, Arteta 6.5, Ramsey 7, Arshavin 7, Chamakh 4 (And I do mean 4), Chamberlain 6.5.
Substitutes: Yennaris 6.5, Walcott 6, Henry 7.5
MAN OF THE MATCH: Who else? Thierry Henry.

Preview by Numbers: Arsenal v. Leeds United, FA Cup Third Round

2012-01-06T00:01:00.222-05:00

Emirates Stadium, London

Monday, January 9

2:45 p.m. EST, 7:45 p.m. GMT

Match Officials

Referee: Mark Clattenburg
Assistants: Jake Collin and Simon Bennett
4th Official: Peter Walton

All-Time in All Competitions: 45 Arsenal wins, 41 Leeds wins, 32 draws
All-Time in the FA Cup: 6 Arsenal wins, 2 Leeds wins, 7 draws
Arsenal's Premier League Form: W-L-W-D-W-L
Leeds's Championship Form: W-D-L-L-L-W

The Magic of the Cup! Time to forget about dropping points at Craven Cottage on Monday and focus on... ummm... magic! MAAAAAAAGIC!

AHHHH! MAGIC! WHIMSY! BUDWEISER!

It's actually called "The FA Cup with Budweiser" now. Don't forget that in casual conversation. For example, "I can't wait to head to the pub and drink some Fuller's London Pride while watching The FA Cup with Budweiser." Seriously, try to confuse as many people as you can with this.

The FA Cup (with Budweiser!,) to be more serious, represents Arsenal's best chance at silverware this season, so this match is not to be taken lightly. Leeds have other things to focus on this season, and their push for promotion back to the Premier League is in serious danger due to the number of injuries to their squad. They're like the Championship's version of Arsenal. As such, Arsenal need to go for the jugular in this match. The last thing either of these side's sick bays needs is a replay at Elland Road.

... MAAAAAAGIC!

Arsenal Squad News

Out: Vermaelen (calf), Sagna (leg), Gibbs (groin), Jenkinson (back), Diaby (hamstring), Wilshere (ankle), Santos (ankle)
Africa Cup of Nations: Gervinho, Chamakh
Suspended: Djourou (one match)

Let's see how few defenders we can get by with...
Photo: Guardian.

If you thought it was bad news that Arsenal was without five defenders against Fulham on Monday, then consider the fact that they are now without six defenders for this match. Johan Djourou serves a one match ban for being sent off against Fulham, which adds to the list of defenders unavailable. All five existing injured players will remain out for at least two more weeks. At this time, I would like to point out that I played right back in high school. Sign me up!

What this means for the line-up in a match where there will be rotation, I have no idea. There are now only so many defenders who can play at all, let alone be rested. There's good news in that the timing of this match marks seven days since the Fulham game and there will not be another game until Swansea on the 15th.

This is going to be a huge chance for players on the fringes to impress: Ignasi Miquel, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Park Chu-Young, and Ryo Miyaichi all played in the reserves on Wednesday, when a strong Arsenal squad lost 2-0 to Sunderland.

Gervinho and Marouane Chamakh will be gone for the Africa Cup of Nations, which does not even begin until January 21 and runs until February 12. I'd prefer Gervinho back sooner rather than later, but the Ivory Coast are favored for the title; they play group matches on January 22, 26, and 30. Their training starts tomorrow.

In order to get Thierry Henry available for this match, the loan paperwork must be completed by lunchtime today.

Leeds Squad News

Out: Kisnorbo (knee), Bruce (hamstring), Howson (knee), Bromby (calf), Somma (knee)
Doubts: O'Dea (hip), Lees (concussion), Snodgrass (appendix)

Aussie Paddy Kisnorbo is now out for the season. Leeds
somehow has fewer fit players than Arsenal. Photo: Sky.

Leeds are also decimated by injuries, and like Arsenal, have a highly depleted back line. With captain Jonathan Howson out with a knee injury, vice captain Patrick Kisnorbo took over wearing the armband. On Monday, he suffered a knee injury which will require surgery and his season is over. Alex Bruce is now out for a few weeks with a hamstring problem, Leigh Bromby is out two to three weeks with a calf injury, and Davide Somma has returned to light training after knee surgery.

Darren O'Dea, on loan from Celtic, is one of Leeds's only available defenders, and even still, he's battling and playing through a hip injury. Tom Lees has missed time with a concussion, and could return, though it's a question of whether he passes fit in time. Robert Snodgrass, who scored from a penalty at the Emirates last year, underwent appendix surgery and is doubtful to return just yet.

For Leeds, their biggest goal is promotion rather than silverware, which means Simon Grayson may use caution in selecting his squad for this match. One Leeds blog I used to gather this injury information referred to this cup tie as "pointless" and said Leeds could "afford to lose by several goals." They need their players to mend for the league run-in rather than chase giant killings, is the train of thought. "The Whites simply can't afford additional fixtures." In a lot of ways, neither can Arsenal.

Current Form

Leeds won on Monday in similar fashion to how Fulham
stunned Arsenal late, which probably does not bode well
for this cup tie. Photo: Football 365.

Well, Arsenal certainly have been all over the place lately, haven't they? The holiday fixtures, starting with Aston Villa and culminating with Fulham saw Arsenal pick up just seven of a possible 12 points. Add the City game before that and it's seven points out of the last 15, which came after a string where Arsenal had picked up 22 of a possible 24. Ah, but the holiday period is always difficult. Arsenal may be dropping points, but United have now lost two straight, City and Spurs each have three wins from their last six, Liverpool have one win in four, and Chelsea had gone four without a win before a late winner against Wolves on Monday. Everyone sucks!

Leeds currently sit eighth in the Championship, on goal difference behind Blackpool. They are one point behind Hull City for sixth place and final play-off spot. Their 2-1 win at home over Burnley on Monday marked their first win in four and snapped a three match losing streak, during which they had lost to Reading, Derby, and Barnsley. Leeds won that match with an 88th minute equalizer and a 97th minute winner, which sounds a lot like how Arsenal lost on that very same day. When Leeds met Arsenal in the FA Cup last year (it wasn't with Budweiser, yet,) they had three more points in the table but had played one more match (that extra match, however, was a loss to Cardiff last year,) and sat fifth in the table, rather than eighth. At that time last year, they were seven points behind first place QPR. Now, they are nine points behind first place Southampton and West Ham.

Match Facts

Cesc's penalty earned Arsenal a replay at Elland Road
last year. Let's take care of business more easily this time,
shall we? Photo: Daily Mail.

Leeds United have not been in the top flight since the Invincibles year, as they began their tumble through the English football pyramid. Three years in the Championship saw relegation again thanks to a points deduction in 2007. Leeds were promoted from League One in 2010 and finished seventh in the Championship last year, three points behind Nottingham Forest for the final playoff spot.

Despite not having played a league match against each other in eight years, Arsenal and Leeds did, of course, meet in this very same round of last year's FA Cup. The initial tie, at the Emirates, ended 1-1, when Arsenal's late penalty (drawn by a diving Theo Walcott, seconds after Phil Dowd waved off a more obvious penalty) canceled out Robert Snodgrass's penalty in the 54th that had been conceded by Denilson. Arsenal won the replay 3-1 at Elland Road, as Samir Nasri scored in the 5th minute, Bacary Sagna added another in the 35th, and Robin van Persie sealed the match in the 76th. Leeds's goal was a beautiful strike from Bradley Johnson in the 37th.

This will be the ninth tie between Arsenal and Leeds in the FA Cup all-time. Arsenal have won six of the previous eight, with Leeds advancing on two occasions (including a victory in the 1972 final.) Four of the eight required replays; the 1991 tie required three replays.

The last time Leeds United beat Arsenal, it was May 4, 2003 and Leeds won 3-2 at Highbury. That was Arsenal's last league loss before the Invincibles run.

The Referee

Well, that's good. Does anybody remember us mocking his
poor hair style at the bar during the Wigan game last
month? Also really bad: that pun. Photo: Daily Mirror.

The referee is Tyne & Wear-based Mark Clattenburg. Clattenburg has been the man in the middle for two Arsenal matches this season, they were two of Arsenal's three most comfortable victories: 3-0 at home against Bolton Wanderers and 4-0 away at Wigan Athletic (the third I'm thinking of is the win over West Brom.) I've said this plenty of times in previews before, but over the last two seasons, Clattenburg is the only referee that hasn't appeared to royally screw Arsenal over at some point. Last year, Arsenal won all four matches Clattenburg took charge of: 3-0 at Manchester City, 4-2 at Aston Villa, 3-1 over Chelsea, and 2-1 over Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup's fourth round. It's six wins from their last six for Arsenal with Clattenburg as the referee.

Clattenburg has not worked a match in the Championship this season, but did take charge of two Leeds matches last spring. On February 22, he worked a 3-3 draw with Barnsley that saw Bradley Johnson sent off in the 52nd minute for a second yellow card. The match was 2-2 at that point. Leeds converted a penalty to lead 3-2 late, but Barnsley scored the equalizer in the 82nd. The other match was a 2-1 win at QPR on May 7. That was the final day of the season in the Championship and QPR had already secured first place by kick-off, then scored in the first minute before Leeds came back to win in what was by that point, a meaningless match.

Around the Third Round

Chris Hoy is the referee for the Manchester derby on
Sunday. ... No, wait... I think that's wrong... maybe
some Spurs fans have an idea...

There are 64 teams still involved in the FA Cup (with Budweiser! Is that annoying yet? I'll stop) as we enter the third round proper, down from the 763 that were still alive as of the start of the competition in August's extra preliminary round. Obviously, this is the first round of the single elimination tournament to include teams from the Premier League and Championship. That means 44 teams enter the tournament here, to be added to the 20 teams who won ties in the last round. Arsenal v. Leeds is the final tie of the 32 total to be played, having been moved to Monday night in England for television.

The round begins tonight in Liverpool, as the Reds host League One's Oldham Athletic at Anfield. Oldham's last win at Liverpool came in 1914. This is their first meeting since Oldham were last in the top flight, in 1993/94.

26 matches take place on Saturday, with 23 of them coming in the 10:00 a.m. Eastern time slot. In the early matches, Birmingham City host Wolves in a West Midlands derby. That match starts at 7:30 on the East Coast. At 8:00, Dagenham & Redbridge welcome Millwall to Victoria Road in an East London derby that has never before been played. Bear in mind that Dagenham & Redbridge were formed in 1992, after a merger between Dagenham and Redbridge Forest. Millwall met Dagenham once in the 1981/82 FA Cup and won 2-1. The Lions never played Redbridge Forest. The late game, at 12:30 Eastern time, sees League Two's Bristol Rovers host Aston Villa at Memorial Stadium.

Alright, now on to the 23 10:00 a.m. matches, to be listed alphabetically by home side: Barnsley hosts Swansea, Brighton and Hove Albion hosts Wrexham from the Conference, Coventry hosts Southampton in a bottom vs. top battle of Championship sides, Crawley Town (who nearly took Manchester United to a replay last year) hosts Bristol City, Derby County hosts Crystal Palace, Doncaster Rovers host Notts County, Everton welcome non-league Tamworth to Goodison Park, non-league Fleetwood Town will host Blackpool at their stadium which happens to be named Highbury, Fulham hosts Charlton in a London derby, League Two's Gillingham hosts Stoke, Hull City hosts Ipswich Town at the KC Stadium, League Two's Macclesfield Town will host bottom-of-the-Prem Bolton, Middlesbrough hosts Shrewsbury Town, who you may recall were knocked out of the League Cup by Arsenal, MK Dons host QPR, Newcastle hosts Blackburn in an all-Prem match up (only one of two in this round,) Norwich hosts Burnley, Nottingham Forest hosts Leicester City (which is an East Midlands derby, though Forest's main rival is usually considered to be Derby,) Reading hosts Stevenage, Sheffield United hosts Salisbury City, the lowest remaining team in the tournament (from Conference South,) Wigan face a trip to Swindon Town, Tottenham gets to host Cheltenham Town from League Two, Watford hosts Bradford City, and West Bromwich Albion hosts Cardiff City. Phew.

That leaves four more matches, to be played on Sunday, before Arsenal v. Leeds on Monday. Sunday kicks off with the Manchester derby, as City host United at Eastlands in what is clearly the glamor tie of the round. After that, Chelsea hosts Portsmouth at the Bridge, Sheffield Wednesday hosts West Ham at Hillsborough, and Peterborough United hosts Sunderland at London Road.

Fulham 2-1 Arsenal: Mugged

2012-01-02T15:20:00.011-05:00

This is the 20th year that I have watched this grand old sport. There have been some mind-boggling refereeing performances in that time - the two gold standards for me have always been that odious ginger midget Paul Durkin sending off Emmanuel Petit after he bumped into the Frenchman, and Phil Dowd's heroic performance for Newcastle in the 4-4 game from last season.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new champion.

Look, I know that it comes off as sour grapes when a referee is attributed the entire blame for a poor result. There were indeed some culprits on the Arsenal side of things too, which I'll get to in a bit. But, the fact of the matter is that at the 70-minute mark, Arsenal were in control and extremely likely to come away from Hammersmith with all three points. The fact that they came away with nothing was just about entirely caused by one of the most breathtakingly ridiculous and incompetent red-card decisions I have seen since...well...Massimo Bussaca sending off Robin van Persie in the Barcelona game last year.

To give Fulham the credit that they're due, they were quite frisky on the day, their defense and midfield hunting in packs and harassing the man on the ball at every opportunity. They created some chances 11-on-11, but tellingly they wasted them all in horrendous fashion.

Meanwhile, Arsenal were lively themselves, which led to an entertaining first 45 minutes. The initial exchanges were about even, until Probert's first mystifying decision of the day prevented the Gunners from taking a likely lead. RVP played Gervinho into the penalty area, and his foot was kicked out from under him by our old boy Philippe Senderos. Admittedly, Gervinho was slightly off-balance at the time of contact, but he was still firmly in possession of the ball and it absolutely should have been whistled for the spot-kick. Needless to say, if the shirt colors had been reversed, I'd bet all four of my limbs that it would have been a penalty.

Fulham might have had a chance to take the lead just a minute later, but Wojceich Szczesny was alert to Johan Djourou's dreadful backwards header, and corralled it in just on the line of the penalty area. That proved to be crucial at the time, as Arsenal went up the other end and scored almost immediately after.

Mikel Arteta had a shot blocked off of a corner kick, and it came out to Aaron Ramsey. The Welshman's goal-bound effort was also blocked, but it ballooned up nicely for the onrushing Laurent Koscielny. The Frenchman made no mistake, heading in from about six yards out. Reserve Fulham goalkeeper David Stockdale will, I think, be disappointed in himself for not coming out to challenge - with his defense at sixes and sevens, that should have been his ball.

Sadly for us, he would emphatically make up for it two minutes later, with an astonishing double-save that in hindsight won Fulham the points (well, other than Mr. Magoo in black, that is). Ramsey's drive from the edge of the penalty area was well saved by Stockdale - it was through traffic and in a tricky area close to his body, but he got down exceptionally well. He was up in a flash, and somehow got a hand to Alex Song's follow-up effort. He wasn't even finished there, as he got up and closed off the near post to Gervinho, who in turn was forced to a much harder shot at the far post. No prizes for guessing how that one turned out.

Beyond that, the first half was long on effort and nice midfield play, but short on quality in the final third. The Gunners in particular were let down by a truly abominable performance from Theo Walcott, who continues to frustrate with his inconsistency. Gervinho, once again, was all approach play and no telling ball in the penalty area.

Whatever Martin Jol said at halftime (don't ask me, I can only ever picture him saying "No, Mr. Bond...I expect you to die!) clearly worked a treat. The Cottagers seized the momentum immediately in the second half, leaving Arsenal a bit flat-footed and searching for ideas to contain this pack of hyperactive terriers.

It didn't help that Probert continued to have an absolute shocker - somewhere in there, he whistled Djourou for a handball that a) touched his shoulder, b) was not intentional and c) was on a ball that the Swiss man didn't even see. You can also file RVP getting sandwiched by two Fulham players in the area under "seen it given", and also allowed the home side to get away with ridiculously physical play. There was one instance where I believe it was Ramsey was sent to ground by a two-handed push in the back...Probert was looking right at it but called nothing.

This man should not be demoted - he should be relieved of his duties outright.

Around the hour mark, the first warning sign came when Szczesny flapped badly at a high ball and missed, leaving Senderos a wide-open header that went just the wrong side of the post. Five minutes later, Clint Dempsey somehow beat Per Mertesacker on a header (it may have helped if the big man had actually, you know, jumped and stuff), but he also missed wide.

Like I said, Fulham were creating chances but it looked like the sun would go nova before they put one away. Arsene Wenger removed Walcott and Gervinho in favor of Tomas Rosicky and Yossi Benayoun, but the home side still maintained much of the possession. Still, at around 70 minutes or so, I actually thought to myself "These are the kinds of games we've gutted out all season - we're going to win this 1-0."

Then, the red card happened.

Djourou had been booked about ten minutes before for a foul that probably deserved it, in fairness. The second yellow, however, was just the usual attacker vs. defender jostling that happens on, oh, I don't know, EVERY SINGLE FUCKING PLAY IN THE HISTORY OF ALL SOCCER. Bobby Zamora went down like a Thai hooker during American Navy shore leave, and that was that. Probert showed the second yellow, leaving Arsenal 12 minutes plus injury time to see out a fragile 1-0 lead.

I still thought that they could do it, or at worse hang on to get out of there with a point. Previously, I said that Probert only deserves most of the blame for our loss, and I stand by that. While much of it would go to him for his ghastly inability to do his job, some also has to go to Wenger for one of the most ill-conceived substitutions of recent years. Given the personnel we had to work with, there wasn't much he could do. You can't ask young Ignasi Miquel to come into a game in this situation, and that means you have two choices - you can bring Sebastien Squillaci into the game and hope he manages to forget that he's Sebastien Squillaci for 10 minutes, or you can put Song in central defense and move Koscielny out right.

Arsene chose the former, and that lost us the game.

Off a Fulham corner, Szczesny badly misjudged the flight of the ball, and his weak punch backwards came out to Senderos on the back post. The big doofball headed it back into the mixer, and the completely unmarked Steve Sidwell was there to sweep home into the empty net. I don't know if it was the otherwise-excellent Francis Coquelin who should have had him or Koscielny (who was spending his time getting in Szczesny's way and preventing him from getting back to his feet in time to maybe do something about the rebound) who should have had it, but it was a bad flashback to Shambolic 2010 Arsenal Defending.

Even despite that, there were only 5 minutes to see out, and a draw was still very much a possibility. The 90-minute mark passed with Arsenal having a goal kick, and only three minutes to kill off. Despite having ten men, it should have been possible.

But, we forget...Sebastien Squillaci, the Typhoid Mary of defending, was on the pitch. A Fulham cross from the sideline came in, and Squillaci managed to head it right back into the danger area. Again, a man was unmarked on the back post - this time, it was Zamora. How on earth their main striker was the guy unmarked, I have no conception. He volleyed towards the near post, and Szczesny just stood there and watched it go in. He might not have gotten there anyway, but it capped a hugely and uncharacteristically dreadful performance from the young Pole.

So, we come away from west London with nothing on a day where Chelsea stole a late winner against Wolves (thanks for letting Fat Frank waltz right through the center of the defense to tap home practically from the goal line, you mongs). The table is not nearly as pleasant reading as it was prior to the start of today's games, that's for sure.

We need reinforcements, Arsene. Helen Keller could see that...don't let us down, as usual.

One last note - I am traveling on business until January 23, but I will do what I can to see the games and get these up via ESPN3 or if I can find a place in Mumbai to watch. If not, Brett will take up the slack.

The Modern Gooner Player Ratings:

Szczesny 4, Coquelin 7, Mertesacker 6, Koscielny 7, Djourou 5, Gervinho 6 (Benayoun 6), Song 7, Arteta 6, Ramsey 7 (Squillaci 4), Walcott 4 (Rosicky 6), van Persie 6

Man of the Match: There isn't much to choose from here today. It could have been Koscielny, but I think Francis Coquelin was the best of a bad lot.

Preview by Numbers: Fulham v. Arsenal

2012-01-02T00:01:00.183-05:00

Craven Cottage, London

Monday, January 2

12:30 p.m. EST, 5:30 p.m. GMT

Match Officials

Referee: Lee Probert
Assistants: Stuart Burt and Adam Watts
4th Official: Kevin Friend

Reverse Fixture: Arsenal 1 - 1 Fulham
This Match, Last Year: Fulham 2 - 2 Arsenal
All-Time in All Competitions: 34 Arsenal wins, 7 Fulham wins, 9 draws
Arsenal's League Form: W-W-L-W-D-W
Fulham's League Form: W-L-W-L-D-D

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!!! Photo: Guardian.

After a tough draw the day after Boxing Day to Wolves, I was fairly dejected about Arsenal's standing. They had failed to capitalize on teams like Chelsea and Liverpool dropping points the day before. But now, what do you know, even more teams dropped even more points this weekend, while Arsenal picked up all three. Manchester United lost, at home, to Blackbrun Rovers (Steve Kean in!) Manchester City lost in the 93rd minute to Sunderland. Chelsea lost, at home, to Aston Villa. And to top it all off, Spurs dropped points in Swansea.

The season has reached its halfway point; everybody has played everybody else once (except for Spurs v. Everton, which will be made up next week.) For everything that happened in August and September to this team, the season is half over, and Arsenal are sitting in a Champions League spot. Sole possession of fourth place, for a team that was in 17th in mid-September. Not too shabby, all things considered.

The second half of the season begins today as Arsenal close a busy holiday period with a trip to West London to face Fulham. It's the last league game until the trip to Swansea in the middle of the month, thanks to FA Cup action next weekend. It's the second game in three days and the third game in seven days for the Gunners, which will likely mean a significant amount of squad rotation. Then again, I said that about the QPR game, and it was a fairly normal XI. So, we'll see what happens. Arsenal have done well to climb back up into fourth place. Now, it's time to stay there.

One last thought, but why are Jack Wilshere and Wojciech Szczesny wishing us a Happy New Year together? Happy belated birthday, Jack.

Arsenal Squad News

No, God, why? Take me instead! Photo: BBC.

Out: Vermaelen (calf), Sagna (leg), Gibbs (groin), Jenkinson (back), Diaby (hamstring), Wilshere (ankle), Santos (ankle)

What? Tom Vermaelen is hurt again? Son of a bitch...

Part of me seriously considered just leaving that as the squad news section this week, but I feel like I should probably put more thoughts out there. The expected rotation against QPR did not happen, so now I wonder if we should expect rotation now. I mean, I've been wrong once before on this topic, recently.

Losing Vermaelen means Arsenal are now without the services of five different defenders for at least a few weeks. Five! Looks like a loan signing is even more necessary *coughnotWayneBridgecough*. The good news is, Francis Coquelin performed well off the bench after Vermaelen was removed. Can he perform well again, is the question.

Gervinho was rested against QPR for Andrei Arshavin (who Arsenal fans voted Man of the Match on Twitter, somehow.) Will we see the likes of Tomas Rosicky or Yossi Benayoun get a start? I think both were solid against Wolves, especially Benayoun. I feel like Mikel Arteta needs a rest, as does Robin van Persie and Aaron Ramsey.

Aside from those thoughts, though, I'm not going to try to predict a starting XI. If I had predicted one for the QPR game, I would've been dreadfully wrong, so why try for this one?

Also, Thierry Henry is coming back. You probably know that already.

Fulham Squad News

Fulham's Orlando Sa does a little dance before scoring
the opener against Norwich. Photo: Guardian.

Out: Zamora (Achilles), Schwarzer (back), Davies (back), Grygera (knee)
Doubts: Johnson (groin)

Fulham are likely to be without Bobby Zamora, as he nurses an Achilles injury. There is no return date set for him, yet, though it should be soon. Andrew Johnson, with a groin injury, is also listed as unlikely to feature. In good news for the Cottagers, Damien Duff, returning from a calf injury, made a cameo appearance off the bench against Norwich at the weekend.

Australian goalkeeper and former Arsenal-transfer-target-saga-subject Mark Schwarzer is out with a back injury until later this month. David Stockdale is deputizing. Simon Davies is also out with a back injury, while Zdenek Grygera is out for the season with a knee injury.

It should be noted that while Arsenal will probably have to rotate their squad because they're playing their second game in three days, Fulham are playing their second game in three days, too.

Current Form

Van Persie celebrated his goal with the Arsenal bench
on Saturday. Not shown: him hugging Almunia.
Photo: Daily Mail.

Arsenal have lost just once in their last 12 league games, though they have dropped points in three out of their last seven, a run that started with a home draw against Fulham. The Gunners have won four of their last five road games in the league, the only blemish being the 1-0 loss at Manchester City. Only the 4-0 win over Wigan in that stretch, though, was a clean sheet. They conceded one at Aston Villa and won, they conceded one at Norwich and won, and they conceded three at Chelsea and won.

Arsenal have a solid record around the New Year. The last time the Gunners lost the first league game of a calendar year (which, admittedly, means very little) was 2001, when Arsenal lost on New Year's Day 1-0 at Charlton Athletic. That was Charlton's first win over Arsenal in 44 years. But, that's completely irrelevant to today's game.

Fulham have picked up draws in their other two holiday fixtures, against Chelsea and against Norwich at the weekend. Fulham led late, but Norwich got an equalizer from a header in the 94th minute in the final action of the game. The Cottagers have a nasty habit of conceding late goals; they've conceded in the 88th minute or later in nine of their last 20 matches. That does not include Thomas Vermaelen's equalizer for Arsenal against Fulham in November; that goal came in the 82nd minute.

Fulham have won three, lost three, and drawn three matches at home so far this year. They held Manchester City to a 2-2 draw, but were thumped 5-0 by Manchester United. They've beaten Liverpool at home, but drew Blackburn. They thrashed QPR 6-0 on home soil and also beat bottom-placed Bolton.

Match Facts

Touchdown. Photo: Daily Mail.

There have been 50 all-time meetings between Arsenal and Fulham, across all competitions; Fulham have won just seven of them (that's 14%.) I actually did that math before realizing I could just multiply seven by two. All seven of Fulham's wins against Arsenal have come with Fulham as the home side, as they are today. Fulham's most recent victory against Arsenal came early in the 2008/2009 season.

Fulham have managed a draw in each of the last two meetings between these sides. Just five weeks ago at the Emirates, in the reverse fixture, Fulham took a 1-0 lead from a Thomas Vermaelen own goal. The Belgian rectified the situation by scoring Arsenal's equalizer, but there would be no winner from either side, as both the Gunners and Cottagers split points.

This fixture last year was the final match of the season. Arsenal came from behind twice to gain a point, ending what was a terrible finish to the season for the Gunners. It was Theo Walcott's goal in the 89th minute that made the result 2-2, but at that time, after going through so much from the Carling Cup Final on, so little of it felt like it even mattered. That draw snapped a three match winning streak for Arsenal against the Cottagers.

The Referee

Lee Probert looks down on Joey Barton, something I think
we can all agree with. Photo: AOL.

The referee is Gloucestershire-based Lee Probert, working his second Arsenal match of the season. The first was the Carling Cup loss to Manchester City, which came three days after the reverse of this Arsenal/Fulham fixture (that last bit is completely irrelevant, thank you.) Probert only worked two Arsenal matches last year: the Carling Cup extra time win at Tottenham, which saw Probert award Arsenal two penalties in the opening five minutes of extra time, and the 2-2 draw at Wigan that saw a Sebastien Squillaci own goal throw away two points. Probert has taken charge of only one Fulham match this season, a 3-1 home loss to Everton on October 23.

Lee Probert, across all competitions, has shown only three red cards this season, and none of them have been in domestic matches. Both came in Europa League group stage matches: one to AEK Athens in a 2-1 loss to Sturm Graz and two to Paris St. Germain in a 0-0 draw with Slovan Bratislava.

It should be noted that in August of 2009, when Mike Dean famously sent off Arsene Wenger for kicking a water bottle at Old Trafford, he did so on the advice of Lee Probert, who was the fourth official.

Around the League

Tim Krul helped ten man Newcastle take a point from Old
Trafford in the reverse fixture. Photo: Guardian.

Arsenal's match with Fulham is the late game today, the last of five games played on the docket. The remaining five matches in this round of fixtures will be held over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday.

Four matches kick-off at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time today: the biggest match sees Chelsea travel to the Black Country to face Wolves at Molineux. Meanwhile, Aston Villa hosts Swansea in Birmingham, Blackburn Rovers welcome Stoke City to Steve Kean Out Park, and QPR host Norwich at Loftus Road.

Three matches on the slate tomorrow, all in prime-time in England (so, afternoon here in the States), as Spurs host West Brom, Wigan hosts Sunderland, and in the biggest match of this round, Manchester City welcomes Liverpool to Eastlands. On Wednesday, Newcastle welcomes Manchester United to Mike Ashley Is Great Stadium at St. James' Park, while Everton hosts Bolton at Goodison.

These are the reverse fixtures of those played on November 26-27.

Arsenal 1-0 Queens Park Rangers: Opportunity Seized

2011-12-31T13:23:00.015-05:00

This was, for me, a clash between what is and what might have been (but thankfully wasn't). When I first started following football back in the early 1990s, I watched the Premier League Review Show for several weeks before picking a team. Today's visitors were, in essence, the losing finalists in that competition. Thankfully, I picked the red pill instead of the blue. I mean, if I ended up having to support Joey Barton at any point in time, I might have given up on this sport entirely.

That said, the early news trickled in before kickoff that Manchester United had contrived, rather like us, to lose in hideous fashion to Blackburn Rovers. They are in a bit of an injury crisis of their own at present, but losing at home to that lot is mind-blowing. Still, three points for us today combined with favorable results elsewhere would see us in the top four to close out 2011. There are points this season where the bottom four looked more likely, so it's quite the remarkable accomplishment.

Many Gooners would likely have reckoned that there would be some rotation in the starting XI given the holiday fixture congestion, but the only surprise was Andrei Arshavin at left wing in place of Gervinho. QPR of course had our old friend Barton in midfield, to go along with Neil Warnock out on the touchline. We remember you from the Sheffield United FA Cup replay debacle, you fucker. If nothing else, I wanted us to sort out this lot today just to give him a nice little sad face for the holidays.

I missed the first 7 or 8 minutes, but once I got in, it looked like QPR had the better of the opening exchanges. Given the rash of upsets going on in the last few rounds of matches, they must have fancied their chances against an Arsenal side forced to cope with a makeshift backline.

Ten minutes into the match, they could have had a shock lead. Adel Taraabt was left with the run of the touchline, and his diagonal ball to Shaun Wright-Phillips was perfectly weighted. The winger was in alone, but Wojciech Szczesny was off his line in a flash to block at his feet. Poor old Per Mertesacker was absolutely torched by Wright-Phillips' pace on that play, and he'd have his troubles with Jay Bothroyd on the day as well. It wasn't the German's best effort, to be sure.

Arsenal weren't entirely on the back foot though, and there was an air of frantic desperation around the QPR defense every time Robin van Persie had the ball. There was one incident in the 16th minute where he must have beaten their left back two or three separate times in the penalty area before working enough space to get a half-cross/half-shot away. Radek Cerny was alert and got his body behind it, though.

Speaking of Cerny, one frustration I had on the day was that while Arsenal did shoot from distance on a few occasions, I don't feel they did enough to take advantage of the fact that the visitors were fielding a 37-year old career backup in goal. Later on in the second half, there was one long-range shot from the excellent Aaron Ramsey (who clearly benefited from his short rest) that Cerny could only awkwardly fist away. If a few more shots had found the frame of the net like that, he probably would have gifted us a second somewhere along the way.

That aside, referee Martin Atkinson must have looked at the recent horror shows by Phil Dowd, Stuart Atwell et al and responded with a hearty "Challenge Accepted!". His first mystifying decision of the day was to not even caution Taraabt (the overrated ponce that he is) when he elbowed Arshavin in the face. To be fair, I don't think it was malicious or that there was intent to injure, but it was reckless and the rules state that you have to be in control of your body. It was a definite yellow and a talking to for me, and Atkinson bottled it. Sadly, it would only get worse from there.

The men in red recovered from that shaky start though to dominate possession, and van Persie was slightly unlucky that his header off of a gorgeous long ball from Ramsey flashed wide of the post. He was on his back foot a bit, and the fact that it was even that close shows what kind of form he's in at present. A few minutes later he again had a chance off of a long ball (this time from Thomas Vermaelen), but he fired over the crossbar. Still, you felt like something was coming from the Dutch hitman, though.

Atkinson struck again before halftime, though I don't remember all of the particulars. Long story short, there was a nailed-on handball in the penalty area from one of the QPR defenders, which somehow was not called by the dolt in black. The standard of refereeing this season defies belief at times. He wasn't nearly done though - Act III was booking Vermaelen for a foul on Laurent Koscielny. I mean, I know they have a hard job and all, but is basic competence too much to ask?

QPR managed to hang on until the interval, but I honestly felt like a goal was inevitable. There was yet another misfortune for our defense early in the second half, however, as Vermaelen limped off to be replaced by Francis Coquelin. Thankfully, the young Frenchman had a good game in relief of the Belgian, but the last thing we needed was yet another injury to our already-decimated defense.

The Gunners responded well though, and by all rights should have opened the scoring in the 56th minute. Arsenal had success in the first half mixing in some long balls to the usual short-passing game, and on this occasion they caught the QPR line pinching up far too high. Theo Walcott had an up-and-down game - he miscontrolled some passes and had a few poor touches, but also worked his bollocks off and did well to force some corner kicks. Here though, he turned on the afterburners and left his marker 6 postal codes away. There was nothing between him and a goal other than the shaky Cerny, but nerves got the better of him and he shanked a weak shot far wide of the post.

Walcott has been far better this season than many of his detractors would have you believe, but he simply must do better in those situations.

Thankfully, a few short ticks of the clock later saw Arsenal get the lead they deserved.

Wright-Phillips was a threat going forward all day, but he started the play by gifting Arshavin with possession thanks to a brain-dead backpass. The little Russian had suffered through a dreadful first half, but was at least working harder than usual...and that effort led to a better performance in the second half. Here, he took the ball, ran at the QPR defense, and released RVP with an inch-perfect slide-rule pass. Left alone with Cerny, RVP showed young Theo how it's done by casually rolling the ball into the far corner. No muss, no fuss, one-nil to the Arsenal.

It honestly should have been two at some point in the second half, as ANOTHER obvious handball went unpunished by the esteemed Mr. Atkinson. The benefit of hindsight allows us to be thankful that all of this occurred in a match where three points were won - but if QPR had equalized at some point it would have been Atkinson that cost us the game.

They did indeed have a few half-chances, but Szczesny did extremely well to palm away a long-range drive from Taraabt. The young keeper also calmly dealt with several crosses and high balls into his area.

Normally the Boss doesn't make substitutions until late in the game - often too late for my liking. Today, however, the two tactical subs were made before the 75th minute had passed. Shortly after the goal, Tomas Rosicky came on for Arshavin to shore us up defensively. Gervinho then got a 15-minute run-out in place of Walcott, and he was another who looked like he had benefited from a rest. He was lively and caused several problems for the QPR backline, and in fact should have scored after great work down low from RVP.

For some reason, there were four minutes of injury time. But, Arsenal calmly saw it out and locked the game down like good teams do. Whatever criticisms I have had (and do have) with this team, they are at least winning these games that they wouldn't have won in seasons past, and they're doing it by not making the same mistakes that they would have made previously. Now, they will take it to the corner flag to kill some time. Szczesny will milk every second with the ball on the deck before picking it up, a veteran move from the 21-year old. It's heartening to see, whatever I may think of our transfer policy or the efforts of a few individual players.

Even better, the news trickled in that Chelsea had lost at home to Aston Villa, and our nearest and dearest conceded a late equalizer to Swansea City. That leaves us in 4th place, two points ahead of Chelsea, three points behind Tottenham (though they do have a game in hand at home to West Bromwich Albion).

Not a bad way to end the year, eh?

To all of you who do us the honor of reading this blog, I wish you and your loved ones a very Happy New Year - and here's to success for Arsenal in 2012!

The Modern Gooner Player Ratings:

Szczesny 7, Vermaelen 7 (Coquelin 7), Koscielny 7, Mertesacker 6, Djourou 7, Arshavin 7 (Rosicky 7), Song 7, Arteta 7, Ramsey 8, Walcott 7 (Gervinho 7), van Persie 8

Man of the Match: Arteta had a pretty good game in the middle of the park, Koscielny was quietly excellent in the back and Robin of course got the goal. But, for me it's unquestionably Aaron Ramsey for his fantastic range of passing and movement. He was the engine that made us go today.

Preview by Numbers: Arsenal v. Queens Park Rangers

2011-12-30T00:01:00.216-05:00

Emirates Stadium, London

Saturday, December 31

10:00 a.m. EST, 3:00 p.m. GMT

Match Officials

Referee: Martin Atkinson
Assistants: Simon Beck and Steve Child
4th Official: Lee Mason

This Match, Last Time: Arsenal 3 - 0 QPR (December 26, 1995)
All-Time in All Competitions: 20 Arsenal wins, 14 QPR wins, 14 draws
Arsenal's League Form: D-W-W-L-W-D
QPR's League Form: L-D-L-L-L-D

Apparently, this New Year's Eve, we're celebrating a
return to 2004. Actually, that'd be nice. Photo: Guardian.

I'm not going to say much about Tuesday's game, because it still bothers me quite a bit. Yes, the offense had chances. Yes, they controlled possession for most of the match. Yes, Wayne Hennessey was heroic in goal. But I firmly feel that if you want to be playing Champions League football next year, you can't drop two points at home to Wolves. Disappointing, yes, but you have to move on all the same. There are still more points to be won here.

There are reports floating around that Arsene Wenger will sign 2011 Emirates Cup champion (he's won some other things, too) Thierry Henry to a short-term loan, which has caused much division between supporters. Long story short, this is a problem if this is the only move Wenger makes. If it's a deal in addition to bringing in someone else, then it's not bad at all. If it's the only move that's made, then it's not enough. But, I can't fault it in theory. Just wait and see, there's really no use arguing about it now (that won't stop people, I know.)

It's two quiet London derbies in three days for Arsenal, as they host QPR on Saturday, then travel to Craven Cottage to face Fulham on Monday. That means there'll be plenty of squad rotation, as I mention in the news section, but I have no idea where that rotation may occur, and have no intention of trying to randomly guess. That's for Wenger to decide. What would be nice is six points out of six, especially after leaving two behind on Tuesday.

Arsenal Squad News

Out: Sagna (leg), Gibbs (groin), Jenkinson (back), Diaby (hamstring), Wilshere (ankle), Santos (ankle)


RVP needs a hat trick to break Alan Shearer's Premier League record for goals in a calendar year. My prediction: seven goals. Guaranteed. Photo: Daily Mail.

Johan Djourou's return was a pleasant surprise, given the dearth of options on the back line right now, but the fact of the matter is all of the team's fullbacks remain out. Bacary Sagna, Carl Jenkinson, Kieran Gibbs, and Andre Santos are all still on the sidelines, which still means a back four of all center backs moving forward. Sagna is ahead of schedule and training lightly, but Arsene Wenger has said "end of January" as his goal. It's likely the end of January for Gibbs as well, while Santos is out until March. Jenkinson I'm not so sure about (in terms of weeks,) but he's almost certainly not ready yet. I thought that about Djourou before Tuesday, though...

Since Arsenal plays on Saturday and Monday, there is going to be rotation. The options for the back line include: Thomas Vermaelen, Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny, Johan Djourou, Ignasi Miquel, Francis Coquelin, and yes, even Sebastien Squillaci. That's only seven names, so somebody is going to have to play twice, even at maximum rotation.

In the midfield, Arsenal are still without Jack Wilshere (likely a February return) and Abou Diaby. In terms of Diaby, Wenger called his injury "10 days" on November 28. Lord knows when he'll be back. Theo Walcott missed Tuesday's game with a stomach illness, but according to Arsene Wenger on Wednesday, he is feeling better and should be available again.

I know I normally predict a starting XI in this space, but there are so many spots in the squad where there could be rotation in either this match of Fulham away on Monday that it's probably not worth it to just play such a guessing game.

QPR Squad News

Kieron Dyer's season lasted all of seven minutes.
Photo: Guardian.

Out: Dyer (foot)
Doubts: Ferdinand (hamstring), Hulse (knee), Murphy (calf)

QPR's only long term injury is Kieron Dyer, whose season very well might be over. The midfielder made his debut for the team in the season opening match against Bolton Wanderers, but was stretchered off the pitch after just seven minutes and has not featured since. Dyer was close to returning from his foot injury, but he was re-injured in a reserves match against Tottenham Hotspur, and needed surgery. He is likely to be left off Neil Warnock's 25-man squad once the transfer window closes in January, meaning Dyer is not likely to feature for the Hoops again this season.

~~John Terry's dear friend~~ Anton Ferdinand is a doubt with a hamstring injury. He returned to light training this time last week, but did not make the trip to Wales to face Swansea the day after Boxing Day, and is slated to return, according to Warnock, for the Norwich match on January 2.

QPR have signed 34-year-old striker Heidar Helguson to a new long-term deal, as of yesterday. He has scored seven goals in 12 league games for the Hoops this year. Meanwhile, captain Joey Barton is now a father, after Cassius Joseph Barton was born on Tuesday night (his girlfriend was in labor while he played against Swansea.) You may recall that Cassius was one of the lead conspirators in the assassination Julius Caesar. Do with that information what you will. The Daily Mail mentions that Cassius, in Latin, means "empty, vain, hollow, poor, or robbed." He's actually most likely named after Cassius Clay, as Barton is a big fan of boxing.

Current Form

Here's a photo of Arsenal reject Armand Traore getting
away with what could have been a penalty against
Swansea on Tuesday. Photo: Daily Mail.

The draw with Wolves means it's just three wins from eight matches across all competitions for Arsenal, which came after a stretch of eight wins from nine, and 11 wins from 13. The Gunners have not won back to back games since defeating Norwich City and Borussia Dortmund over a month ago. That Dortmund match also marked the last time Arsenal won consecutive matches at home. Since then, they've drawn Fulham, lost to City in the Carling Cup, beaten Everton, and drawn Wolves at the Emirates. The good news is that Arsenal have only twice this year dropped points in consecutive matches (across all competitions.) Even the season opening three league matches without a win were split apart my Champions League wins over Udinese. That stat bodes well for Arsenal. Arsenal have six point from six against recently promoted sides (Swansea and Norwich) so far this season. Last year, Arsenal only picked up eight points from 18 against sides that had been in the Championship the prior season.

QPR have four wins in the league this season, but surprisingly, three of those wins have come away from home, at Everton, at Wolves, and at Stoke. The win against Stoke was the last time QPR picked up all three points in a league game; it was November 19. Since then, just two draws and four losses. QPR have played the league's top sides well this season. Well, at home, at least. They've beaten Chelsea 1-0 (benefiting from Chelsea playing the second half on nine men) and should have nicked a point from Manchester City before losing 3-2. They've also had some head scratching results, like losing 4-0 to Bolton opening week, then losing 6-0 to Fulham on October 2. Overall, QPR's 18th in the league in terms of home form and 10th in the league on the road.

Match Facts

Arsenal smashed QPR for six in the FA Cup in 2001, and
all I can think about in this photo is how much I hate it
when Arsenal wears their away kit when the opposition
isn't in red. Photo: Arsenal.

In their last ten league meetings, Arsenal has beaten QPR only once, 3-0 at Highbury, on Boxing Day in 1995. Paul Merson had a second half brace after Ian Wright opened the scoring just before halftime. 1995/96 was QPR's last season in the top flight before this year; the Hoops earned a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road in the reverse fixture, when Dennis Bergkamp canceled out Kevin Gallen's opener. Prior to that, QPR won both meetings in 1994/95; QPR's 3-1 win at Highbury that year is their largest ever at Arsenal. That came after both sides had drawn six consecutive league fixtures, four straight of those were goalless.

The most recent meeting between the two sides, however, was a thumping 6-0 Arsenal win in the fourth round of the FA Cup in 2001. Chris Plummer opened the scoring for Arsenal, which was not good news, considering he played for QPR. That came a minute after Arsenal cleared a header from ~~a giraffe on ice skates~~ Peter Crouch off the line. Sylvain Wiltord added the second before another own goal, this time from Matthew Rose, made it 3-0 for the Gunners. Wiltord added his second to make it 4-0 in the second half, before the scoring was extended by Robert Pires and Dennis Bergkamp.

QPR have only won two league meetings in North London; the most recent was also on New Year's Eve, in 1994. The other was in February of 1984. Arsenal have won 12 of the 20 league meetings at home.

The Referee

Atkinson has sent off four Arsenal players over the last
two years or so. I took this photo from a Bleacher Report
article that asks "who is Arsenal's dirtiest player?"

The referee is West Yorkshire-based Martin Atkinson, working his second Arsenal match of the season. The first was Arsenal's 2-0 loss at home to Liverpool back in August. He has shown Arsenal three red cards over this season and last, over seven matches. The first was to Laurent Koscielny for two quick succession yellow cards in the season opener at Anfield, the second was to Jack Wilshere for a reckless challenge against Birmingham City in a win at the Emirates last October, and the third was to Emmanuel Frimpong for two yellows this August (the first yellow was ridiculous for "time wasting" when Frimpong thought a throw-in was his, but at the time, I had the sense that the challenge for which he got the second yellow could have been worthy of a red card and the referee was being somewhat lenient since it would result in a sending off anyway.) The year before last, Atkinson showed Arsenal the only red card they received all year, to Thomas Vermaelen, for a last man foul. Arsenal have not won a match with Atkinson in the middle in three tries: that includes the loss to Liverpool, a Carling Cup semi-final first leg loss at Ipswich last January, and a 3-3 draw at White Hart Lane in April.

For QPR, Atkinson has worked three matches this year; all three were at Loftus Road. QPR's first Premier League match in 16 years had Atkinson as the referee; Bolton won 4-0 and QPR had defender Clint Hill sent off late. In early November, QPR lost 3-2 to Manchester City with Atkinson in the middle, a match where the home side truly deserved a point. In early December, Atkinson took charge of QPR's 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion.

In 21 matches across all competitions, Atkinson has shown 8 red cards this year, more than another other Select Group referee.

Around the League

Liverpool gets a bit of a reprieve regarding fixture congestion by playing tonight instead of over the weekend. It's Friday Night Football on Sky Sports! The Reds host free-falling Newcastle United at Anfield at 2:45 here in New York. In the USA, it's on Fox Soccer Channel.

Sky/ESPN2 (in the U.K./U.S.) carries the early game, as usual, on Saturday morning, as Manchester United welcomes Blackburn Rovers to Old Trafford. Mike Dean is the referee in that one, in case you want to know who to blame if United gets decisions called in their favor again.

Arsenal v. QPR is one of six matches to kick off at 10:00 a.m. on the East Coast; there's no late game on New Year's Eve afterward. The other five include Chelsea hosting Aston Villa at the Bridge, Bolton welcomes Wolves to the Reebok, Norwich hosts Fulham at Carrow Road (Howard Webb works that one,) Stoke hosts Wigan (enthralling...,) and Phil Dowd has the pleasure of working Tottenham's trip to Swansea.

There are two games on Sunday, as West Brom hosts Everton at the Hawthorns (where Stuart Attwell will attempt to not repeat the shocker he had at the Emirates this week) and Sunderland will try to become the second straight team to nick a point from Manchester City, as the Baggies did on Boxing Day.

Let's Leave the Past in the Past

2011-12-28T20:41:00.000-05:00

There is nothing wrong with nostalgia in its proper time and place. Barely a month goes by that I don't take a night to chill out with a cold one and watch great moments on YouTube - Landon Donovan's winner against Algeria, a Dennis Bergkamp (praise be his name) highlight package, the Montreal Canadiens' 1993 Stanley Cup run, and so on.

Great moments and personalities are there to be re-lived. Reliving something from a safe distance of time and reflection is healthy...but attempting to raise it from the dead and expecting it to be as you remembered it is a good way to ruin your old memories as well as frustrate your current and future plans. Necromancy never ends well.

All of this is my characteristically long-winded way of saying "For the love of Dennis, please do NOT re-sign Thierry Henry."

Believe me, I am as frustrated at our non-Dutch striking options as anyone else is. We badly need to ring the doorbell of some random Ligue 1 club, leave Marouane Chamakh in a picnic basket on their doorstep and high-tail it out of there before they know it's us. While not technically a striker, Andrei Arshavin needs a high-speed rail ticket back to St. Petersburg with our thanks for that one magic night at Anfield.

Park-Ju Young? I'm increasingly coming around to the idea that he was signed entirely to flog replica shirts in the lucrative Asian market - a Junichi Inamoto for the new millennium.

So, it is beyond debate that attacking reinforcements are badly needed in the January sales. It's also beyond debate that purchases made in this window are a) ridiculously overpriced, b) a bit shit or c) all of the above. Arsene Wenger has my sympathies for what is undoubtedly a difficult decision, with little in the way of seriously viable options.

You know what, though? That's why he makes the big bucks.

Henry recently received the richly-deserved honor of having a statue bearing his likeness placed outside Ashburton Grove. Other than perhaps Tony Adams or Dennis himself, no other player in Arsenal's storied history deserves it more than he does. From 1999 to 2007, there was no striker more fearsome than he. I don't give a flying one what the brain surgeons at UEFA say, he should have been Player of the Year on numerous occasions.

I mean, that back-heel against Charlton Athletic alone...

But, before we succumb to misty-eyed paeans to the past, let's be realistic here. Thierry Henry is 34 years old. He is coming off a 14-goal, 4-assist season for the New York Red Bulls of MLS. That was good enough to lead the team, and he was only two off of Dwayne De Rosario's Golden Boot-winning tally of 16. When you further factor in that MLS has a shocking degree of parity (thus meaning far fewer weak sisters to hit 2 or 3 against each time), it's a solid figure taken in a vacuum.

The problem is - have you seen an MLS game? I'm glad it exists, it's great for the American national side, but it is unwatchable at times. It's a league where up-and-coming talents dominate on their way to European contracts, and where aging veterans go to have a safe landing on their way down. Defenses are average ranging to shocking, goalkeepers are...old. Really, really, really, really old.

It is a league played at a slower pace, where he does not nearly have as many defensive responsibilities as he would in the English Premier League. It is a league where he can take the PATH train to work and is largely left alone (outside special cases like when we NYC Arsenal Supporters crashed the party, that is). It is a league that seemingly has a new expansion team every other season (Montreal's coming next season, if memory serves).

Really? This fills you with confidence? This is the guy you want to rescue our season if Robin gets hurt?

Again, I adore Thierry Henry as a player and am thankful for the multitude of accomplishments he produced in an Arsenal shirt. His status as a legend of the sport is unassailable.

But, we are now on the precipice of 2012. There has to be better options out there, right?

Not according to Per Mertesacker, apparently. I'm hoping that this is just a fluff piece or a misdirection ploy from Le Boss, but there are two other things in here that immediately set my internal rage meter to "Jules Winfield".

Wenger suggested last week that short-term deals in January would suit him best, as he not only had a "big squad"

OK, seriously, you can stick that "big squad" shit directly up your ass.

When your second-best option is a guy who is already dreaming of playing against St. Etienne and Montpellier every week again (oh, and who is going to the African Cup of Nations anyway), and your third-best option is someone who the same article mentions has been told to "step up" and couldn't be found in Premier League play by Sherlock Holmes if you spotted him two clues and a six-week headstart, you categorically do not have a big squad.

J'ai peut-être né pendant la journée, M. Wenger, mais ce n'était pas hier.

but there was the need "to see how we can balance our books as well."

While you're at it, this can join the big squad excuse where the sun don't shine.

We have made a profit in every transfer window since Eddie Hapgood's day, so unless Arsenal Football Club is secretly a money-laundering front sending cash to the Mafia, the Illuminati or space aliens, I am so far beyond wanting to hear this, it's left Earth orbit and is somewhere on the way to Alpha Centauri.

Honestly, the combination of this and the Wayne Bridge rumor has left me wondering whether anger or resignation is the proper response. My question to the powers that be with Arsenal is simply this - are we a big club or not?

If the answer is no, then fine! I'd honestly be OK with that...the game changes, power shifts and then shifts again, and every so often every club finds itself in the wilderness without a compass for a while. If we have to wait out this rash of oligarchs using the Premier League as their latest plaything, that's reality and we have to accept it. Just be honest, and manage our expectations appropriately. Are we still supposed to be challenging the Manchester clubs for supremacy? Great! But, please oh please tell me then why we are simultaneously dumpster-diving in Manchester City's dustbin and the attic of our own history?

You can't have it both ways.

I think we would all agree that ideally, we'd bring someone with an actual name tag in from one of the other big leagues. Lukas Podolski would be the absolute least among that number for my money (tell me he wouldn't mope like Dimitar Berbatov at the end of his Scum days the second anything went wrong), but at least it would be a positive step. I just don't see this manager making the leap and spending the money, though.

In my heart, I don't think it's a matter of available capital. After Sylvain Wiltord, Francis Jeffers and Andrei Arshavin, I think he's simply paralyzed by the fear of failing in the high-stakes transfer market again.

Look, if we have to go trawling in every dollar store and flea market for a bargain, I would much rather see us get a young kid from the lower leagues and see if he pans out rather than lower ourselves to go to our rivals with hat in hand begging for whatever bits of flotsam they can deign to grant to us. I'll even stick my neck out and give a name - Jordan Rhodes, from Huddersfield Town. Yes, I am painfully aware that this is a kid from the third tier who, at best, would have a harsh adjustment period to the Premier League. That said, he has 18 league goals already on the season, is only 21, and there's already some young guy on our roster that is absolutely killing it after having played at that level.

Would it in all probability fail? Sure! But, I'd much rather roll the dice by spending 8M or 10M on him rather than, for example, whatever we'd have to pony up for this Johnny Big Britches. Seriously, mate...you need your agent to slow his roll before you end up getting found out in your own league. The funny thing is that Newcastle would be perfect for this guy - they'd doubtless overpay him by a factor if 10 while giving him a guaranteed platform for a bigger-money move if he somehow was able to hack it in the Premier League. But, given our recent track record of mining Ligue 1...well...I think this well's dry, Arsene.

This season has felt like it's been one crossroads moment after another, and yet this transfer window may be the most crucial of the lot. Our identity, our place in the hierarchy of the league, our cachet with future transfer targets...all of it is at stake. If the manager's big idea is a left back whose last encounter with us saw him responsible for three goals conceded and a striker who with all due respect is a museum piece at this point, then I fear we may find ourselves bringing a knife to a gunfight as the season approaches the serious bit.

Over to you, Arsene.

Arsenal 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers: The Big Clubs are All in the Giving Mood This Holiday

2011-12-28T00:00:00.001-05:00

I was never destined to watch this match today.

Perhaps there are those out there that can watch a whole 90 minutes of a game that they already know the result to. I, on the other hand, categorically cannot. For me, the greatest single aspect of this sport is its equal capacity for drama and for surprise. I do not consume football like a museum piece - I need that adrenaline coursing in the background.

So, the break room TV at work happens to be on ESPN as I'm getting a nice cup of tea, and wouldn't you just know it, the ticker at the bottom shows that it's 1-1. I recognize the pall of inevitability when I see it, so I wasn't shocked that the one time I logged onto Facebook, a friend had posted a status about the same scoreline being the final.

Oh, well.

Thankfully, there is the fantastic and irreplaceable 101 Great Goals. As you might imagine, this report will essentially be my running thoughts as I watch the long-form highlights of the match. Also, I wouldn't normally do ratings, but a reader has helpfully answered my call for submissions on that front, so we'll have guest scores this time around.

Anyway, the starting lineup seems like it was decent enough on paper - Johan Djourou made an early return from injury to slot into the doomed right-back role, while Yossi Benayoun and Tomas Rosicky came into the side in place of Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott. Walcott wasn't so much as on the bench, though I'm not sure if it was due to injury or ill-advised rotation.

The rest of the starting XI consisted of the usual suspects. In a vacuum, this is a side that should have beaten Wolverhampton at home.

That outcome must have seemed likely as early as the eighth minute, when the Gunners took the lead after a fine passage of team play. Rosicky started the move with a flying run down the right, and he cut it into the middle of Benayoun. The Israeli picked out an inch-perfect through-ball to the onrushing Gervinho, who beat what was frankly an awful attempt at an offside trap. Wolves keeper Wayne Hennessey came out, then hesitated. Gervinho easily went around him and slid the ball into the empty net.

Sadly, that would be the only questionable decision Hennessey made on the afternoon.

Half an hour later, the visitors would be level. A long, looping ball into the area was poorly dealt with by Mertesacker, who stood off of it for some reason. Nenad Milijas took the opportunity to play the ball off of him for a corner. The corner was cleared fairly easily, but then a Rube Goldberg series of bounces led to the ball nestling in the far corner of Wojceich Szczesny's net. The clearance came to Stephen Hunt at the edge of the penalty area, and Rosicky risibly and shamefully turned away from him instead of challenging for it. Hunt fired it into the area, but the shot was charged down by three onrushing Arsenal midfielders.

Ninety times out of a hundred, the ball ricochets forward and out of play, and Rosicky would be out of jail for his cowardice. This time, the ball looped backwards into the six-yard box, and the Arsenal center-halves were caught ball-watching. It looked like they may have been trying to play Steven Fletcher offside, but Djourou was about 3-4 yards behind them, and he was level with them anyway. It was an unwelcome return to 2010 Arsenal Defending, and with Mertesacker for some reason drifting yards away, Fletcher was left with a disgracefully uncontested finish.

The Gunners have given up some bad goals this season, but this may have been the stupidest and one of the most preventable. Rosicky and Mertesacker in particular should be ashamed of themselves.

I suppose it could have been worse, and the team could have collapsed from there. Instead, the Gunners apparently bossed the lion's share of the possession and fired a barrage of shots at Hennessey's goal. The highlights don't show any of it though, as they skip right ahead to Milijas getting sent off for a tackle from behind.

In real time, it looked like a hideous challenge...the sort that needs to be stamped out of the game. Having viewed it on the replay though, it looked like it was towards the more vicious end of what should be a yellow card. To me, a booking and a stern word of caution regarding future conduct is all that challenge merited...but honestly, is anyone stunned that the man I've dubbed "Phil Dowd Jr." got it wrong?

Speaking of which, an alternative set of highlights shows Laurent Koscielny trying to play a cross into the penalty area in the 58th minute. The Wolves defender has his arm perpendicular to his body (picture the way the Mexican national side stands at attention for their anthem), and the ball hits him. That is, according to the letter of the law, as stonewall a penalty as you'll ever want to see. I'm sure you're as stunned as I though that Stuart Atwell merely called for the corner kick.

Ten minutes later, Hennessey made a sharp save on Robin van Persie's free kick attempt, doing spectacularly well to tip it over the bar. A minute later, Rosicky's fine cross was met with a thumping header by Mertesacker. The Welsh stopper's positioning and reflexes were impeccable though, and he saved brilliantly with his foot. With eight minutes to go, RVP tested that man again, but this time the save was a tad more routine. There was one more effort from the Dutchman at Hennessey's near post, but he was able to corral it in despite diving the wrong way (an element of luck there, to be sure).

Before I get to the bright side, I find that I once again have to express complete bafflement at Arsene Wenger's substitutions. Benayoun came off in the 63rd, which makes sense given his lack of minutes so far this season. But, that precious half-hour was given to Andrei "Gaping Chest Wound in the Arsenal Attack" Arshavin. WHY? WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY? He has done the square root of fuck all for months now, and this was a game that was crying out for the energy of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Ramsey on for Song in the 71st was more adventurous, so credit where it's due. But, the last change was not made until the 85th, with Marouane Chamakh coming on for Djourou. He hasn't been any better than Arshavin to be fair, but at least he'd be another body in the penalty area for their defense to pay attention to, which may have opened some space for someone in form.

The mind, it boggles.

Anyway, as promised, there is a bright side to all of this. Yeah, it's winnable points that have been dropped at home. But, Wolves have been far friskier and far tougher of an out than they have been previously, and, well, this:

8/13/11 - Liverpool 1-1 Sunderland
8/14/11 - Stoke City 0-0 Chelsea
9/10/11 - Stoke City 1-1 Liverpool
9/14/11 - Benfica 1-1 Manchester United
9/15/11 - PAOK Salonika 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur
9/18/11 - Fulham 2-2 Manchester City
9/20/11 - Stoke City 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur
9/21/11 - Chelsea 0-0 Fulham
9/24/11 - Stoke City 1-1 Manchester United
9/27/11 - Manchester United 3-3 FC Basel
10/5/11 - Liverpool 0-0 Swansea City
10/22/11 - Liverpool 1-1 Norwich City
10/23/11 - Queens Park Rangers 1-0 Chelsea
11/1/11 - Racing Club Genk 1-1 Chelsea
11/22/11 - Manchester United 2-2 Benfica
11/26/11 - Manchester United 1-1 Newcastle United
11/30/11 - Crystal Palace 2-1 Manchester United
11/30/11 - Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 PAOK Salonika
12/5/11 - Fulham 1-0 Liverpool
12/7/11 - FC Basel 2-1 Manchester United
12/11/11 - Stoke City 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
12/17/11 - Wigan Athletic 1-1 Chelsea
12/21/11 - Wigan Athletic 0-0 Liverpool
12/26/11 - Chelsea 1-1 Fulham
12/26/11 - Liverpool 1-1 Blackburn Rovers
12/26/11 - West Bromwich Albion 0-0 Manchester City

Two things I especially note here:

1. Look at 12/26/11 alone...it was a bloodbath of dropped points for the big sides. It's not just us - the Boxing Day fixture program is rough sailing for everyone.

2. Look at how many dropped points Stoke account for on this list...and remember who comfortably beat them 3-1 (at the Emirates though, in fairness).

So, onwards and upwards, friends. The Champions League places are still very much in our sights.

The Modern Gooner (Guest) Player Ratings:

I had requested on the Facebook page some assistance with this section, having not seen the match. However, since only one of you got it in on time, these ratings are entirely the playground of Amy Williamson this week. Thank you again, Amy!

Szczesny 7, Vermaelen 7, Mertesacker 8, Koscielny 7, Djourou 7 (Chamakh N/A), Song 6 (Ramsey N/A), Arteta 7, Gervinho 9, Benayoun 9 (Arshavin 4), Rosicky 8, van Persie 6

Man of the Match: Yossi Benayoun (Sean's note: It WAS a wonderful pass for the assist...)

Preview by Numbers: Arsenal v. Wolverhampton Wanderers

2011-12-26T00:01:00.000-05:00

Emirates Stadium, London

Tuesday, December 27

10:00 a.m. EDT, 3:00 p.m. GMT

Match Officials

Referee: Stuart Attwell
Assistants: Peter Kirkup and Ceri Richards
4th Official: Lee Probert

This Match, Last Year: Arsenal 2 - 0 Wolves
All-Time in All Competitions: 56 Arsenal wins, 28 Wolves wins, 25 draws
Arsenal's League Form: W-D-W-W-L-W
Wolves' League Form: L-L-W-L-L-D

Yossi Benayoun headed home Arsenal's winner on
Wednesday, the second night of Hanukkah.
Photo: Guardian.

They always say that winning games ugly is the mark of a championship team. Now, let's not get carried away, I'm not saying this team is going to challenge for the title this season; they're probably not. The point is, to challenge for a Champions League spot, Arsenal needs to keep racking up three points against the teams they should be beating. In the end, no matter how you win them, it's still three points. It's important to win ugly sometimes, and that's exactly what happened in Birmingham on Wednesday.

Speaking of teams Arsenal should be picking up three points against, Wolverhampton Wanderers visit the Emirates tomorrow. Wolves sit precariously above the drop zone, one point clear of Wigan. Arsenal plays three times in seven days, with this being the first of them, so one wonders where and when there will be squad rotation. The back four is still in shambles due to injuries, so it does not sound like there's room to rest anybody there. Ultimately, we'll see what Wenger decides to do, but with QPR and Fulham up ahead in quick succession, this is no time to get too comfortable.

Last year during the festive period, Arsenal played three times in six days and walked away with seven points. It should have been nine, but a rotated squad gave away a late equalizer in Wigan (thanks, Squillaci!) Would seven be satisfying this year? With points so precious in the battle for the top four, I wouldn't think so.

Anyway, due to the holiday festivities, this is going to be a bit of a short preview. Apologies.

Arsenal Squad News

Out: Djourou (groin), Fabianski (knee), Sagna (leg), Gibbs (groin), Jenkinson (back), Diaby (hamstring), Wilshere (ankle), Santos (ankle)

There's some good news regarding those who are out, and I suppose, bad news too. The good news is that players like Bacary Sagna and Jack Wilshere are back in light training. The bad news it that Kieran Gibbs has had another set back and will miss another month. Johan Djourou is still about two weeks away, at best.

So, the back four is still a bit of a mess. You can bet that Tom Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny, and Per Mertesacker will all start and you can be sure that Mertesacker will be in the middle. The question is, who plays as fullbacks... do you put Koscielny on the right and start Ignasi Miquel on the left, or do you start Vermaelen on the left and start Francis Coquelin again on the right? I'm going to blindly put my money on the former option.

The Guardian's squad sheet article lists the former option as well, but also, interestingly, starts Yossi Benayoun over Aaron Ramsey. Food for thought, as Benayoun deserves a start, and Ramsey was a bit poor at Aston Villa. Benayoun should get a start at some point soon, due to the necessary squad rotation during fixture congestion. Tomas Rosicky will probably get a start soon, too. It's just a question of when and that's a question that only Wenger can answer.

Predicted XI: Szczesny, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Mertesacker, Miquel, Song, Ramsey, Arteta, Gervinho, Walcott, van Persie.

Wolves Squad News

Our or Doubtful: Edwards (groin), Craddock (hamstring), Foley (match fitness)

There's a chance that Welsh international Dave Edwards will be traveling with the side after going through training on Saturday. He's been out for three weeks with a groin strain he picked up against Manchester United. It's my understanding that Joey Craddock and Kevin Foley are both still unavailable with hamstring and ankle injuries, respectively. Jamie O'Hara has a groin injury, but the Guardian suspects he's available.

Current Form

Arsenal's win at Aston Villa was their third win in their last seven matches across all competitions, though there's only so much you can read into the three losses in that time period, like the valiant display at Eastlands, or the losses by the second string at Olympiacos and in the Carling Cup. Arsenal's form over their last six league fixtures (which includes one loss and a draw) is equivalent to that of Manchester City's and Tottenham Hotspur's. Only Manchester United (who have five wins and a draw over their last six) have better form in the league. Arsenal's win over Everton in their last home game snapped a short two match streak without a win at the Emirates across all competitions (they had drawn Fulham, then lost to City in the Carling Cup.)

Wolves this season have not beaten anybody above 13th place (which was their home win against Fulham.) They have a record of four wins, one loss, and one draw against the seven other teams in the bottom eight with them. Against the top 12, they have two draws and nine losses. Wolves opened the season on the road with a 2-1 win at Blackburn, but since then, have not won away from Molineux in the league. Their only other point away from home came in a 0-0 draw at Aston Villa, also in August.

Match Facts

Wolves have never beaten Arsenal in the Premier League era; they have lost all six meetings thus far. Wolves have not scored a goal at Arsenal in the three matches played at Highbury/Emirates Stadium in the Premier League. Arsenal have come away with 3-0, 1-0, and 2-0 victories. Last year's 2-0 victory came from a Robin van Persie brace, just days before Arsenal's best win of the season, against Barcelona in the Champions League. In last year's reverse fixture at Molineux, the brace came from Marouane Chamakh in another 2-0 win. Wolves' last win at Arsenal came at Highbury in 1979, by a 3-2 scoreline. In the meeting the following season, in 1980, Wolves earned a 1-1 draw. Arsenal have won the last five league meetings at home with Wolves since then. All-time, Wolves have eight wins at Arsenal in 48 league matches.

The Referee

The referee is Warwickshire-based Stuart Attwell, working the fourth Arsenal match of his career and second of this season. In September, Attwell took charge of Arsenal's 1-0 win over Swansea, the first match the Gunners played after that which shall not be named. I don't remember much of the specifics, but Sean, our recap writer, stated that he had a "shocker" and that he's "caught a case of Phil Dowd disease," so I think everybody should panic. Last year, Attwell took charge of Arsenal's 4-1 home win over Bolton (I do remember him being a mess that day, too) and the 2-2 draw at West Brom (I remember Arsenal and Manuel Almunia being a mess that day.)

Attwell has worked only one Wolves match this season, the 3-1 loss at Manchester City. A red card to Vincent Kompany made that match interesting, as Stephen Hunt's penalty brought Wolves within 2-1 with 15 minutes to play, but City closed the match off at the end.

Around the League

Arsenal's movement of this match from Monday to Tuesday leaves seven matches to be played on Boxing Day, with three more scheduled for tomorrow.

The early match sees Chelsea host Fulham at Stamford Bridge, which is going ahead in spite of the industrial action in London. Five games kick-off in the usual 10:00 a.m. Eastern time slot, as Manchester United hosts Wigan at Old Trafford, Liverpool hosts Steve Kean Out Rovers at Anfield, Manchester City travels to the Hawthorns to face West Brom, Bolton hosts Newcastle, and Sunderland hosts Everton. The nightcap is indeed just that; it's at 7:45 p.m. in England, as Stoke hosts Aston Villa at the Britannia.

On Tuesday, after Arsenal v. Wolves at 10, Swansea hosts QPR at noon, and Norwich hosts Spurs at 2:30.

2011 in Retrospect: Just Another Boring Year, Then! (Part 2 - games from this season)

2011-12-23T16:41:00.102-05:00

8/1/11 - Sean's Season Preview: 2011-12

Some say the jury is out on Wojciech Szezcsny, but for me the case is emphatically closed...In an age where the list of truly world-class goalkeepers probably reads: "Iker Casillas. End text", Szezcsny is in the top 5-6 keepers in the division..which is more than good enough for our purposes.

For all my bitching and moaning about the state of the club, there is a serious argument that could be made where a fit TV5 for the whole season plus going with Szezcsny from the beginning would have put us in with a serious shot for the league title.

With a fit TV5 as his partner and a bit more consistency, he (Koscielny) could be part of a solid defensive unit that should go a long way towards addressing some of our issues.

Let's say we're away to United or Chelsea and we have to play with Jenkinson and, say, Armand Traore. Does that fill you with confidence?

I would love to see a signing in the center-mid position, but I doubt it's going to happen. Still, things aren't all negative. We managed to flog the useless Denilson off to Sao Paulo. Do us a favor, Denny, and lose our address.

With the status of want-away Nicklas Bendtner still up in the air, this is absolutely going to be the Robin van Persie show. As he goes, we'll go. There was no better Arsenal player in the second half of last season than the Dutchman, which of course was closely aligned to the fact that it was his most consistent campaign on the fitness front. If he can repeat that in this term, there's no reason why he can't have anywhere between 20-25 goals. The hope is that with Gervinho and either a revitalized Arshavin or a more consistent Walcott behind him, he may even get to 30. That's a lot of ifs though.

8/14/11 - Newcastle United 0-0 Arsenal: Positive Aspects to a Dull Match

It makes an incalculable difference to a defense when they know that they can rely on their goalkeeper, and it showed today.

The talking points continued shortly thereafter, with Alex Song guilty of a sly stamp on the leg of the odious Joey Barton - who has clearly missed his calling. He's the best heel that pro wrestling never had. Still, Song absolutely should have walked for that transgression, and the fact that he didn't was a huge reason that Arsenal walked away with a point today.

Gervinho steamed into the penalty area, and went down remarkably easy on a challenge from Chieck Tiote. Fair's fair...it was a dive and a risible one at that. Barton came barreling over, grabbed Gervinho by the shirt, lifted him up and then had his hands at the man's face/throat area. For his part, the Ivorian stupidly raised his hands towards Barton's face. The fucking piece of shit went down clutching his noggin like a sniper took him out from the rooftop, and our Incompetent Match Official Du Jour Peter Walton completely bought it. How on earth his linesmen didn't see the whole incident, I'll never know. The end result was red for Gervinho, and only a yellow for the guy that started the fracas in the first place for no reason. The mind boggles. Seriously, I would LOVE to hear the explanation of this from the esteemed Mr. Walton. Perhaps, at 51, this game just may be passing him by.

This is a team at a crossroads, and what I don't think Mr. Wenger understands is that the only thing harder than becoming a big club is getting back there once you've lost it. We are in clear and present danger of losing that status, which in turn would make it even more difficult to attract players of any real quality to the club. We don't pay them the sums that other clubs do, so all we really have to offer is pretty football and the chance of winning things. Take away the chance of winning things, and all we're left with is pretty football. Well, Blackpool plays pretty football too, but they aren't signing Juan Manuel Mata anytime soon.

(For the second time, if you are squeamish or have a pre-existing heart condition, you may want to skip down a bit)

8/28/11 - Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal: An Absolute and Utter Disgrace

Early on in the match, I wrote in my notes: "This looks like an early-round FA Cup game, right down to our hideous shirts." You know what, though? I cannot think of a single team in the lower divisions who would defend this shambolically, that would have so little pride and determination that they would essentially stop playing and let the champions do whatever they wanted.

But, fuck's sake, look at that defense. Carl Jenkinson, with all of 8 games for a third-tier side. Armand Traore, who anyone with a functioning brain stem can pick out as not being a Premier League player. Johan Djourou, who is capable 30% of the time, a liability 60% of the time, and worse than Helen Keller 10% of the time. If you include the holding midfielder, Francis Coquelin, making his first-team debut and largely considered to be not good enough as well. This is who we went to battle with. This is who we asked to march into Old Trafford and take on the champions.

For a team with pretensions towards greatness, that perhaps (Chamakh aside) would be the bench for the reserve team. Look again at United - waiting in the wings they had names like Berbatov, Chicharito, Ferdinand, Park and Da Silva - quality players all. Take another long stare at the gulf in quality between the lineups and the benches. I would not pick the team put out today to beat QPR, who are easily the worst team on show in the Premiership so far. I really mean that.

But, this was the first time Arsenal have shipped 8 in the league since 1896. Arguably, this is the worst loss in Arsenal's history...any sort of big-club mystique left over from the Henry/Bergkamp days is irrevocably lost.

Djourou had one of his 10% games, and Coquelin wasn't providing any help in midfield. So, what you had was the largely blameless Laurent Koscielny and the completely blameless keeper frantically trying to repel attacks with only four flailing, bumbling Keystone Kops for assistance.

Right after, Jonny Evans fouled Walcott in the area, and up stepped RVP. It's funny - normally I am somewhat of an optimist about this team, but I looked over at my roommate and said: "He's going to miss." Sure enough, he hit the worst penalty I've seen since the Women's World Cup Final, and De Gea had the easiest of saves.

Jenkinson completes his afternoon by getting sent off. This is what happens when you take someone from a kiddie pool and put them in the Mariana Trench.

I don't know what we do or where we go from here. I don't know who we buy to improve our situation. I don't know...I just fucking don't know. See you next week...it can't be worse.

9/1/11 - Grading the Transfer Window

However, I would emphatically file this transfer window as a whole under "Minimum Acceptable". because at the end of the day we are still light years behind the two Manchester sides and even Chelsea as far as challenging for any significant honors. What happened tonight brought us back from the precipice of a free-fall into the UEFA places or worse (10th place was not out of the question on the back of the drubbing at Old Trafford), but we still have a hell of a fight on our hands just to finish in 4th place again.

However, given the despondent state of Arsenal Nation and especially coming off the back of the worst defeat in over A HUNDRED YEARS (yes, I'm harping on it...it deserves to be harped on), a marquee signing...a true feeling of actual reinforcements...would have gone a long way towards revitalizing our faith...I don't think that was ever realistic though, whatever the reason why. Compounding the frustration is that Arsenal FC these days is as open and transparent as the Soviet Politburo circa 1945, so who the hell knows who is responsible for what these days?

Santos looks to be a decent shout, with over 20 caps for Brazil and 10 goals last season...The problem is that if he gets hurt, what are we left with?

The good news here is that an epic Rube Goldberg machine of events has to happen before young Miquel finds his way to the bench or in a game again, and only slightly less has to happen to see the execrable Squillaci.

It's not that I have a problem with us getting Jenkinson, per se. He's an OK prospect and having him in the reserves for a year before sending him out on loan somewhere, to return ready to play in year 3? That makes sense to me. Having him and all 8 games of his third-tier experience playing at Old Trafford because one guy got sick? Institutional lunacy of the worst order. Absolute clown shoes.

Anyway, that wasn't to be. We have Arteta now, and I freely admit that there will be games where he just DESTROYS teams. He can still pick out a pass, and if memory serves he'll bomb them in from long range every now and again. Great. But, he's coming up on 30, injury-prone, and has never been one to relish the big occasions or the blood-and-thunder epics that the Premier League throws at you from time to time. He's extremely light-weight, in other words.

Look, I'm not saying Yossi is anywhere near as painfully terrible as the Frenchman was, but it comes down to one basic principle for me: If one of your direct competitors is willing to give you one of their current first-team players, the odds are overwhelming that there is a reason why they're letting you have them.

Now, we come to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and this is where I want to go Jules Winfield on the nearest person...Riddle me this, Batman...why is it that we're willing to spend TWELVE TO FIFTEEN MILLION EUROS on an 18-year old from the third tier who has accomplished the square root of fuck all, but we let a reserve clause of only perhaps 5 million more slip away for Juan Manuel Mata...who is not only a top-level talent, but we let him get away to bloody Chelski on top of it?

Park Chu-Young, on the other hand, is at least a slightly better gamble.

Again, this is a position that was crying out for some established, veteran help...and is another position where what we have is essentially a roll of quarters and a bus ticket to Atlantic City (when Robin misses games, that is).

9/12/11 - Arsenal 1-0 Swansea City: Recovery, One Step at a Time

Swansea marries Blackpool's attacking intent with a slightly less suicidal defensive strategy, and Arsenal didn't make things difficult for them either. Once again, the build-up play was fine, but the lack of a final killer ball was telling. Primarily, Kieran Gibbs and Emmanuel Frimpong were careless with their passing and continually lost possession.

Mertesacker contributed with one excellent interception that I remember, as well as some blocked shots. With Thomas Vermelaen out with a long-term injury, this developing Mert-ielny partnership is one to keep an eye on.

He held for a second, and then looked to release his right-back Angel Rangel with a rolled pass. However, Rangel was not expecting it, and it hit the back of his legs...As I said to Brett after the celebrations: "It's about time we got a little good luck, isn't it?"

The funny thing is, Vorm is an excellent goalkeeper. He acquitted himself well for FC Utrecht in the Eredivisie, and has been capped by the Netherlands 5 times. Getting him was something of a coup for a club like Swansea...but it just goes to show that even a solid player can make a horrific mistake in any given game.

The match wore on, and Attwell booked a few more Gunners for breathing and/or continued cardio-vascular activity. I was honestly stunned that the streak of red cards was finally halted by the end of 90 minutes.

9/14/11 - Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Arsenal: Massive Defensive Performance

Despite the somewhat ropey start, the Arsenal backline came into the game after that opening quarter-hour, and were absolutely immense for the rest of the match. Per Mertesacker's size, ability to read the game and first-hand knowledge of these opponents was obviously a big factor. Laurent Koscielny was fantastic yet again in his role of sweeping up ahead of the big German, and made some critical blocks and tackles throughout the match. Sagna helped lock down the right wing, and was once again quietly brilliant.

A few minutes later, Theo Walcott made his one contribution to the match by picking out a lovely through-ball to the Dutch master. Weidenfeller came out, but had no answer for van Persie's ferocious shot (chocolate leg, to boot!).

But still, the Arsenal held. Really, how old-school was this? On and on they attacked, on and on Arsenal repelled them. If the defense failed, the colossal Szczesny was there to sweep up after them.

Just as it looked like the Arsenal would somehow escape with all three points, the home side got an equalizer that they probably deserved...albeit in sickening circumstances...No one on earth was saving that, and honestly, that guy can hit that shot 50 times and 49 of them would go over the bar and into low Earth orbit.

9/19/11 - Blackburn Rovers 4-3 Arsenal: Suicidal Defending Costs Us Again

Blackburn could easily have folded given their current dire straits and the multitude of knives out towards their embattled manager Steve Kean. Instead, they redoubled their efforts and fought their way back into the game (I wonder what that's like?).

The Spaniard opened his account for the club by absolutely thundering an unstoppable shot just underneath the crossbar. As well as the Blackburn keeper played on the day, he wouldn't have stopped that with a stepladder and two days' notice.

Really, it'd be kind of funny if it weren't happening to us. What wasn't funny was Sagna limping off, to be replaced by Johan Djourou. Yes, you read that right...Djourou, who can't even play his own position these days, was coming in to play right back. I don't know about anyone else, but I saw foreboding clouds on the horizon when that particular personnel change was made.

Seriously, if Djourou were a dog we'd be readying the shotgun behind the barn after this performance

At this stage, Arsenal decided that playing football might be somewhat of a notion. OH, WHAT A CAPITAL IDEA.

Now, we sit in 17th place with four measly points (3 less than QPR, 1 less than Norwich and Swansea) and a -8 goal differential, the worst in the division. We go from a ferociously battling performance away to the German champions, to meekly surrendering two leads against one of the worst teams in our domestic league. It's ugly reading, but that's where we are. If I had to guess, I'd say that once again, we turned up to a winnable game assuming the three points were already in the bank.

I hope I'm wrong...but I increasingly doubt it. Things change in football - imagine what you could tell a Liverpool supporter circa 1984, a Spuds supporter circa the late 1960s, etc. Maybe our time is just up. If it is, I am at least comforted by the thought that the same faces will still be at the Pig no matter where we finish. Arsenal 'til I die, bitches.

9/26/11 - Arsenal 3-0 Bolton Wanderers: A Functional, Drama-Free Win

Once again, Szczesny has proven to be one of the key pieces of this squad.

Gervinho was in alone and frankly should have scored. Sadly, his second touch had the grace and delicacy of a ballet-dancing elephant, and it bobbled into the grateful arms of Jussi Jaaskelainen.

RVP got two goals, as you know taking him up to 100 with the club. I was actually kind of stunned to read that he's not that far away from tying the great Dennis Bergkamp's figure with the club. Wikipedia tells me it's 120, but I always figured it was something around 11,542.

10/3/11 - Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Arsenal: The Fail Parade Continues

As painful as it is to say, we well and truly deserved to get stuffed at the hands of our nearest and fiercest rivals, and only the individual brilliance of our goalkeeper kept the scoreline in the realm of respectability.

Song's giveaway was bad, but the worst perpetrator on the day was Ramsey.

RVP led the charge, rampaging down the left wing. His cutback to Gervinho was perfect, and with as much time and space as he had, a top level player absolutely must score from there in any circumstance short of a wonder-save from the opposing keeper. Brad Friedel's intervention was not required though, as the Ivorian risibly fired the shot high and wide. It was an absolutely shocking miss, given the circumstances.

Now, there are those saying van der Vaart should have been sent off for running into the crowd to celebrate, since he was on a yellow already...What I mean is that if you score a goal, you should be able to celebrate it without some Mr. Fussy waving a yellow bit of cardboard at you for expressing joy or taking your shirt off or whatever...Long story short - let's not take ALL of the joy out of this game, shall we?

Oh, and where Gervinho missed, Ramsey absolutely hammered an unstoppable shot right underneath the crossbar and in. The pub went mental, and at that stage I thought we might go on and win it.

It did swerve a little at the end, but Szczesny saw it the whole way. You know, sometimes you just lose the flight of the ball...sometimes you think "I got this", and relax a bit and thus take your eye off of it at the last. Keepers are human, these things happen. Unfortunately, this happened at 1-1 in a North London Derby, but what can you do? Again, if it weren't for Szczesny, Spurs would have been home and dry long before this point.

As our FOURTH loss of the season in just seven games loomed ever closer, we still played the same glacially-slow tippy-tappy crap that we've all had more than our fill of over the last three or four seasons.

You want the truth? Arsene Wenger should have been handed his P45 on his way down the tunnel after the match. Any other club in the world would have sacked any other manager in the world with this track record long before now.

Wake-up call, people. We are in 15th place with around one-sixth of the season gone. FIFTEENTH. There's still plenty of time to turn it around, but what evidence is there that we will?

Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer, but I don't see why it isn't warranted.

10/17/11 - Arsenal 2-1 Sunderland: A Tale of Two Heroes

When you're not playing well as a team and are struggling to find form, oftentimes the only way you're going to get a result is if your best players perform better than the other lot's best. Today, Arsenal got twin Man of the Match performances from Robin van Persie and Wojciech Szczesny to ensure a vital three points.

The young Pole came haring out of his goal box and was a good 5 yards outside when Sessegnon got around him. Thankfully, we had enough bodies back where he didn't have a clear sight of goal, and Alex Song was able to clear the danger. Fuck me, that had my heart in my throat for a moment there. I love you Wojceich, but don't ever do that again.

Honestly? If that went in, I am beyond sure that we would have gone on to lose the game...They didn't score though, did they? Szczesny came across the face of his goal in a flash, flinging his body far enough to just get a hand to Cattermole's header. Wojceich Szczesny refused to let us lose today...end of story. We would truly be adrift without him this season, that's for sure. At the end of the campaign, we may be calling this one The Save that Saved the Season.

Song was fine when defending, but he continues to show the passing range of Helen Keller with motor-neurone disease.

In fact, this is about where Sunderland switched tactics from "soak up pressure and get one piece of ridiculous skill" to "Gears of War 3". Honestly, it was like the Battle of the Somme out there for a while...

I didn't think much of it at the time, as Arteta, RVP and Walcott had contrived to make a pig's ear out of several free kicks before that. Not this time.

10/29/11 - Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal: There's Only One Team in London

"You are very adamant that your lot are winning this week," my roommate said to me yesterday. He's right - I was (and you can look at the comments of the post before this if you need proof). I suppose part of it was the recent winning streak, the form of Robin van Persie, the excellence of our young goalkeeper. Sure, all of those things came into it. But, at the end of the day, I know a sick wildebeest when I see one, and Chelsea look like they're on the bad end of the nature documentary.

More importantly, I feel like Arsenal won back a large part of its soul on this day. Call it hyperbole if you wish, but this club was peering into the heart of darkness not that long ago - 17th place, losing to Blackburn, no end in sight. This team was one or two more bad results away from the precipice. Will history remember that?

Instead, we were treated (if by "treated" you mean "taking 5 years off your life") to a madcap, helter-skelter defensive shitshow from both sides.

Not for the first time on the day, Arsenal could have pulled the all-too-common collapsing act. Not for the first time today, they didn't.

Those goals scored at the beginning or end of a half are absolute killers...even playing at my own humble level, I can tell you that they're a real gut punch to the whole team. Again, Arsenal could have folded. Again, they didn't. Whatever the boss said at halftime worked, as the Gunners looked like a much more dangerous and complete team after the interval.

The Czech stopper definitely wants that one back - and it wasn't the only bad one he'd give up, either. Truth be told, he had a right old mare on the day.

Szczesny had another rush of blood, coming way out of his area and clipping Cole along the way. There was no need for it, especially with referee Andre Marriner seemingly giving the home side the benefit of the doubt on every close decision. Marriner reached towards his shorts pocket, and my heart leapt into my throat - that's usually where the red one lives. Thankfully, the cardboard square was a different color.

Among other things, one of the great beauties of this game is the symmetry it often provides. The first half saw us miss two glorious chances, only for Chelsea to score right after. The second half saw Szczesny both give and take away a chance just as glorious, only for Arsenal to take the lead within minutes. What a goal it was, too...Walcott - who played with far more purpose and vitality than he has in the recent past - once again had time and space down the right flank...It was a hell of a strike, but it was at Cech's near post and frankly at a comfortable height to save. I'm not complaining, but that was the keeper's second gift to us on the day.

The funny thing, though? I STILL wasn't worried. I still honestly believed we'd win the game....me, Mr. Pessimism! Santos at least got his back a minute later, blocking away Lukaku from a ball and getting away with it. Swings and roundabouts, you fucker.

Then, the magic happened. There will be those who say that Arsenal's fourth goal was just one of those things...a crazy, fluky mistake from the defender that could happen to anyone. Indeed, it was a harmless backpass towards Terry, where the racist twat inexplicably and under no pressure whatsoever fell over and let RVP in alone. Cech came way too far out, taking away the dive at the shooter's foot from himself. The Dutchman, cool as you like, simply went around him and slotted the ball into the vacated net. It was pandemonium in the Blind Pig - a jumpy, beery, huggy, cathartic celebration. So yeah, many will say it was just bad luck for Terry. Personally, I think Karma swept the leg like Johnny Lawrence from The Karate Kid. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

There are so many heroes today, but let's start with Koscielny. The defense as a whole didn't cover itself with glory on the day (though the second half was much better and we did preserve a lead this time), but he was immense. He made quite a few saving tackles and blocks, and in general would have had a great shout for Man of the Match on any other day.

Santos rebounded from an appropriate-for-the-holiday first half to give us a serious threat down the left-hand side in the second. Oddly, I don't think we could have done it without him.

Ramsey wasn't flashy today, but his passing was sharp and incisive, and he did his bit off the ball as well.

Enjoy this, friends. Tonight, we feast in Valhalla.

11/6/11 - Arsenal 3-0 West Bromwich Albion: Efficient and Drama-Free

That said, I think we can all agree that this was a professional, composed performance against a side that took four points off of us last term (albeit all at the hands of Manuel Almunia). West Brom never seriously threatened at any point in this contest, and while they gave an honest effort and even defended well at times, Arsenal took their chances when it counted and took all three points on the day.

Mikael Arteta took the free, sending it up to Aaron Ramsey. The Welshman hit a brilliant diagonal through-ball to catch the run of Theo Walcott, who was in alone. Walcott had room on either side of Ben Foster, but opted to go for the nutmeg. The former England keeper made a decent save to keep it out, but the predatory instincts of our captain kicked in from there. When you're in a purple patch like Robin is, everything just seems to fall your way...and sure enough, the rebound came right out to him. He was left with the simplest of finishes into an open net, and Arsenal were off and running.

Thankfully, Foster opted for the interesting technique of "diving out of the way of the shot", which in turn whistled through the location recently vacated by the keeper.

van Persie was quickly closed down by two striped-shirted defenders, but he intelligently spied the late run of Arteta just outside the penalty area. The Spaniard took one touch and rocketed a low shot past Foster's dive and into the corner of the net.

11/20/11 - Norwich City 1-2 Arsenal: The Run Continues

"Arsenal right back" is quickly becoming like "Spinal Tap drummer" with Bacary Sagna's broken leg and Carl Jenkinson's back strain. This meant that Per Mertesacker would partner Thomas Vermaelen in central defense, giving us what I still consider to be our strongest back line in Sagna's absence.

Recent matches have seen Arsenal slowly begin to abandon the third-rate tiki-taka approach for something more of a hybrid approach - Wengerball with a splash of blunt directness.

However, it seems that Mertesacker isn't quite used to English center-forwards yet: I doubt there is anywhere on Earth that preaches mindless exertion towards lost causes than in England, and this was one of those rare cases where it reaps the benefits. Morison closed in, muscled Mertesacker off the ball entirely too easily, and was left with a simple low finish past the advancing Wojceich Szczesny.

However, Martin was perfectly positioned to clear off the line, giving him his second vital block of the game. Not one minute later...Martin came out of nowhere to hack it clear from the line. Seriously, this man was royally getting on my tits at this point.

In the 26th minute though, Martin ran out of tricks and Arsenal were level. Once again, that man Walcott destroyed the fullback and drew Ruddy out as he cut inside. His low cross to RVP met with no resistance this time, and the Dutch wizard was able to sidefoot home from a few yards out.

Arsenal should have been ahead. RVP's through-ball eviscerated the static Norwich backline, and Gervinho was in alone on Ruddy. He rounded the keeper and had the entire net at his mercy. Sadly, the Ivorian was far too casual with his finish, allowing Ruddy to recover and make a fabulous save to block at his feet.

The Cameroonian's diagonal pass found the run of RVP, who somehow found the millimeter of space available over the advancing Ruddy to hook it over him and into the net. That was a finish that defies superlatives - the captain just gets better and better.

You know what, though? I'm actually kind of hopeful at this point. Perhaps this team will, once again, take the football away at the last second like a Charlie Brown comic. Then again, maybe they won't. Come on, Arsenal...let's really kick on from here and salvage something from the shit-show that was the first two months of the season.

11/24/11 - Arsenal 2-1 Borussia Dortmund: Group Stage Mission Accomplished

Unfortunately for the visitors, there was a freak 10-minute passage of play in which Sven Bender and Mario Gotze both had to be substituted due to injury after fairly innocuous challenges. Given the intensity of their pressing game, Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp was left with the choice of either abandoning that gameplan to keep his guys as fresh as possible for the latter stages, or keep going with it and hope they got the lead before they tired. They stayed with it, but without their main playmaker and their holding midfielder, they were on a hiding to nothing from that point. That, more than anything Arsenal did, changed the complexion of the match as the second half began.

Gervinho, full of inventiveness early in a move, continued his putrid form when it came to the decisive moment. Seriously, the man's first touch makes Nicklas Bendtner look like Leo Messi. On the other wing, Theo Walcott kept his opposing winger and fullback honest without ever threatening the Dortmund goal.

Reaching the outside of the penalty area by the end-line, he was closed down by Sebastian Kehl and Lukasz Piszczek. Beyond uncharacteristically, Song shredded both defenders with an impossibly-deft dribble involving at least three feints before plowing right through the middle - almost like an NFL running back hammering his way through the defensive line. His cross was a little high for van Persie, but the Dutch maestro arched his head back enough to get under the ball, sending his header downward...Arsenal now had the momentum, and the visitors were left with tiring legs and one substitution remaining.

I wonder why it is that we have so many attacking players completely bereft of confidence - Gervinho, Chamakh, Arshavin - when ostensibly the pressure should be off with RVP scoring for fun. Answers on a postcard, please (or in the comments below - we do encourage that sort of thing, you know).

The last substitution was made with five minutes left, and hang onto your hats because apparently Abou Diaby is still alive! Somehow, he made it out onto the pitch without shattering a bone or tearing a hamstring. Well done, Abou! Well done!

It should have been Easy Street from there, but the Gunners still had to fulfill their Stupid Goal Conceded quota before De Bleeckere blew the final whistle. Incidentally, this happened during the "Arsene Wenger's Red and White Army" song - in the past I had given our own Brett some stick for how he bristled at us singing it too soon. I admit defeat there now, sir...the evidence is overwhelming.

11/26/11 - Arsenal 1-1 Fulham: Could Be Worse

And yet, I find myself palpably less frustrated than most of my Gooner brethren. I keep coming back to the fact that Fulham played a fantastic road match, took advantage of the one mistake Arsenal's defense made all day (look on the bright side - how often is it only one?) and most importantly that the team came back from a losing position once again.

This is around where Fulham seized the momentum, often aided and abetted by the wayward passing of young Ramsey.

Still, a positive from Arsenal's point of view is that the midfield and fullbacks were all effective in quickly winning the ball back after possession was lost. I distinctly remember Djourou, Andre Santos and Alex Song all making key interventions to prevent Fulham from getting anything going. Djourou in particular was fantastic on the day, showing the kind of confidence he had previous to last season's epic collapse.

I had just gotten finished thinking to myself "Hey, Mike Dean hasn't had a bad game!", when he missed Riise's obvious handball as he tried to chest the ball down...Song was far too casual in his closing down of Murphy, giving him plenty of time and space to make the cross. Djourou was caught ball-watching in the middle of the area, and ended up taking himself out of the play. Thomas Vermaelen got beaten in the air by Riise, and then for an encore hooked the ball past a surprised Szczesny and into his own net.

Walcott provided the cross after yet another excellent run down the right, and the Verminator was inexplicably left in acres by the Cottagers' defense. TV5 made no mistake, planting a perfect downwards header into the bottom corner.

Hey, we could have lost to Queens Park Rangers like some OTHER London side, you know?

12/3/11 - Wigan Athletic 0-4 Arsenal: Killer Instinct

Wait, let me get this straight - we scored a goal from long range, scored off of a corner kick, kept a clean sheet and easily saw off Wigan at their ground, which has been a house of horrors for us in recent seasons? Who are you lot, and what did you do with Arsenal? Actually, on second thought, I don't care...I like you better.

Anyway, Wigan's early contribution to the match seems odd to me, because all I saw once I walked in was Arsenal curbstomping this helpless rabble.

Yes, Virginia...an Arsenal player took a shot from distance. It even went in, too! How about that?

The other center-half had shaded over towards RVP, I'm guessing to help out if the other two guys got torched (that's how good our Robin is - three defenders shitting themselves against him at once), and the right back was nowhere to be found. Inexplicably, Gervinho could not possibly be more open, and his joy was palpable as he bundled the rebound in.

Frankly, I am kind of annoyed with Le Boss for not making substitutions sooner.

Let me repeat, for emphasis: The defender got muscled off the ball by 87-pound Theo Walcott. It's nice to see from Feo, but man alive, can we just relegate these poor bastards now?

12/11/11 - Arsenal 1-0 Everton: Happy 125th, Gunners!

It just had to be one-nil on our 125th birthday, right?

Some of the faithful were convinced that this would be one of those matches that we out-chance the opponent by hatfuls and lose 1-0. There was one problem with that theory though, and that's that Everton couldn't score in a women's prison with a fistful of pardons.

Seriously, are you kidding me? What a goal...what a MAGICAL goal. When the cameras showed Thierry Henry applauding it in the crowd, you just knew that this day would belong to Arsenal. What a birthday present from the Dutchman.

Wouldn't you just know it, but it was their young lad who almost tied the game. A long ball caused some bother in the Arsenal defense, and McAleny was left all alone just outside the area. His half-volley was sweetly struck, and for a second I thought "Oh, not again". I mean, how many times over the last few seasons have we been victimized by no-names and fetuses, whose one moment of glory always happens to be a goal against us?

Me? I won a Theo Walcott away jersey. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's a Boys Large, so I may be able to wear it without scandal if I can somehow cut, say, 40 pounds or so. Bloody hell.

12/18/11: Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal: Valiant Effort

If nothing else, Arsenal have proven beyond all question that they are not the same ragtag outfit that shipped a cricket score the last time they visited the greater Manchester area. For long stretches, the men in red defended resolutely against a squad put together with the GDP of South America. It was a ferociously-contested dogfight that left the Arabian Petro-Dollar All-Stars no room to breathe until Professional Shithead Phil Dowd blew the final whistle.

The Welshman fired a shot through the forest of bodies in between him and the goal. Somehow, the young English keeper saw it early enough to get down and make a fantastic diving save.

Szczesny read the danger perfectly though, and swooped out of his net to block. One eventually runs out of superlatives for the man - he is already one of the best in the league.

Ostensibly, Miquel moved to LB, Vermaelen into the center and Koscielny out right. It looked like there was some confusion with those assignments though, and that was the mistake that cost us a point...That said, it was a little frustrating that with Djourou apparently in danger of not being able to continue, that everyone involved on the backline did not know exactly what they needed to do in case of Djourou being withdrawn. Honestly? I blame Arsene for that - he had the entire halftime interval to make absolutely sure that the eventuality was covered, and clearly it didn't happen.

That was just about the only contribution to the match from The Incredible Disappearing Samir Nasri, by the way. His Man of the Match award was clearly a troll move from a side that for some reason has a bug up their collective ass about us (Why Always Us?). He frankly sucked, and once again showed that last season's early good form aside, he was not nearly as big a loss as the whole world said he was going to be.

If ever anyone needed to be sold in the January window, it's this man (Arshavin). I give Arsene a lot of credit for finally realizing who the deadwood is and getting them out of the club, but the two bits of flotsam left on the roster are of course the guys who were brought on to try and save the game.

For years...no, for DECADES, you lot were Manchester United's inbred cousins. If you had had anyone that another team could possibly have wanted, they would have been signed away quicker than you can say "Shaun Goater and Paul Dickov used to be our strike partnership". Since you seem to have faulty long-term memories, let me remind you of the shite that used to suit up in sky blue. So, now, here you are with your nouveau riche oil money, and it's like the last 50 years never happened. The problem is, the last 50 years DID happen. You're still a club with no history and no tradition of winning. At best...at fucking BEST, you're going to be like the galactico-era Real Madrid: Shit-tons of money spent, once in a while winning something on sheer talent alone but always folding the second anyone significantly fights back. Yes, you had a tough Champions' League group, but you'd have gotten through it if your team was anywhere near as good as you think they are.

12/22/11: Aston Villa 1-2 Arsenal: Scram Before the Cops Get Here

Nah, you just saw this a few days ago!

2011: The Cumulative Modern Gooner Player Ratings:

(Again, keep in mind this only accounts for the matches where I assigned ratings.)

GOALKEEPERS:

Wojceich Szczesny - Apps: 27 MOTM: 3 Average Rating: 7.26
Manuel Almunia - Apps: 5 (1) MOTM: 2 Average Rating: 6.00
Lukasz Fabianski- Apps: 1 Average Rating: 7.00
Jens Lehmann - Apps: 1 Average Rating: 6.00

DEFENDERS:

Laurent Koscielny - Apps: 26 MOTM: 4 Average Rating: 6.69
Johan Djourou - Apps: 16 (4) MOTM: 3 Average Rating: 6.06 (2 N/A ratings)
Bacary Sagna - Apps: 17 Average Rating: 6.82
Per Mertesacker - Apps: 14 Average Rating: 6.79
Kieran Gibbs - Apps: 12 (2) Average Rating: 6.75 (2 N/A ratings)
Gael Clichy - Apps: 10 (1) Average Rating: 6.40 (1 N/A rating)
Thomas Vermaelen - Apps: 9 (1) Average Rating: 7.22 (1 N/A rating)
Andre Santos - Apps: 6 (2) Average Rating: 6.57 (1 N/A rating)
Sebastien Squillaci - Apps: 7 Average Rating: 6.57
Francis Coquelin - Apps: 4 (2) Average Rating: 5.60 (1 N/A rating)
Emmanuel Eboue - Apps: 4 Average Rating: 6.00
Carl Jenkinson - Apps: 2 (2) Average Rating: 5.00
Ignasi Miquel - Apps: 1 (2) Average Rating: 5.50 (1 N/A rating)
Armand Traore - Apps: 1 Average Rating: 4.00

MIDFIELDERS:

Andrei Arshavin - Apps: 15 (11) MOTM: 2 Average Rating: 6.04 (3 N/A ratings)
Alex Song - Apps: 22 (1) MOTM: 2 Average Rating: 6.65
Theo Walcott - Apps: 20 (2) MOTM: 3 Average Rating: 6.64
Aaron Ramsey - Apps: 16 (2) Average Rating: 6.24 (1 N/A rating)
Mikael Arteta - Apps: 14 MOTM: 1 Average Rating: 6.86
Tomas Rosicky - Apps: 7 (7) MOTM: 1 Average Rating: 6.18 (3 N/A ratings)
Gervinho - Apps: 12 (1) Average Rating: 6.00
Jack Wilshere - Apps: 12 Average Rating: 6.83
Samir Nasri - Apps: 12 MOTM: 1 Average Rating: 7.00
Cesc Fabregas - Apps: 7 (3) MOTM: 1 Average Rating: 6.67 (1 N/A rating)
Denilson - Apps: 6 (2) Average Rating: 5.29 (1 N/A rating)
Yossi Benayoun - Apps: 1 (7) Average Rating: 6.67 (2 N/A ratings)
Abou Diaby - Apps: 5 (2) MOTM: 1 Average Rating: 5.83 (1 N/A rating)
Emmanuel Frimpong - Apps: 2 (3) Average Rating: 6.00 (2 N/A ratings)
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - Apps: 0 (2) Average Rating: N/A (2 N/A ratings)
Henri Lansbury - Apps: 0 (2) Average Rating: N/A (2 N/A ratings)

FORWARDS:

Robin van Persie - Apps: 26 (1) MOTM: 6 Average Rating: 7.00
Marouane Chamakh - Apps: 3 (15) Average Rating: 6.20 (8 N/A ratings)
Nicklas Bendtner - Apps: 5 (7) MOTM: 1 Average Rating: 5.83
Carlos Vela - Apps: 0 (1) Average Rating: N/A (1 N/A rating)

2011 in Retrospect: Just Another Boring Year, Then! (Part 1 - the second half of last season)

2011-12-23T11:09:00.099-05:00

It was on September 25, 2010 that I made my Modern Gooner debut, and it was an auspicious one at that. That day, my lot was to write the match report for a sickening 2-3 home loss to West Bromwich Albion. Since then, it has been my absolute pleasure to pen 46 match reports and 7 stand-alone pieces (this being the 8th) for what has proven to be a consistently fantastic audience. I only wish that the 9-to-5 gig and various vacations and absences hadn't put a dent in the number of fixtures that I've been able to cover - though now that I have ESPN3, this should be less of an issue in the future.

In short, I'm eternally grateful to Kurtis for what was, at the time, probably just a random throwaway question: "So, why don't you write for our blog?"

With all of this in mind, I thought now would be a good opportunity to go back and re-live 2011 through what I've written. I of course don't have every match covered, and needless to say there are a few matches that I'd rather re-live the slapshot to the groin from my hockey days than go back and read the reports for. Still, I think any writer has to learn to not take themselves so seriously, and my goal is to highlight some of the breathtakingly baffling and moronic things I've said...as well as the few prescient moments. Also, at the end I will include the aggregation of all the ratings that I've given out to Arsenal players in 2011 - with their average rating and the number of times they've been Man of the Match (if there's a tie before I started picking one out, I'll give it to the person who a) I think it would have been given to and/or b) not Samir Nasri).

1/5/11: Arsenal 0-0 Cowardly Arabian Petro-Dollar No-Stars: Disgraceful Anti-Football from the Visitors

I have never seen a second-placed team come to the Grove (or Highbury, for that matter) and shut up shop in such a timorous, undignified and frankly disgraceful manner in all of my time following this club (1992, for the record).

As if to mock that half-chance though, the Gunners hit the post a minute later. Robin van Persie danced his way through the City defenders (you know, all NINE of them) and lashed a rasping shot towards the far post. Hart was nowhere to be found - no knock on him, it was unsaveable - but he was rescued by the woodwork and the fact that it bounced to safety rather than to several waiting attackers in red. Actually, pointing out the colors of the attackers is redundant, isn't it?

That was to be their last attacking contribution of note, and it happened at the 32' mark. Well done, Manchester City! Well done!

1/9/11: Arsenal 1-1 Dirty Leeds United: Jailbreak

Frankly, this is now three or four glorious chances on the trot that he's (Arshavin) made a total mess out of. But, what do you do with him? Benching him won't help his confidence any...but how much longer do you let him sabotage what offense we do muster in games that mean everything to our season? It's a decision that only the manager can make, and I don't envy his having to make it.

Bendtner cut inside, beat two men, and fired one on goal. It was a good hit, but Schmeichel did what his dad used to do to us, again getting down low to save the day. Seriously, a pox on their entire bloody family already.

See, here's the thing. I have always, even when he has scored the odd goal for us, been of the opinion that Denilson is the worst player to wear the Arsenal shirt since either Stathis Tavlaridis or Kaba Diawara...Second, how do I put this diplomatically? Oh, right, he's beyond lazy and flits his way through games in a manner that makes the current Arshavin look like a cross between Ray Parlour and Patrick Vieira.

One quick thing before moving on - before the numbers board even came up, Arshavin was already running to the sideline...Lack of confidence or not, that is gutless and inexcusable, and I can only hope someone had a word with him after the match.

Luckily, Schmeichel had already vacated the center of his net, having guessed with a dive to his right. They're all great penalties when they go in however, and Arsenal were finally level in the 89th minute.

1/16/11: West Ham United 0-3 Arsenal: Back to Winning Ways

More than anything else though, I think it showed what the team could do when they stepped down in competition from Ipswich to this pack of relegation certainties. They've given up the ghost quicker than a room recently vacated by Egon Spengler and Peter Venkman.

Even on the half-hour mark when van Persie was in alone with Green and found nothing but woodwork, it felt like a temporary stay of East London execution rather than an evil portent.

Whenever he was called upon though, Green did everything he could to keep the score respectable. It's always tough for a guy like that who has one or two high-profile errors (especially in an England shirt - talk about the most thankless supporters on the planet), but he is a solid keeper and always does well against us.

Anyway, there wasn't much he could do for Arsenal's third, once again thanks to the abysmal Bridge.

1/20/11: Dirty Leeds United 1-3 Arsenal: Redemption

Denilson and Alex Song were ostensibly in the holding role, but you know how that goes this season.

You know, it's funny - I was talking to my roommate during the latter stages of the game about the extremely minor differences that separate First Division players from their Premiership counterparts...this was a perfect example. Gradel's composure abandoned him, and he fired miles wide on a chance where he should have tested the young Pole.

The Moroccan dummied beautifully to take the two center-halves out of the play. The onrushing Nasri took the ball and was in alone. Remember what I was saying about minor differences between players from the two divisions? Leeds keeper Kasper Schmeichel stayed on his line instead of challenging Nasri like he should have. Not only that, but he flinched eeeeeeeever so slightly to his right.

Luckily, the Arsenal center-halves of Koscielny and Johan Djourou had yet another solid game. In the absence of the Verminator, they have to be first-choice the rest of the way, one feels.

Arshavin was back a few minutes later with another chance on the left, but his finish again was found wanting. At this point, I wrote in my notes: "Get this guy off the fucking field!".

2/10/11: Phil Dowd (Newcastle United) 4-4 Arsenal: Everyone Hates Us

In case you're wondering why this wasn't up in a more timely fashion, the simple answer is that I endeavor to be able to talk about the games with some level of detachment...my hope is that I have something interesting and objective to say about the match. Ever since Saturday, I've been both enraged and demoralized to the point where I honestly couldn't write about it without petty, vindictive anger...towards the team and to the esteemed referee in charge of this farce.

If you had asked me at the 10' mark of this one, I would have said the points were inescapably in the bag... I would have bet money, sexual favors or even a spare limb on it without blinking an eye.

When the Dutch master tallied again to make it a four-goal cushion, I openly wondered how many we were going to score on the day. I had visions of a similar scoreline to last season's opener against Everton, and indulged in double-digit dreams.

Well, that is, until the double-whammy happened. Djourou got hurt, and Abou Diaby lost his mind.

Either we're soft and don't like it up us, or we're wild caveman thugs who have a shocking lack of discipline. You can't have it both ways (though Fleet Street sure will fucking try).

I've mentioned in this space before that I don't rate Sebastien Squillaci as a defender, and for me that was proved once again on Saturday. Koscielny has shown over the season that he is developing and is somewhat able to cope at this level, with flashes of excellent play (particularly with anticipating a pass and stepping up to intercept). But, he's also shown that he's devastatingly prone to positional mishaps, to the extent where he needs a great partner to bring out the best in him. Give him Tommy Vermaelen or Djourou, and the partnership clicks. Give him someone like Squillaci who is not physically imposing, just as prone to poor positioning and not much for mental strength either, and you have a backline in disarray.

Still, these are fucking professionals and they should have been able to hold a four-goal lead.

Once again, the manager has failed to give us any kind of reasonable cover in central defense during the transfer window...Who is waiting in the wings that would be adversely affected by a transfer? Ignasi Miquel? Do me a motherfucking favor.

All of a sudden, it was a festival of bad positioning, bad decisions, terrible passing and absolutely no plan for how to see out the rest of the game.

The second penalty though is where it became very obvious that Dowd was either sending us a message on behalf of the league's officials about Cesc Fabregas' comments in the wake of the Everton game, or was simply getting caught up in the idea of a comeback and found himself easily swayed by the Geordie faithful (for the record, I think it's about 5% of the former and 95% of the latter).

It's fitting in a way that it came from a decent clearance, leading to Tiote equalizing with a miracle hit from well outside the area. Seriously, has any team in living memory conceded more of those than we do? Neil Mellor, Danny Rose, Franck Quedrue (though we did win that one), Chieck Tiote.

Anyway, I don't know what the hell to think about the Wolves game. I rule nothing out. We could win by 10, lose by 10, come back from 4-0 down to win, go up 4-0 and lose, get 6 red cards and forfeit the game, break out into an elaborate interpretive dance routine during open play...it's all on the table. I've given up trying to read the tea leaves of whether the world-beaters or the cossetted little princesses will show up on a given day.

2/14/11: Arsenal 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers (No sub-head for some reason):

Seriously? I think this was my favorite Arsenal win in a very long time.

The mark of just how brilliant they were could be explained by Wojciech Szezcsny's workload. I remember him punching well to clear the danger on a corner, but he could have been reading the Guardian on a lawn chair otherwise. The returns of Johan Djourou and Alex Song to the side played no small part in that, I can assure you. When those two are in the team, I back the Arsenal to have a great chance to beat just about anyone (downgrading to "puncher's chance" only against Barcelona).

Andrei Arshavin worked much harder than he has in the past, and contributed with some nice passes. If he's playing himself into form, that's all the better for us.

Still, I'll leave the Barcelona preview in the capable hands of Brett. Just know that I'm about 100% less optimistic about this tie than he'll be! (Hint: Brett was right.)

2/22/11: Leyton Orient 1-1 Arsenal: The Manuel Almunia Experience

Sadly for us, in the 88th minute, the Manuel Almunia Experience struck again.

In fairness though, I thought the team worked a lot harder this time around and on most days, would have done enough to get the win.

I think we at times forget that this is Chamakh's first season in the Premier League, and opposing defenses have now had the time to look at tape of his torrid early-season performances and make adjustments. It's now on the Moroccan (with the help of the coaching staff) to make the necessary counter-adjustments, but I absolutely believe he'll get there.

Bendtner, though, is a different situation entirely. I know he's not the favorite player of many Gooners, and I admit my frustration with him at times as well. However, I also have a large degree of sympathy with him given the manner in which he's being used (though in turn I have sympathy for Wenger's selection headaches given the brilliant form of Robin van Persie).

It turns out that the answer was "a Tomas Rosicky header"...which before the match would have been only slightly less believable than "a double-back-hoof shot from a unicorn". Despite my rantings above, Super Winger Nicklas Bendtner was the man who supplied the cross.

I did overhear one topic come up a few times from in the in-game discussions among the audience at the Blind Pig - why weren't there any substitutions?...Here, the XI that started the game finished it, and that may have had something to do with the result.

Now, look...as I said, I'm a keeper myself and I'm the first to defend my spiritual brothers when it's warranted...Tehoue's shot was eminently stoppable, and Almunia fucked it up. AGAIN.

It's funny how he's perfectly OK as long as he only has to react rather than think, isn't it? Well, not funny in the ha-ha sense, but it is telling. Manuel Almunia is a man whose confidence has long deserted him, and whose thoughts are already on wherever his next opportunity lies.

In a way, I don't blame him. He has been a No. 2 for much of his career, and was all of a sudden handed a shock transfer to one of the world's biggest clubs. When his chief competitor was sent off in the Champions' League final, he was all of a sudden thrust into a spotlight far brighter and far harsher than I'm sure he could have possibly imagined.

2/24 - Arsenal 1-0 Stoke City: Victory with a Price

Of course, I got there at the 14' mark, meaning I had already missed every moment of excitement that would occur in the match. That said, I haven't been happier to be bored in quite some time.

It came out to Nicklas Bendtner on the edge of the area, and he cushioned a header back into the danger area. Sebastien Squillaci was there to nod home from point-blank range, and Arsenal had the only goal it would need. You won't see a more anti-Arsenal one all season, but on the other hand, there's some poetic justice in having beaten this lot at their own game.

This one was bloody turgid at times, much like the Leyton Orient match with the minor exception that we fielded a goalkeeper this time around.

I feel that special praise has to go to Johan Djourou once again. Stoke largely stayed true to form, relying on a series of long balls to target man John Carew allied with Rory Delap's javelin-hurls into the area. The entire back four dealt with it well when required, but Djourou seemed to be the leader back there.

Besides him, you also have to give a lot of credit to our mad keeper, Wojciech Szezscny. When the situation warranted it, he was decisive on his line and punched effectively when he had to.

There isn't much to tell, other than the two elephants in the room. Two more Arsenal players went off injured, but for once, it wasn't due to Neanderthal tactics from our esteemed opponents. In fact, I thought that by their standards it was as clean of a match as you can expect from them. Of course, that's somewhat tantamount to congratulating a serial killer for restricting himself to assault for a week, but I try not to look gift horses in the mouth whenever possible.

Both will miss the League Cup Final, which is a devastating blow both for them and for us. Still, one would hope that more than enough firepower remains to see off a hopeless band of triers like Birmingham City in a neutral venue.

(If you are of a nervous or squeamish disposition, skip down a ways......now.)

2/27/11 - Arsenal 1-2 Birmingham City: Same Old Arsenal, Always Choking

The thing is, games that truly matter - where there is a tangible chance of winning things - play differently than normal ones do. A normal regular-season or early-round Cup game is routine...it has recognizable patterns and rhythms, and even a horrible loss is only one small part of a much greater whole. A game like this, on the other hand, is magnified to a ridiculously intense degree. One lapse of concentration, one bad bounce of the ball, and a season's worth of work is undone in an instant. It takes a certain kind of character to win these games, and much of this team just doesn't have it.

I may well take some stick for saying that, but keep in mind that by all rights Birmingham should have been 1-0 up against 10 men (9, when you consider Manuel Almunia would have been in goal) inside of the first two minutes...At the end of the day, a favorite to win a game that has any kind of composure and self-belief doesn't have this happen before most people watching in the pub have ordered their first pint.

The attack would have been far more potent though if those two - Andrei Arshavin and Tomas Rosicky - were on good form. Arshavin had some nice touches and his passing was OK, although there wasn't as much end product as you'd have liked. Rosicky, on the other hand, was fucking useless once again.

Arsene Wenger's substitution patterns mystify me at the best of times, but this season especially has ranged from neutral to mind-boggling.

The ball came out to Nikola Zigic, who was unmarked. YES, THE SIX-FOOT-FUCKING-EIGHT GUY WAS LEFT COMPLETELY FUCKING UNGUARDED. As it turns out, Johan Djourou (who had a bit of a shocker today, it has to be said) abandoned him to try and double-team Johnson. Oh, and in all of this, Szezcsny made a rare mistake and was caught flapping at absolutely nothing, leaving the big Croat with the easiest of headers to give Birmingham the lead.

You can castigate me if you wish for not being a True Believer, but it was about this point where I felt we were on a hiding to nothing. As a matter of fact, if Zigic didn't have the ball control of a newborn foal, it would have been 2-0 to the other mob just seconds later.

Let's sum up. At this point, the men in blue could very easily have been up 3-0 and facing 10 men for 56 more minutes. Can anyone honestly dispute that this lot deserved to beat us?

Jack Wilshere first hit the bar with long-range drive, but the ball came out to Arshavin. The little Russian sent it back into the area, where Robin van Persie crisply volleyed low into the corner of the net. Ben Foster had no chance whatsoever, and the scores were level.

As it stood, an even half continued until the 70th minute, when van Persie's number came up on the board to be replaced by Nicklas Bendtner. I didn't see RVP get injured at any point, but that would be the only possible logical reason for that change.

It was Rosicky of all people who made an amazing, darting run into the penalty area. It was so direct that the Birmingham defense were at sixes and sevens, nowhere fucking near him. It wasn't the greatest of angles, but he had a clear line on goal and should have taken the shot. Of course, he hit a dreadful pass to Chamakh that was cleared out. The chance came and went. So fucking typical.

Despite my angry Facebook status from after the game wishing Koscielny a happy trip back to Lorient, the truth is that he has been a solid defender most of this season. He's had his dodgy moments and his brilliant ones - and this is a mistake that could happen to anyone, could happen in any game. We see mistakes like this made six, seven, maybe eight times a season, minimum. But, you know what? This is the kind of thing that a panicking team does in a big situation. That is the kind of goal I would expect West Ham to concede in a relegation six-pointer. That is the kind of goal I would expect Tiny La Liga Team # 1261A to concede when Barcelona is cutting them to ribbons. That is the kind of goal that, if we're being honest with ourselves, we always have to expect that Arsenal are capable of conceding at any time.

The saying goes that "banners last forever", and whoever coined it wasn't wrong. When Mike Dean blew his whistle three times, Arsenal had one beautiful world-class goal, Birmingham had two ugly ones...and a trophy.

3/6/11 - Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland: Dowd-Esque Officiating Strikes Again

There isn't a whole lot that needs to be said about this one - a turgid affair low on chances and excitement that was further marred by mystifying decisions from referee Anthony Taylor and linesman Andy Garratt.

Second, while there was some good play down the wings from Nasri and from Andrei Arshavin, there was absolutely no creativity or fluidity in the middle of the park for us on the day. Jack Wilshere did not have a great game by any means, but that can absolutely be forgiven in the wake of his recent brilliant performances (and the whole "being a rookie" thing). Less forgivable is the heaping pile of dog crap served up by Denilson and Abou Diaby. The pair of them gave the ball away constantly, conceded needless free kicks, and generally served to break up many of our attacks before they could get started.

The Russian's frustrations were compounded a few minutes later when he torched Titus Bramble for pace (big shock there), but was taken down from behind with a two-handed shove. If he dives, he gets a penalty and we in all likelihood win the game. Isn't it funny how the guy doesn't get any plaudits for staying on his feet though?

Of course, we fell asleep and let them in for one chance at the death...but our man Wojciech Szczesny made fools of the idiots blaming him for the Birmingham disaster (and those wittering on and on about how we need a goalkeeper) by saving our collective bacon once again with a brave block at Danny Welbeck's feet.

3/8/11 - Massimo Busacca (Barcelona) 3-1 Arsenal: Gutsy Performance in Hopeless Circumstances

Make no mistake - this was never a sporting contest. In no sense of the word did Arsenal have any legitimate chance to win this game on an even playing field.

It's bad enough having to defend against this lot in any situation, but having three key players cautioned so soon and for no good reason on top of it was just taking the piss.

Koscielny had a very good game with some nice saving tackles, but Johan Djourou was just immense. For me, he was the Man of the Match by some distance

I have to say it again...I'm so proud of this team right now, I could burst. And, you regular readers know how harsh I've been on them all season.

Since we're on the subject, a word about the Spaniard. I've been the first to harp on him for some of the hideous mistakes he's made along the way...and I still think he's nowhere near a good enough keeper for Arsenal over the long haul. But, today the man was simply magnificent.

That said, Arsenal found themselves down 1-0 (and tied 2-2 on aggregate) thanks to an unforgivably stupid mistake from Cesc Fabregas. Even with that, it's an illustration though of how unfortunate we were as a whole...the half probably would have been over at that point if Szezcsny didn't get injured.

For the next minute or two, Barcelona did not look like the same team. Gone was the mystique, so briefly gone was the aura of invincibility. Arsenal started to see the ball more often, and it was in an all-too-rare sortie upfield when disaster struck. Before we get to that though, we have to rewind a bit and travel back in time to the first half...As I mentioned, Barcelona got away with whatever they wanted to in this game. They were able to kick the Arsenal players at will with nothing in the way of admonishment (as it happens, they finished a highly contentious match with exactly 0 yellow cards and only 8 fouls called against, despite the fact that Eric Abidal should have walked when he had his hand around van Persie's throat). Robin van Persie was kicked off the ball in first-half stoppage time, to which he responded by seeking out a Barca player after the goal kick and violently fouling him. Let's be crystal clear about this one - it was an incredibly stupid and indescribably selfish yellow card to take in a game of this magnitude.

Still, that does not excuse referee Massimo Busacca for perhaps the single worst red-card decision I have ever seen in my life (and I don't forget Emmanuel Petit getting sent off for Paul Durkin running into him in that match against Villa back in 1998)...While Busacca gets off on a technicality because of the letter of the law, no sensible referee EVER shows a red card there. Even if you think it's intentional, a stern talking-to is the preferred course of action in that case. If this happened to me in a rec-league game, I'd be banned for life because quite frankly, I would kick the shit out of the referee right there.

What can you say? This game was booked by Vince McMahon.

Two minutes later, some Barcelona jerkoff was theatrically falling over the leg of Koscielny (my god, if he didn't have the devil's own blackest luck, he'd have none at all), and Messi easily tucked away the penalty kick.

Bendtner had one half-chance late on where his first touch betrayed him...but let's be honest. Even if he had scored, Busacca would have found some excuse to send someone off or award another penalty in the 7th minute of injury time.

3/12/11 - Manchester United 2-0 Arsenal: Never at the Races

Beyond that, there's not a lot to say about this result. Arsenal were well beaten by superior opposition, despite the fact that said opposition had just as many injuries and just as bad of a recent run as us. I have harped on this point several times this season, and I am gutted at how I keep being proven right - winners win, losers make excuses. Teams that have winning in their blood find ways to overcome obstacles, teams that don't bemoan the existence of said obstacles and use them as a crutch.

You will read in the match reports today and tomorrow that Edwin van der Sar was the Man of the Match, and that in some ways he stole this result for United. Every single one of those reports will be wrong. He had a fine game of course, and did everything he was supposed to. Other than one save where he got fingertips to a low shot heading into to the corner (from van Persie, I think?), everything else he faced was the kind of thing a top-level goalkeeper is expected to save.

It strikes me as ironic that Denilson ended up being taken off early in the second half, as I thought this was his best effort in quite a while. He put in a few saving tackles, harried the player on the ball fairly well, and even passed the ball forward once or twice. Arshavin continued to look lively on the wing and more than once had beaten his man but then had to put a weak shot on goal as no one was supporting him (or there were too many men back for United).

The real goat of the match though, in my mind, was Koscielny. He has very much been a feast-or-famine defender all season, and today was emphatically the latter. For both United goals (neither of which I care to go into great detail describing), he seemed to be at the center of confusion on both occasions. On the first one, he was jogging back towards the man he left wide-open (Fabio Da Silva, I think?), allowing him an easy tap-in after Manuel Almunia had made a brilliant save to keep the first shot out.

Speaking of which, while there are slim pickings for Arsenal MOTM, the much-maligned Spaniard won it at a canter. He had zero chance on either United goal, made some pretty good stops to keep it close, and even had the best individual save of the match when he recovered from being on his back to claw away a ball that was looping over him (that save deserved to win a game, not prevent one from getting to 3-0 late on).

3/20/11 - West Bromwich Albion 2-2 Arsenal - Two Precious Points Squandered

I don't care how many injuries we have - that team should beat West Brom nine times out of ten.

Steven Reid, who got the goal, apparently hadn't scored in five years before he nodded home from close range...how charitable of us.

Beyond that, there was no fluidity to Arsenal's play. The book on us is that we spend too much time passing, and that's largely true. But, the Gunners couldn't even do that right yesterday.

As for the absolutely atrocious Denilson, look at how often he loses it in the middle of the park, just as we're getting to the final third. He also took his now-usual stupid yellow card for a lazy defensive play (he could give a clinic on how to leave a trailing leg in for the opposing player to fall over in a way where the ref is most likely to see it).

For some reason, Almunia came tearing off his line, coming out about ten yards outside of his penalty area. He gave Squillaci a two-handed shove to the back trying to get him out of the way, and then failed to clear the ball himself. Peter Odemwingie has decent predatory instincts in any case, but in this scenario couldn't fail to roll the ball into the empty net. This was a goal that was only missing the Yakity Sax soundtrack.

Jens Lehmann HAS to start our next match.

I still believe...faintly.

4/4/11 - Arsenal 0-0 Blackburn Rovers: Turn Out the Lights, the Party's Over

Originally, my post was going to be exactly this: "I will put as much heart and fight into this match report as Arsenal did into this match itself: That sucked, the end."

What can you say, though? I've used this line a few times before, but I'll say it again: This lot have the talent, but right now they don't have the ability. While the lads are mathematically still alive in the title race, for me it's the same kind of mathematical chance that 7-2 offsuit had against A-A in a heads-up contest. United will have to drop points while Arsenal somehow concurrently shakes off this malaise - and honestly, does either one look like it's happening at the moment?

And that, friends, is what I can't see changing about this team the rest of the way. Look again at the highlights. There is precious little running off the ball, barely any pressing and a complete lack of ideas. Space opens up with runs away from the ball because the defenders have to track them - it is in that controlled chaos of movement that good passing sides find the necessary space to operate and create chances. It's in wingers switching sides, a striker coming deep to collect the ball while a central midfielder charges ahead, the overlap between fullback and winger. Instead, what we have is 10 guys standing around passing sideways with no one displaying the courage or the leadership to charge into the fray and make something happen.

4/11/11 - Blackpool FC 1-3 Arsenal: Three Certain Points in Uncertain Times

The big news was in between the sticks, as Manuel Almunia fell "ill", paving the way for the unlikeliest of returns. Yes, that was Jens Lehmann back in the Arsenal goal, with detours in Stuttgart and in retirement. Somehow, I get the sense that this illness is somehow related to the "shoulder injury" that led to Lukasz Fabianski donning the gloves earlier in the campaign.

Up the other end, the old Lehmann was in full effect as he angrily reacted to Luke Varney crashing into him as he caught a high ball. I have missed the Jens Lehmann Angry Wagging Finger more than you can possibly imagine, especially when the alternative is the Manuel Almunia Droopy Dog Face of Despair and Self-Loathing.

If that had raised Blackpool manager Ian Holloway's ire, imagine how angry he was when Arsenal were up 2-0 inside of seven minutes after the penalty shout. For the first goal, the wonderful Abou Diaby (when was the last time one could say that?) started and finished the move.

4/18/11 - Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool: Deeper Problems than One Idiot Ivorian Fullback

Fact # 1: Emmanuel Eboue is an idiot, a moron, a total fucking mong. Fact # 2: Emmanuel Eboue is, at times, a footballer capable of brilliant things. Fact # 3: Emmanuel Eboue embodies Fact # 1 a FUCK of a lot more than he does Fact # 2. Fact # 4: This result was not just Emmanuel Eboue's fault.

In light of that, I suppose it'd be a dick move to mention Sunderland, Blackburn, Newcastle, West Brom, West Brom again, the League Cup Final, all three piss-poor results against lower league sides in the FA Cup, Braga, Shaktar, Tottenham and the season opener at Anfield, eh?

And in the midst of all this, we have our manager making a spectacle of himself, berating Kenny Dalglish for...err...I'm not sure what, exactly. We have our manager blaming the referee, Lucas diving and god knows what else when a much more suitable target can be seen in any reflective surface. What a fucking miserable season.

I don't think Fabregas dived, and I do think Spearing made some contact. I just don't think there was that much in it, but you can file it under "seen them given". Anyway, RVP stepped up and absolutely hammered an unstoppable spot-kick into the lower corner of the net, kicking off wild celebrations in the Pig. Surely, all three points were Arsenal's.

Lucas had his back to goal and was running away from it. Literally, the only thing Eboue had to do in this situation was NOTHING. Just don't move. Fucking stand there. The fact of the matter was that Andre Marriner was gagging to give Liverpool a makeup call, and while Lucas' dive was risible and disgraceful, while there wasn't much in the way of contact at all, Eboue gave Marriner the excuse he needed. That was ALWAYS going to be called.

4/25/11 - Bolton Wanderers 2-1 Arsenal - That Just Happened

I have no anger left with this team.

So, I won't be spending a lot of time talking about the match itself. Suffice to say that Arsenal, like any great band at the end of their time, played all of their greatest hits. Sitters missed, slack marking, over-elaboration, conceding early, moments of breathtaking skill - it was all there. The encore was the same as well - the destined-to-fall-short rally at the end (though as ludicrous show-ending rallies go, I much prefer AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock We Salute You").

And, what of Samir Nasri?...Will his wage demands exceed what we should pay for what is a wonderful-at-times player who has largely failed to make an imprint on the truly momentous occasions of a season?

One argument is that sometimes, losing begets losing...especially when it's been in the ways that we've managed it. I'm no sports psychologist, but I can't help but feel that games like Newcastle stay with you. If you're not careful, an entire squad can create a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom that can be impossible to fully shake. Now, maybe that's not the case. I could certainly be reading far too much into things. Isn't it at least plausible, though? And if so, major surgery and fresh recruits may be required - which won't happen of course, bringing this circle back to the beginning.

I believe that guys like Chamakh, Song and Bendtner can be important cogs of a team that wins things. I think we've got a stellar goalkeeper right now in Wociech Szezcsny, who can be our keeper for the next 10-15 years. I think we've got guys who already fight the good fight and give everything of themselves, guys like Bacary Sagna and Robin van Persie who can hold their heads up no matter what happens the rest of the way. The core is there. This strikes me as a job for a scalpel rather than a hatchet.

5/9/11 - Stoke City 3-1 Arsenal: Djourou's Day to Forget

To the legions of Potter trolls that will inevitably come here to rub our noses in this result, congratulations. Your lot won and were far and away the better side. Now fuck off.

Rewind though to before the ball was struck - the camera focused on Johan Djourou, who was trying to mark both Jones and I believe Robert Huth. Instead of calling out and asking someone for help, he shrugged his shoulders and looked around in the vain hope that someone would, err, read his ESP waves or something and come over to assist. Sure enough, he lost Jones, and the striker had all the room he needed to score.

Anyway, the boss made a bunch of changes at halftime, with Arshavin and the ineffectual Ramsey coming off for Nicklas Bendtner and Marouane Chamakh. Once again, the Dane was out on the wing crossing to the little Robin van Persie, while Chamakh continues to have Second Season Syndrome in his first season.

So, of course they scored a minute later. This side never fails to find a way to fail.

5/16/11 - Arsenal 1-2 Aston Villa: Undone by Complacency Again

All it took was 900 seconds for the last home match of the season to turn into the latest in a seemingly-unending string of fiascos, disasters, cataclysms and other related synonyms

Many are blaming the returning Tom Vermaelen for slipping, which allowed the through-ball to come in. You can, though I think it may be a tad churlish to throw too many pelters at a guy returning after roughly 12 centuries out of action with an Achilles problem...The young Pole was absolutely furious after the goal, and I'm sure we can sympathize with his frustration. He's doing all he can but right now, no one can play behind this shambles of a defense.

By my count, that's a swing from 3-2 to 1-2, thanks to the man in the middle. I've told a few people that I'm not even mad though, and it's the truth. Mostly, I just feel bad for the guy - it's got to be a horrible and lonely feeling to be so overmatched and so out of one's depth in a highly visible situation. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes, that's for sure. Hopefully the poor guy is back to working First Division matches next season.

Still, the referee's non-performance does not excuse the Arsenal's non-performance for long stretches of this match. It was the same sideways-passing glacially-paced nonsense that we've seen all season. You don't need me to describe it to you, even if I had the energy or desire to do so.

5/25/11 - Fulham 2-2 Arsenal: Match Report Cancelled Due to Indifference

Fulham got two goals thanks to Arsenal defensive miscues. I'll give you a second to recover from the shock.

The rest was mind-numbing end-of-season piffle. I wasn't even mad that we didn't get the stream working until the 44th minute.

I'll put it this way - I mentioned to my roommate yesterday that if you gave me 10-1 odds on Arsenal finishing outside the top four next season, I would put $100 on it if the summer goes as I'm afraid it's going to. Sure, imagination is often worse than reality...that's what keeps the makers of horror films in business. But, it's at least plausible that we'll lose Fabregas and Nasri, we'll lose Bendtner and Arshavin as well and replace them with little other than this year's rumored crop of pre-teens that we're supposed to be buying (Jenkinson from Charlton and Oxlade-Chamberlain from Southampton, if memory serves).

I don't know - I just fear that the rot is even deeper in this side than we've thought, especially in attitude and application.

Stay tuned for Part 2, covering this current season...and the aggregated ratings!

Aston Villa 1-2 Arsenal: Scram Before the Cops Get Here

2011-12-22T00:00:00.014-05:00

There is an odd sort of satisfaction in watching your team steal a game that they had absolutely no business getting anything out of. Perhaps it's just the nervous energy spilling over, or the realization that we've been mugged so many times by no-mark clubs like this that it's nice to return the favor for bloody once. Either way, Arsenal leave Birmingham with three vital points, and gain a measure of revenge against the manager who fluked the League Cup final over us AND presided over the Matt Taylor horror tackle.

The starting XI was a bit of a mish-mash with the various injuries and the suspension to Alex Song. The front three and the keeper obviously remained the same, but the boss opted for Francis Coquelin on the right rather than play Ignasi Miquel. So, Thomas Vermaelen was deployed on the left, with Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker in central defense. Mikael Arteta and Aaron Ramsey kept their places as expected, with Emmanuel Frimpong stepping in for Song.

It is a bit of a nerve-racking teamsheet, that...and it was made no better by the sight of the team coming out of the tunnel in that horrid Wycombe Wanderers strip. Someone at Nike should burn in hell for eternity for foisting that on an unsuspecting public. Besides, hasn't anyone at the club worked out by now that every time we let that NON-ARSENAL color into our lives, we have crappy seasons? It's only fit for the sleeves of our away kit, which should always and forever be yellow. Why is this so hard?

With that mini-rant out of the way, the home side could easily have taken the lead after just five minutes were it not for the positioning of Wojceich Szczesny and frankly a tame header by Gabriel Agbonlahor. An early corner was won by Stilyan Petrov, and Charles N'Zogbia played a short give-and-go off of it. The cross came to Agbonlahor on the back post, who was wide open thanks to Coquelin blowing his coverage. The header was right at Szczesny though, who did well to direct the rebound out to safety. The immediate danger was averted, but it was a worrying sign that this would not be the same Aston Villa that gave Liverpool so little of a fight.

Sure enough, Villa were a bad final ball away from a goal in the 10th minute. Arteta lost a header to Petrov, and Agbonlahor was away down the left. No Arsenal player was anywhere near him, beginning a worrying trend that lasted for most of the match of the fullbacks standing much too far off their marks, ceding far too much space for crosses to come in. Koscielny came over late to pressure, but the Agbonlahor got the pass away. Stephen Ireland torched Mertesacker for pace, but the pass came in to close to Szczesny, who collected calmly.

Just a minute later, Villa again threatened, as Brad Guzan's long punt was collected by N'Zogbia on the left. The Villains were obviously targeting Coquelin, and getting joy from it as the young Frenchman was easily muscled off the ball. His centering feed was much better, but Ramsey made a brilliant saving tackle to play it off of Agbonlahor and out. That was to be the Welshman's only positive contribution to the match, but how important it was at the time!

(I'm so excited I get to do this transition for us, for once.)

So, of course, Arsenal came up the other end and scored.

An Arsenal corner came to nothing, but Arteta worked hard to shield it on its way out for a throw. He played it out to Theo Walcott, who hared down the left. He left Ciaran Clark for dead with a 360 spin move, and the Irishman was forced to hold onto his shirt as he went by. To his credit, Walcott stayed on his feet. To inexperienced referee Jonathan Moss' credit, he immediately and bravely pointed to the spot. A lot of guys would have let that go, but it was a nailed-on penalty for me.

Up stepped Robin van Persie...and despite Guzan cheating off his line early, our captain hammered an unstoppable thunderbolt into the top-right corner. It may have been an undeserved lead, but it a lead it was all the same! Incidentally, the goal tied Thierry Henry's mark of 34 goals in a calendar year.

Quick aside: Please spare me the "one-man team" stuff, at least on this occasion. Theo won the penalty, and you'll see later that RVP was not our Man of the Match...not by a longshot.

Anyway, Guzan had to be sharp on a chance just a minute later, or else Arsenal would have doubled their advantage. Mertesacker won the ball from Clark and passed it to RVP, who had dropped deep. The Dutchman's long ball over the defense was perfectly weighted, and Walcott ran onto it perfectly. Sadly. Guzan read the play well and blocked with his chest...a smart move considering he was close to the edge of the penalty area.

Villa managed to recover though, and seized the momentum back. A mirror image of their first two chances saw Marc Albrighton fire in a cross from aces of space (Vermaelen nowhere in sight), and again Ireland was in position with Mertesacker beat. His slide just missed the cross though, or else they would have scored the kind of goal that badly deflates a team mentally.

Speaking of mental deflation, Moss started to feel the nerves or something because his decision-making became more erratic. Villa were getting away with murder in the middle of the park, but then Mertesacker gets called for a foul when he clearly won the ball. On the other hand, Sian Massey continued her ongoing contributions to the sport of football (after Andy Gray being fired due to his pig-headed sexist comments about her knowledge of the offside rule) by running a solid line.

Meanwhile, Coquelin's torrid evening continued as first N'Zogbia destroyed him with a back-heel move before sending in an awful cross, then he got booked for a bad challenge on the same man. Clearly, his French compatriot was enjoying life on that side of the park. Villa kept the pressure on, and another Albrighton cross was just about dealt with by Mertesacker.

In my notes, this is where I wrote "We need halftime."

Arsenal weren't completely out of it though, and the Gunners could have possibly killed the game off in the 32nd minute. A ball was volleyed into the path of RVP, whose little touch was enough to beat the onrushing Richard Dunne. Ramsey had time and space, but took it quickly and fired miles wide. He should have done far better with that one.

Still, it was better stuff from the Gunners, who had managed to hang onto the ball for long stretches after Villa's early dominance. Arteta was bossing play in the middle of the park, but Alan Hutton had Gervinho in his pocket and Frimpong looked like a 19-year old playing in his second-ever league match. The good news was that Coquelin settled down after his rough start and was passable other than the bad giveaway that led to Mertesacker having to take a yellow card to stop the rampaging run of N'Zogbia.

Before they could take the free though, Ireland hobbled off with a calf injury. Barry Bannan replaced him, and took the free kick himself. Luckily for us, it flashed just wide of the post.

I was hoping that Arsenal would settle down in the second half and come out with solid possession and poise, but instead Villa picked up where they left off. Ramsey faded badly after a decent first half, and his constant turnovers contributed to the Villa cause. Panic set into the defense, and sure enough Villa were level in the 54th minute.

A long ball out of the back was contested by Koscielny and Agbonlahor, with neither winning out. It came out to the left, and Vermaelen should have dealt with it. Instead, he hit a woefully under-hit header towards the middle, which Albrighton gleefully ran onto. Mertesacker should have held back and made the little Englishman beat him, but instead he clumsily charged out to try and win the ball. Unsurprisingly, Albrighton toe-poked it past him, darted into the penalty area, and calmly nutmegged the advancing Szczesny for the equalizer.

If the Gunners were underachieving before, it only got worse after the goal. The raucous traveling support, who earlier on emphatically out-sung the sullen home crowd, quieted immediately. The Villa fans now felt like singing, oddly enough, and their side responded. Ramsey responded as well, helpfully supplying the ball to anyone around him in a claret-and-blue shirt. I don't know if it was fatigue or what, but man alive he was abysmal.

Arsene responded with a sub in the 66th minute, but it wasn't the required act of mercy for Ramsey. Instead, Tomas Rosicky came on in place of Frimpong. It seemed odd at the time, but in fairness it came off beautifully. Tommy was all over the place in the center of the park, winning tackles and combining with Arteta to get Arsenal clicking again offensively.

Who saw that coming, eh? Also, who knew that we'd miss Song's dynamism this badly?

While Rosicky stabilized the side somewhat, Ramsey was still turning the ball over in dangerous areas and putting the team under pressure. In the 75th minute, with Arsenal again under the cosh thanks to a Ramsey giveaway, Albrighton skinned Gervinho down the left and sent in a fantastic cross. Szczesny had to alertly palm it away under the attention of Clark. Clearly, Villa were not going away.

Two minutes later, Moss had to make arguably the most contentious decision of the night. Personally, I thought van Persie was stumbling over his own feet as he was entering the penalty area, but Moss opted to book him for diving. I actually wrote in my notes at the time "RVP dives, gets booked", but upon seeing it again, Moss got this horribly wrong. There was some contact, but I don't think it was a penalty either.

Finally, with 10 minutes to go, Wenger made his move. The bad news was that Andrei Arshavin was again preferred to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and he came on for Gervinho. The great news was that Ramsey finally was withdrawn in favor of Yossi Benayoun.

As if by magic, Arsenal promptly transformed into a cohesive attacking unit...with an Arshavin-shaped appendix.

Benayoun and Arteta combined to spring RVP in the center, but his shot went miles over the bar. I won't say that it looked like a goal was coming, but at least there were signs of life. Well, until Arshavin was unable to trap a simple pass across, that is. That said, before I pile on to him too much, Arshavin's deflected shot did result in the corner that won the game.

From that corner, taken by RVP, Agbonlahor was caught ball-watching and lost his man completely. That man was Benayoun, who connected solidly with his header. Guzan had half come out and half stopped, so was far too close to the ball to have time to react. In it went, and Arsenal were out of jail.

Well, actually, there were still 3 minutes plus injury time. But, Arsenal didn't sit back, and good work from Benayoun freed Arteta for a shot, which sadly was right at Guzan. In the interim, the 4th official for some reason showed FOUR minutes of injury time. For what, I have no earthly idea.

Villa had one flash of hope after a bad Arshavin giveaway, but the excellent Koscielny cleared the danger, and that was that. There was still time for some hijinks though, as that oafish thug Hutton had words for Arteta after he had fouled the Spaniard. He got booked for his trouble, and looked fit to burst as RVP came over to sort him out with some verbals. Not only did this waste time that Villa couldn't spare, but he then got his second yellow nanoseconds later for a reckless challenge on TV5.

What a maroon.

That managed to kill off the remaining injury time, and Moss blew his whistle as Arsenal were taking a late corner. Somehow, some way, the Gunners take home three points from one of the most disjointed, awful performances of the season. In a way, it's poetic justice after coming back from Eastlands with nothing after perhaps their best and bravest one of the campaign.

So, 3 points out of my previously-mentioned minimum acceptable of 11 for this stretch of games, and that's with one of the harder ones down. Considering Fulham just got mauled 5-0 by a weakened United, maybe it's not so greedy to dream of getting all 15?

The Modern Gooner Player Ratings:

Szczesny 8, Vermaelen 6, Koscielny 9, Mertesacker 7, Coquelin 6, Gervinho 6 (Arshavin N/A), Arteta 8, Frimpong 6 (Rosicky 8), Ramsey 4 (Benayoun 8), Walcott 7, van Persie 7

Man of the Match: If I included opponents, it would have been Richard Dunne for a valiant rearguard performance in a losing effort. RVP's penalty was awesome, Benayoun was the super-sub and Arteta would have won it on any other day for his silky passing under pressure in the middle of the park. However, Laurent Koscielny is the MOTM today for almost single-handedly keeping Villa from overrunning us until that second goal was found.

Preview by Numbers: Aston Villa v. Arsenal

2011-12-20T12:00:00.000-05:00

Villa Park, Birmingham

Wednesday, December 21

2:45 p.m. EST, 7:45 p.m. GMT

Match Officials

Referee: Jonathan Moss
Assistants: John Flynn and Sian Massey
4th Official: Neil Swarbrick

This Match, Last Year: Aston Villa 2 - 4 Arsenal
All-Time in All Competitions: 72 Arsenal wins, 65 Aston Villa wins, 44 draws
Arsenal's League Form: W-W-D-W-W-L
Aston Villa's League Form: W-L-D-L-W-L

No comment. Photo: Jack Wilshere's Twitter.

Well, there isn't much more I can say about the Manchester City game that hasn't already been said by this point. I'm disappointed that such a hard effort from the Gunners resulted in zero points because of a 15-20 minute stretch of sloppiness. But, in all honesty, I'm still a little bothered by the fact that Arsenal looked so disorganized from the time Johan Djourou was subbed off until about the 65th minute, once the damage had already been done. It only takes one mistake to lose a match at this level, and for Arsenal, it was the back four's positioning that cost them so dearly in the build-up to City's only goal.

But, that's enough of that. The holiday season means the fixtures come hard and fast (my girlfriend told me to add a "that's what she said" here.) Given Arsenal's injury woes at the back, fixture congestion is probably the last thing this team needs, but after Wednesday's match, they play Wolves on Monday (or Tuesday if the transit strike goes ahead and Arsenal gets their way in moving the match,) QPR on New Year's Eve, then Fulham away just two days later. They'll then have a week off before hosting Leeds in the FA Cup on Monday, the 9th.

You can take a lot of positives out of the way Arsenal played at Eastlands on Sunday, but that all means nothing if they then perform poorly in matches they should win. Aston Villa are in 10th place, but have only won four league matches this year. They were lifeless against Liverpool on Sunday. It's a perfect chance for Arsenal to bounce back to their winning ways with three points. Saying that and doing it are two different things. Every fixture during the festive period is winnable. They just have to win them now.

Arsenal Squad News

Johan Djourou is now the thirteenth injured Arsenal
defender. And I'm only slightly exaggerating!
Photo: Daily Mail.

Out: Djourou (groin), Santos (ankle), Fabianski (knee), Mannone (shoulder), Diaby (hamstring), Jenkinson (back), Sagna (broken leg), Wilshere (ankle)
Doubts: Gibbs (hernia)
Suspended: Song (one match, accumulation)

Arsenal is now top of the table in injuries, with a whopping eight players out due to injury. Kieran Gibbs and Alex Song are not included in that number; the former faces a fitness test and could return to action in this match, having missed almost two months following hernia surgery, the latter misses this match through suspension for yellow card accumulation. One would assume Emmanuel Frimpong would start for the banned Song (merry DENCHmas everyone,) though it could just as easily be Francis Coquelin.

Arsenal have announced that Mikel Arteta is available for selection, as he is on four yellow cards and not five, having picked up one with Everton. I count him having picked up two with Everton, so I can't really explain this, but with Song unavailable, it's for the best that Arteta can be picked, and we should all be quiet about it before anybody notices that somebody is counting wrong.

Johan Djourou picked up a groin injury at Eastlands on Sunday and is expected to miss three weeks. This, combined with long term injuries to Andre Santos, Bacary Sagna, and Carl Jenkinson, means if Gibbs doesn't pass fit, Arsenal is down to five options for four defensive positions. It does not help that Song, a defensive midfielder that can deputize in the back four in an emergency, misses through suspension. I have not heard much good news regarding Gibbs, and have basically only heard that it's "very unlikely" for him to feature in this one.

Other than the wreck at the back, the team news elsewhere is all about the same as it has been for the past few weeks.

Projected XI: Szczesny, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Mertesacker, Miquel, Frimpong, Ramsey, Arteta, Gervinho, Walcott, van Persie.

Aston Villa Squad News

Darren Bent: not fit. Photo: Daily Mail.

Out: Bent (thigh), Herd (ankle), Heskey, Given (hamstring), Jenas (Achilles), Lichaj (hip)
Doubts: Collins

Darren Bent has not passed fit and will not be available for Villa in this match, as he remains out with a thigh injury. Good news for Arsenal, as he's always had a knack for scoring against the Gunners. He scored three goals in two games for two different teams against Arsenal last season. Bent ruffled a few feathers this weekend by going Christmas shopping during Villa's loss to Liverpool. Villa were lifeless in that loss, but they will have Gabriel Agbonlahor back from suspension. Chris Herd and Emile Heskey are both out, though I have not heard exactly what type of injury Heskey has. It'll be a race against time for defender James Collins to pass fit, as well.

Shay Given, purchased from City's bench over the summer, is out until January with a hamstring injury. American Brad Guzan is deputizing in his place. Jermaine Jenas, on loan from Tottenham, ruptured his Achilles in his first start for Villa earlier this month and is out for the rest of the season.

Current Form

Villa were dreadful against Liverpool on Sunday.
Photo: Guardian.

Things may still seem pretty comfortable for Arsenal regarding their form, but very quietly, the Gunners have won just twice in their last six matches across all competitions. They've lost twice to Manchester City, they're B team was demolished in Greece, and they drew Fulham in the first of those six matches. Their comprehensive league victories over Wigan and Everton are their only two wins over the past four weeks, since beating Dortmund in the Champions League on November 23. Arsenal had also won four straight road games before consecutive set-backs against Olympiacos and City.

Aston Villa have won just four league matches this season. They have picked up four points from six matches against the nine teams ahead of them in the table. That includes a win against Norwich, who are currently in ninth. Their other three wins are against the bottom feeders: Blackburn, Bolton, and Wigan. Villa were unbeaten through their first seven matches (with five draws,) but since then, they have lost five, won two, and drawn two.

Match Facts

Jack Wilshere kisses the badge after scoring at Villa
last season. Photo: Clean Sheets All Around.

Arsenal have only lost two of their last 25 league meetings with Aston Villa, though one of those Villa victories came in their most recent meeting, which occurred during what I'm going to start referring to as Arsenal's "terrible phase," which lasted from the Carling Cup Final last year to... well, about October. Darren Bent scored twice in quick succession in the first quarter of an hour or so, as the Arsenal defense decided they weren't really going to try very hard for a little while. Robin van Persie picked up a goal late in the match, but it was too little, too late, as the Gunners lost in their final home match of last season.

The Gunners did win this fixture last year, 4-2 at Villa Park in late November. Arsenal's four goal scorers that day: Andrei Arshavin, Samir Nasri, Marouane Chamakh, and Jack Wilshere. I can't picture any of the four of them scoring tomorrow, in that Nasri's gone, Wilshere's hurt, and the other two are invisible when on the pitch these days. Ciaran Clark had a brace for Villa; he hasn't played since October.

The last time Aston Villa beat Arsenal at Villa Park was December of 1998. Arsenal took a 2-0 lead in that match before the Villans stormed back to win 3-2. Since then, Villa have lost six and drawn six at home against the Gunners.

The Referee

Moss has only worked six Premier League
matches, though he did see West Brom out of the
FA Cup last year. Photo: Daily Mail.

The referee is West Yorkshire-based Jonathan Moss. This will be Moss's seventh Premier League match. At 41 years of age, Moss was promoted to the Select Group of referees this year. As such, this will be his first career Arsenal match.

Moss's first Premier League appointment was December 18 of last year, a match between Wigan and Aston Villa, which was postponed because of snow. He ended up working the re-scheduled match on January 25, which Villa won 2-1. Before that, his actual first Premier League match became Birmingham's 2-1 win at Blackpool. In an odd bit of coincidence, both of those sides were relegated back to the Championship. That match took place four days after Moss was in charge of a Championship match between two sides that would go on to be promoted; Norwich City and QPR.

Moss has worked four Premier League matches this season: Tottenham's 2-1 win at Wigan, Norwich's 3-1 win over Swansea, Everton's 2-1 win over Wolves, and Swansea's 2-0 win over Fulham.

Running one of the lines will be Sian Massey, in her first Arsenal match. Massey was, of course, at the center of controversy when Andy Gray was sacked by Sky Sports for stating off-mic that women did not understand the offside rule. It bears mention that her call to allow Liverpool's borderline opening goal to stand that day was correct. Liverpool won that match 3-0 over Wolves at Molineux. Massey was the head referee of last year's Women's FA Cup final, which was won by Arsenal Ladies.

Around the League

Spurs v. Chelsea ended 1-1 last December. A draw here is
almost always beneficial to Arsenal. Photo: Guardian.

The first round of midweek fixtures in the league this season sees two matches today, seven tomorrow (including Arsenal's,) and one on Thursday. Today, Wolves hosts Norwich at 2:45 Eastern, while Blackburn hosts Bolton in a relegation six-pointer at 3:00.

As Arsenal plays in Birmingham, there will be six other matches. Manchester City hosts Stoke at Eastlands, in a rematch of last year's FA Cup final and Newcastle hosts West Brom at Mike Ashley's Ego Stadium. Those three matches take place at 2:45. The others are at 3:00, as Everton hosts Swansea at Goodison Park, Fulham welcomes Manchester United to the Cottage, QPR hosts Sunderland at Loftus Road, and Wigan hosts Liverpool a few days after they got a point from Chelsea at home.

Speaking of Chelsea, they travel to the north of London to face Tottenham Hotspur at 3:00 on Thursday. Honestly, I don't know what to root for in this match. Arsenal is in direct competition with both of these teams for Champions League spots, so in reality, a draw is the best result from an Arsenal perspective.

Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal: Valiant Effort

2011-12-18T14:12:00.019-05:00

(NOTE: The match report does not end with the player ratings and MOTM this week - please stay tuned for a bonus rant at the end.)

If nothing else, Arsenal have proven beyond all question that they are not the same ragtag outfit that shipped a cricket score the last time they visited the greater Manchester area. For long stretches, the men in red defended resolutely against a squad put together with the GDP of South America. It was a ferociously-contested dogfight that left the Arabian Petro-Dollar All-Stars no room to breathe until Professional Shithead Phil Dowd blew the final whistle.

Long story short: Even in defeat, I am proud of the Arsenal team today.

The team picked itself, continuing with the same personnel that narrowly defeated Everton last week. A bit cheekily, Roberto Mancini picked both Kolo Toure and Samir Nasri - despite his side frankly having better and more in-form options at both positions. Other than that, it was largely the usual suspects for them as well, though a suspension to Gael Clichy and an injury to Aleksandr Kolarov meant that Pablo Zabaleta would deputize at left-back. He's definitely a solid player (and would start on many teams), but previous to the match I had figured that Theo Walcott could potentially capitalize on his lack of pace.

The opening exchanges were cagey at best, with neither side wanting to make the first mistake. City had a little more of the ball, but Arsenal prevented them from any serious chances. Likewise, City's forwards and front midfielders pressed so effectively, the Gunners were forced into backpasses to Wojceich Szczesny on a multitude of occasions.

As solid as Arsenal had looked early on, City could easily have taken the lead after 10 minutes. Zabaleta's ball over the Arsenal backline was ran onto by Sergio Aguero, but the Argentine blazed miles over the bar. A minute later, Mario Balotelli was the one to play him in, but he hesitated too long and allowed Per Mertesacker to get back to clear. They weren't done though, and Silva was next to get free. This time, Szczesny easily smothered the weak shot.

That wasn't a great spell from the Arsenal, but they rode out the pressure and started to fire back. In fact, Joe Hart was very lucky not to concede on Arsenal's next foray up the field. Gervinho found himself in space after running onto Alex Song's brilliant through-ball. It was a bit of a tough angle, but Hart looked to dive a little early and there was some room there. Hart ended up doing well to get a hand down, the rebound hit his leg and happened to go out of play. I've seen ones like that where it ends up dribbling through - I think even Hart would tell you that he was relieved that it didn't go in.

Directly off the corner, Hart had to be sharp and made a much tougher save. The Gunners took it short, and cut it back to Aaron Ramsey on the edge of the penalty area. The Welshman fired a shot through the forest of bodies in between him and the goal. Somehow, the young English keeper saw it early enough to get down and make a fantastic diving save. Still, this passage of play was a strong statement of intent from the Gunners after having been overrun a bit in the previous few minutes.

That said, City were not about to let up either, and the mercurial Balotelli probably should have given them the lead not too long after. Another high ball over the Arsenal backline was brilliantly controlled by the Italian, whose back was to goal. In one sudden movement, he turned and stabbed an effort towards goal. Szczesny read the danger perfectly though, and swooped out of his net to block. One eventually runs out of superlatives for the man - he is already one of the best in the league.

No two teams could keep up that frenetic a pace for an entire 45 minutes, but despite the relative lull, both sides would have one more chance before the interval. A long RVP shot led to some confusion in the City area, and it came to Ramsey in the 6-yard box. Unfortunately, the ball got tangled up in his feet, which gave the defense time to recover and clear it away. Up the other end, Silva and Aguero tormented the Arsenal central defense with some quick passes, but the latter's shot across the face of goal was again read correctly by Szczesny and saved with a minimum of fuss.

That took us to halftime, and there were rumors that Djourou had picked up a knock of some kind. There were no changes as the teams came out for the second stanza, but clearly Djourou's attempt to run it off was unsuccessful. Within a few minutes of the restart, we were greeted with the horrifying sight of the Swiss being replaced by young Ignasi Miquel.

Nil-nil away to Manchester City and their legions of world-class players. No pressure, kid.

Ostensibly, Miquel moved to LB, Vermaelen into the center and Koscielny out right. It looked like there was some confusion with those assignments though, and that was the mistake that cost us a point.

City came up the field, and the pass came out to Balotelli in absolute acres on the left-hand side. Koscielny was in the center of the penalty area, giving the striker the run of the sideline. Belatedly, Song came over to cover but got beaten by Balotelli as he cut inside. His shot was saved well by Szczesny, but the rebound came out to the middle. Silva took one stab at it and missed, but it served to take Szczesny out of the play as he dove to try and save it. Silva then beat Vermaelen, and with Miquel absolutely nowhere (just standing around, actually), was able to turn it into the empty net.

City had the lead then, but I did not feel like the game was over at that point. That said, it was a little frustrating that with Djourou apparently in danger of not being able to continue, that everyone involved on the backline did not know exactly what they needed to do in case of Djourou being withdrawn. Honestly? I blame Arsene for that - he had the entire halftime interval to make absolutely sure that the eventuality was covered, and clearly it didn't happen.

With that gripe out of the way, Arsenal's response was fantastic. A minute after the goal, the men in red stormed up the field and forced a decent save out of Hart via Walcott's long-range drive. Another minute after that, RVP found the net with a gorgeous chip over the on-rushing Hart, but it was pegged back as the Dutchman was marginally offside (incidentally, correct as per the letter of the law...but I don't see what the advantage is when the guy's frigging hand was about the only thing that wasn't level - there's a rule that badly needs re-writing by grown-ups).

Unlike the City teams of the recent past though, they did not bunker and try to sit on the lead. After RVP's goal got overturned, the Sky Blues spurned two chances to double the lead. First, Aguero got himself open and fizzed a low shot just the wrong side of the far post. Soon after, Silva's through-ball found Nasri with all the space he could ever want on the right side of the penalty area. Needless to say, the coward wouldn't attempt a shot himself...but he also had Balotelli on the back post, screaming for an easy tap-in. It should have been a goal that killed the game off, but Nasri badly overhit his pass. For once, I could sympathize with Balotelli's death glare at a teammate.

That was just about the only contribution to the match from The Incredible Disappearing Samir Nasri, by the way. His Man of the Match award was clearly a troll move from a side that for some reason has a bug up their collective ass about us (Why Always Us?). He frankly sucked, and once again showed that last season's early good form aside, he was not nearly as big a loss as the whole world said he was going to be.

The pace of the match picked back up, and once again the two sides cut-and-thrusted, with chances coming for both sides. RVP had a fairly tame shot saved by Hart, while up the other end, Zabaleta hit the post with a long-range screamer.

With opportunities coming thick and fast for both clubs, this was still anyone's game. Well, until The Most Mystifying Substitution in the History of all Football, that is. While Walcott had a somewhat quiet game, why on earth he was withdrawn in favor of Andrei Arshavin, I have no idea. Arshavin is clearly a talented player on his day and in the right situation, but with his form and confidence so bad, it was just not the right move to bring him on when we're chasing the game away to a side like Manchester City.

Needless to say, Arsenal had a glorious chance directly afterwards that was squandered by the Russian. From a corner, the ball eventually came to Arshavin out on the left. He had teammates queuing up in the center of the area crying out for a good delivery, but what he came up with was a tame, under-hit dribbler that was easily cleared out by the first man.

If ever anyone needed to be sold in the January window, it's this man. I give Arsene a lot of credit for finally realizing who the deadwood is and getting them out of the club, but the two bits of flotsam left on the roster are of course the guys who were brought on to try and save the game.

One of the game's main talking points came in the 77th minute. Whisper it, but although he had a horrendous game otherwise, Dowd got this one right. Off of a header by TV5, the ball whipped into the area and hit Micah Richards on the arm. Naturally, everyone and their mother screeched for a handball, but it wasn't one if we're being honest with ourselves. It has to be intentional and the guy's arm has to be in an unnatural position. If his arm is at his side and there's no real way he can get it out of the way, then it's not a penalty. End of.

By this point, City had not had a serious attack in a while, so the Boss abandoned caution with his final substitution. Mertesacker was withdrawn for Marouane Chamakh - Song dropped into defense, and we went to a 4-4-2. The change was a good one, but it's a shame that the striker we brought on did not scare the City backline in the slightest. You can't help but feel that competent replacements for Arshavin and Chamakh would see this team easily into 4th with momentum heading into next season...but will Wenger actually go through with it?

Anyway, Arshavin had one half-chance go well the wrong side of the near post as full-time loomed. It would have been tough for anyone, but I never felt like he would be able to put it away. Fighting to the last, though, Arsenal had the best of the chances in the four minutes of injury time.

First, a training-ground special from a free kick saw it played backwards for the onrushing TV5, who hammered an effort on goal. Sadly, it was right at Hart, who duly palmed it over. From the ensuing corner, it came out to Gervinho with options in the middle, but he proved unable to beat the first man with a cross despite having two bites at the cherry. Awful stuff from the Ivorian there.

It was left to TV5 - one of the real heart-and-soul members of the side - to attempt the equalizer once again. He hit another long-range thunderbolt in the last minute of added time, and for a tenth of a second, it looked like it would find the upper 90. Hart would have needed a rocket up his ass to save it, but sadly it flashed just over the angle of post and crossbar, leaving the points in the bag for City.

Yes, the result is not what we wanted...and we are well and truly out of any discussion for the title race. Still, considering the nightmarish start to the season and the hole that it put us in, we are in a far better position than we could have envisioned back then. We're only 16 games in, and just three points behind a sputtering Chelsea. Our nearest and dearest are five points ahead, but only a delusional nitwit would think that they won't drop points along the way...they are overachieving and everyone knows it.

Make no mistake, there is still a lot to play for. The FA Cup is coming up, and if we get past Milan in the Champions' League, who knows what can happen? Today's result was a bit of a downer, but no one has come away from Eastlands with a win for a year...and very few have come as close as we just did. So, chins up, Gooners. Our next five league fixtures are Villa away, Wolves at home, QPR at home, Fulham away, and Swansea away. What's important now is for the team to put this disappointment to one side, and do the business in five games that should produce a bare minimum of 11 points.

Over to you, Gunners.

The Modern Gooner Player Ratings:

Szczesny 8, Vermaelen 7, Koscielny 7, Mertesacker 7 (Chamakh N/A), Djourou 7 (Miquel 5), Gervinho 7, Song 8, Arteta 7, Ramsey 7, Walcott 6 (Arshavin 4), van Persie 6

Man of the Match: Alex Song, for his tenacious play in the middle of the park.

BONUS RANT: Apparently, early on in the match, the City supporters were singing "van Persie is ours". OK, look, I get it. Money is in the game for good now, and it's not going away. And, I get that as Arsenal supporters, we have traditionally had an advantage over the Sunderlands and Wigans of the world. All of this can be taken as a given.

But, seriously, have you lot seriously already forgotten where you came from?

Well, I should clarify here. Of course, you're going to have a significant percentage of their fanbase that has only known City as a big club. For those more casual supporters, I honestly don't begrudge them their ignorance. To them, football is just another luxury item for them to consume and be seen doing it, so having them sing songs about RVP is water off of a duck's back. They just don't know, and I wouldn't care much if they did.

It's the ones who have been around since the old days that truly amaze me, though. Hey lads, remember when you were the first winner of a European trophy to be relegated to your league's third tier back in 1999 or 2000 or whenever it was? I do. I remember when "Manchester City" was as synonymous with "joke football club" as Newcastle was with "comedy defending" and Liverpool was with "ugly dudes in bubble perms and hilarious pornstar moustaches".

The kicker? You do, too. I know it, and you know it.

For years...no, for DECADES, you lot were Manchester United's inbred cousins. If you had had anyone that another team could possibly have wanted, they would have been signed away quicker than you can say "Shaun Goater and Paul Dickov used to be our strike partnership". Since you seem to have faulty long-term memories, let me remind you of the shite that used to suit up in sky blue.

So, now, here you are with your nouveau riche oil money, and it's like the last 50 years never happened. The problem is, the last 50 years DID happen. You're still a club with no history and no tradition of winning. At best...at fucking BEST, you're going to be like the galactico-era Real Madrid: Shit-tons of money spent, once in a while winning something on sheer talent alone but always folding the second anyone significantly fights back. Yes, you had a tough Champions' League group, but you'd have gotten through it if your team was anywhere near as good as you think they are.

I mean, as strong of a start to the season as you've had, your old rivals are just two points behind. Hear those footsteps yet?

Call it sour grapes if you want, but I have a feeling that if RVP does leave us at the end of the season (and for me the only way he leaves is if we have the kind of season that would leave me not blaming him at all for departing), he's not going to go to you lot...he'll go somewhere like Madrid or Milan or Barcelona that, while not Arsenal and therefore get no love from me, are not completely a pack of mercenaries and have some semblance of a winning tradition that you can't buy...no matter how much money your sheikh sugar daddies throw at it.

Or, to put it much more succinctly...die in a fire.

Preview by Numbers: Manchester City v. Arsenal

2011-12-16T00:01:00.199-05:00

Etihad Stadium, Manchester

Sunday, December 18

11:10 a.m. EST, 4:10 p.m. GMT

Match Officials

Referee: Phil Dowd
Assistants: Mick McDonough and David Richardson
4th Official: Michael Oliver

This Match, Last Year: Manchester City 0 - 3 Arsenal
All-time in All Competitions: 92 Arsenal wins, 46 Manchester City wins, 40 draws
Arsenal's League Form: W-W-W-D-W-W
Manchester City's League Form: W-W-W-D-W-L

It's seven wins from eight in the league for Arsenal, thanks
to Robin van Persie's perfect volley. Photo: Guardian.

As the match at Chelsea was in late October, this is a huge, defining match for Arsenal. For the terribleness that was the first month and a half of this season, the Gunners have turned their form around, and have worked themselves back into the Top 4 discussion. The 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge was a turning point for Arsenal. This match at Eastlands can instill further confidence into a side that has gone unbeaten in eight league fixtures. It could also do some damage to the psyche if things don't go well. Critical fixture, this.

The onus is going to be on everybody here. The back four plus Szczesny has to keep things under control, the midfield probably has the most important job of controlling possession, and the offense has to create chances and then score on them, damn it! This is not the type of game where Arsenal can afford to waste opportunities like they did so many times against Everton.

This could be a season defining match. City are showing some cracks in the armor, but they have been lethal at home this year. Arsenal have found themselves a bit and can't afford to take any steps backward. It's going to be a massive battle.

Arsenal Squad News

Out: Santos (ankle), Fabianski (knee), Mannone (shoulder), Gibbs (hernia), Jenkinson (back), Sagna (broken leg), Wilshere (ankle)
Doubts: Diaby (hamstring)

That's right. Arsene Wenger can make things levitate
with his mind. Photo: Guardian.

When Arsenal plays on Sundays, normally I have to wait until Friday to find out all of the team news, and that, in turn, pushes the posting of this post until Saturday morning. This week, however, there was no midweek game. So really, how much team news is going to be a surprise?

The bad news this week is that Andre Santos needed surgery to repair ligament damage in his ankle. That will leave him out until mid-March, at least. Until Kieran Gibbs returns, Arsenal will still be without a natural fullback. At least by January, Arsenal should have Carl Jenkinson and Bacary Sagna back, right? Right?

It sounds like another week of playing four center backs across the entire back line. Thankfully, with a midweek to rest, they should all be ready to go. Honestly, I can't foresee any changes to the starting XI. Things are clicking right now; why mess with it?

As one last thought, Alex Song is one yellow card away from a one match accumulation ban. He had picked up that fourth at Wigan two weeks ago, so thankfully he didn't get number five against Everton last week. Arsenal will really need Song to put in a good performance in this match.

Predicted XI: Szczesny, Djourou, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Song, Ramsey, Arteta, Gervinho, Walcott, van Persie.

Manchester City Squad News

Manchester City at their Christmas party.
Note to City: Christmas is not Halloween.
Photo: Guardian.

Out: Kolarov (groin)
Suspended: Clichy (one match, two yellows)

Gael Clichy was the last remaining member of the Invincibles, the Arsenal squad that went 49 matches unbeaten, before he left for Manchester City this summer. On Monday, he did his part to ensure that the record once again remained with Arsenal. With City's unbeaten run at 17 dating back to last season, there were rumblings of discussions of just how far this expensively assembled squad could go without a loss. Then, Clichy's red card meant City, in a 1-1 game, were forced to play at Stamford Bridge with ten men. They tried to park the bus for the draw, it didn't work, and Frank Lampard's penalty ensured that there would be no unbeaten side in the league this season. Clichy's red card also means he is suspended this week and will not face his former club.

In addition, City have two players out through injury (which is more than the zero players they had out through injury when these sides met in the Carling Cup in late November.) Aleksandar Kolarov is out until January with a groin strain (he's been playing more in midfield, though he's naturally a left back that could have deputized for the banned Clichy.)

Micah Richards had been listed as out an indeterminate length with a calf injury, but he is back in training, and got into a minor bust-up with Mario Balotelli at training yesterday. From everything I've heard from a source that was there on a Manchester City blog, the spat was minor but they fully expected the media to sensationalize the story. CLUB IN CRISIS! TRAINING GROUND BUST-UP! WHY ALWAYS MARIO? IMAGE OF LOGO CRACKED IN HALF!

Current Form

~~AC Milan~~ Manchester City lost for the first time in 17
league games on Monday. Let's hope for two L's in a row.
Photo: Guardian.

Arsenal are unbeaten in their last eight league fixtures, which stands as the longest unbeaten run in the league after Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur both lost last weekend. Manchester United's unbeaten streak, at six matches, is the second best form in the league right now, behind Arsenal. After losing 2-1 at White Hart Lane, Arsenal had picked up seven of a possible 21 points up to that point in the season. Since then, they have picked up 22 of a possible 24, with the only blemish being the 1-1 draw with Fulham which followed a hard fought Champions League midweek victory.

In terms of Arsenal's road form, they had a four match road winning streak snapped in Greece last week, but have still won three straight league fixtures away from the Emirates (at Chelsea, Norwich, and Wigan.) Aside from winning at the Bridge, that's not a very impressive list, but it's also the first time Arsenal won three straight league games away from the Emirates since last October-November, a streak that started with a win at Eastlands. That streak ended at Old Trafford after four road wins, though during that time period, they also managed to lose twice at home.

Prior to Monday's loss at Chelsea, Manchester City had 38 points from their first 14 games. The last team to do that was Liverpool in 1990/91. Liverpool lost game 15 that year, as City did this year. Liverpool's loss in 1990 came 3-0 to the eventual title winners, Arsenal.

While Manchester City's league form hit a bump in the road on Monday, their form at home is still superb, to the tune of 12 consecutive victories in the league. That ends up sounding a little less impressive when you read the list of teams they've beaten in those 12; the most difficult fixture was their battle with Spurs for the last Champions League slot last April... which... basically ended up going to Arsenal, thanks to the Gunners' late season collapse. In any case, the list of 12 teams they've beaten consecutively at home (dating back to a 1-1 draw with Fulham): Wigan, Sunderland, West Ham, Tottenham, Stoke, Swansea, Wigan again, Everton, Aston Villa, Wolves, Newcastle, and Norwich. Among those played this year, the win over Newcastle is probably most impressive, but they've fallen to seventh. This is the first time this year Manchester City will welcome a side currently in the Top 6 to Eastlands, where they only lost twice in league play last year: to Everton and to Arsenal.

That's not to say the streak isn't impressive, of course; it is. City haven't played a top side at home yet this year, but they've also won 5-1 at White Hart Lane and 6-1 at Old Trafford. But, they've also drawn 1-1 at Anfield and lost 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. They've won once in the league in their last three (at home to Norwich) and dropped out of the Champions League in the same time frame. Perhaps this is the best time for anybody to be playing City away.

Match Facts

I use this photo as much as I can when Arsenal plays City,
even if Adebayor is at an even worse club now. This photo
is, of course, from City's 4-2 win in September of 2009.
The caption is from me, obviously.

How interesting can this section really be this week, considering Arsenal just played Manchester City half a month ago and you probably know all of this already? In that Carling Cup meeting at the Emirates, Arsenal held strong with their second string against Manchester City's admittedly more expensive second string, before an 83rd minute winner from Sergio Aguero gave City the 1-0 win. It was a much more impressive performance from the Arsenal second string than they showed in Greece the following week, so part of me wonders just how that match would have gone if it were at Eastlands.

Arsenal won at Eastlands last year, 3-0, aided by Dedryck Boyata's fifth minute red card. Boyata didn't play for City's first team again for six months. Samir Nasri, Alex Song, and Nicklas Bendtner had Arsenal's goals. City parked the bus at the Emirates and received a 0-0 draw for their efforts.

Before last year's win, Arsenal had lost three straight at Eastlands across all competitions. In the fall of 2009, City won the league meeting 4-2 before a Carling Cup tie that saw City through with a 3-0 win. The year before that, Manchester City also won 3-0.

Arsenal have won 33 league meetings at Manchester City. City have won 30 times at home against Arsenal in the league. 20 meetings have been drawn.

The Referee

That's a little close for comfort. Photo: Into the Final Third.

The referee is Staffordshire-based Phil Dowd. He's from Stoke! This sends me into some convulsions; it's worse than Howard Webb (note that he was fine on Saturday,) but it's not as bad as Mike Dean, in terms of Arsenal's history with him. And, to be fair, after an entire season of dreadful results with Phil Dowd in the middle last year, Arsenal has won the only game he's taken charge of this season, 2-1 at Norwich last month.

But, it's that string of bad results last season involving Phil Dowd that will, of course, leave a sour taste in your mouth. Most specifically, his efforts in the second half at Newcastle in February. In addition that 4-4 last year, he also worked for Arsenal a 1-1 draw at Sunderland where the Black Cats equalized in the 95th minute, a 3-2 loss at home to Tottenham, a 0-0 draw with Blackburn at home, and a 1-1 draw with Leeds in the FA Cup, where he actually saved Arsenal with a late penalty. No wins from five last year involving Phil Dowd; I'd like to forget most of those games.

For Manchester City, Phil Dowd was at the center of this summer's Community Shield, in which they blew a 2-0 lead and lost to Manchester United 3-2, thanks to Nani's late goal. In league play, City have won both of their matches with Dowd as the referee, both on the road, and both by four goal margins. Those include the 5-1 win at Tottenham and the 4-0 win at Blackburn.

This is Dowd's first match between these two sides.

Around the League

Sky's coverage of European Cup rugby has meant no
early kick-offs on Saturday for the past two weeks.

As arguably the biggest match of the weekend, Arsenal's trip to Manchester City is the final match of the ten game slate of games. There are three other matches kicking off before it on Super Sunday, with six matches scheduled for Saturday.

For the second straight week, Sky Sports is not airing an early match, so there's no 7:45 a.m. Eastern kick-off. They are once again airing Heineken Cup rugby in that time slot on Sky Sports 1. That means there are five matches scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, and none of them are particularly interesting. Blackburn hosts West Brom at Ewood Park, Norwich City is in Liverpool to face Everton, Fulham hosts last place Bolton at the Cottage, Newcastle faces Swansea at Mike Ashley's Ridiculously Named Stadium, and Wolves is home at Molineux to face a Stoke side that played in Turkey on Wednesday. The late match sees Chelsea travel to the DW Stadium to face Wigan.

Sky's Super Sunday culminates with Manchester City v. Arsenal, but before that, it'll show Manchester United's visit to Loftus Road to face QPR at 7:00 a.m. Eastern (that's the second time United have had to play that early this year,) then Liverpool's visit to Birmingham to face Aston Villa at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. Meanwhile, Tottenham hosts Sunderland at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, though that match is not on Sky Sports in England, nor will it be televised live in the U.S. So, take that, Tottenham!

Arsenal 1-0 Everton: Happy 125th, Gunners!

2011-12-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

It just had to be one-nil on our 125th birthday, right?

For once in my life, I was actually on time for one of these things - now, I know what I've been missing all this time.

Nothing. Not a bloody thing. I think it must have been the 20th minute before anything of note happened whatsoever.

Let's rewind for a second, though. The keeper, midfield and striker all picked themselves (though the looming specter of Manuel Almunia was on the bench should young Wojceich Szczesny have gotten hurt), while the boss opted to shift Thomas Vermaelen out to the left. With Johan Djourou on the right, that left a central defense of Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny.

That said, the opening stages of the match consisted of an unofficial competition as to who could go offside more often. The poor linesmen were certainly getting a workout, much more so than the goalkeepers at any rate. Still, Arsenal were seeing more of the ball and looked OK. It's just that they were clearly not prepared for the almost suicidally-high line that the Everton defense were playing.

In open play, Arsenal were having trouble breaking them down. The first clear chance of the game came when Marouane Fellaini gave the ball away in midfield. Mikael Arteta won it from his former teammate and sent Theo Walcott off to the races. Walcott surged down the right-hand side and honestly should have taken the shot himself. Instead, his cutback was played into the mixer with both Aaron Ramsey and Gervinho waiting. The pass was too far ahead of Ramsey, and the Ivorian, clearly expecting his teammate to receive it, let it get tangled in his legs. By the time he could get himself sorted, there were enough blue shirts back to shepherd it out of danger.

A warning shot, then, but frustrating in the sense that most other teams in the league probably would have scored there.

A while later, a loose ball near the Everton area was won by Alex Song, who laid it off for Ramsey. The Welshman took it on his left foot and sent a beautiful curling effort towards goal. Sadly, it rested neatly on top of the net, having missed by mere inches.

Some of the faithful were convinced that this would be one of those matches that we out-chance the opponent by hatfuls and lose 1-0. There was one problem with that theory though, and that's that Everton couldn't score in a women's prison with a fistful of pardons.

Gervinho was the next to get in behind the Toffees' defense, as a backwards header from Tim Cahill was pounced upon by the man with the giant forehead. He came in alone on Tim Howard and at least got it on net. It perhaps wasn't the greatest finish in the world, but the American stopper still had to be on his toes and made a decent save.

That was about all there was to report from the first half, other than referee Howard Webb showing a few inexplicable yellow cards (to both sides, in fairness) for fouls that warranted just a free kick. Quelle surprise, eh?

The second half meandered along much like the first, with Arsenal getting all of the actual chances. Howard was tested again, from a move starting from the Gunner backline. It came out to Arteta, who played a one-two with Ramsey. Ramsey laid it off for the run of Walcott, who then absolutely abused Leighton Baines with a sneaky dribble. He beat his man, and got a strong shot away. Sadly, Howard was able to claw it to safety. Still, the statement of intent was there and it's good to see young Theo continuing to play well.

Up the other end, Everton had one of their few chances of the match when Seamus Coleman's cutback to Rat-Faced Chav Phil Neville was met with a shot that looped over the crossbar to safety.

Finally, the breakthrough came in the 70th minute...and man alive, did it come from absolutely nothing, too. Arsenal were pinging the ball around when Song decided to go with the old Route One. His lobbed pass over the Everton defense was brilliantly weighted, allowing van Persie to run onto it perfectly (and onside this time, too!). On the dead run, van Persie hit an exquisite left-footed volley past a stunned Howard, off the post and in.

Seriously, are you kidding me? What a goal...what a MAGICAL goal. When the cameras showed Thierry Henry applauding it in the crowd, you just knew that this day would belong to Arsenal. What a birthday present from the Dutchman.

David Moyes opted to make some changes shortly after the goal, bringing off the dreadful Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (the one guy who ensures that Arsenal don't have the worst Russian in the Premier League this season) and Rat-Faced Chav, and bringing on Magaye Gueye and 19-year old embryo Conor McAleny, who doesn't look a minute over 8.

Wouldn't you just know it, but it was their young lad who almost tied the game. A long ball caused some bother in the Arsenal defense, and McAleny was left all alone just outside the area. His half-volley was sweetly struck, and for a second I thought "Oh, not again". I mean, how many times over the last few seasons have we been victimized by no-names and fetuses, whose one moment of glory always happens to be a goal against us?

It didn't happen this time, though...Szczesny was beaten all ends up, but the shot trickled inches wide of the far post. That was their chance.

There were about 194 minutes of stoppage time for some reason, which at least meant some minutes for the substitutes - Ignasi Miquel on for TV5, Tomas Rosicky for Gervinho and Emmanuel Frimpong for Walcott. It all passed with a minimum of fuss, leaving Arsenal with all three points on the day.

So, until Chelsea play at any rate, we're back into the top four. This was a decent effort against a determined opponent, and picking up points when you don't play well is the hallmark of a good team.

After the match, the NYC Arsenal Supporters Club had our annual holiday party and raffle. I highly commend the bravery and patience of the Blind Pig waitresses, as every single tray of food that came out was set upon by packs of hungry jackals. Seriously, does anyone feed us at home or what? More importantly, we raised over $1500 for the Bowery Mission, and some folks walked away with some excellent prizes.

Me? I won a Theo Walcott away jersey. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's a Boys Large, so I may be able to wear it without scandal if I can somehow cut, say, 40 pounds or so. Bloody hell.

The Modern Gooner Player Ratings:

Szczesny 7, Vermaelen 7 (Miquel N/A), Koscielny 7, Mertesacker 7, Djourou 7, Song 7, Arteta 7, Gervinho 6 (Rosicky N/A), Ramsey 6, Walcott 7 (Frimpong N/A), van Persie 8

Man of the Match: Duh...who else but Robin?