The Modern Gooner: An Arsenal Blog

Preview by Numbers: Arsenal v. Tottenham Hotspur

2012-02-24T00:01:00.215-05:00

Emirates Stadium, London

Sunday, February 26

8:30 a.m. EST, 1:30 p.m. GMT

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Match Officials

Referee: Mike Dean
Assistants: Steve Child and Simon Long
4th Official: Phil Dowd

Reverse Fixture: Tottenham 2 - 1 Arsenal
This Match, Last Year: Arsenal 2 - 3 Tottenham
All-Time in All Competitions: 69 Arsenal wins, 53 Tottenham wins, 45 draws
Arsenal's League Form: L-L-L-D-W-W
Tottenham's League Form: W-D-L-W-D-W

We're getting way too used to images like this one.
Photo: Daily Mail.

So. Big game, this.

When was the last time a North London derby had this much riding on it for Arsenal? The Gunners have had an extremely trying week, digging themselves a massive hole against Milan in Europe, then crashing meekly out of the FA Cup in Sunderland. Now, fourth place is essentially all Arsenal has to play for this season. But, if you want to put a positive spin on things, Arsenal do sit in fourth place right now, so it's not like they have to gain ground on anybody. They just have to do as well as Chelsea, Newcastle, and Liverpool from here on out.

But, given Arsenal's performances of late, do you really trust them to match results with some of these other sides (though, have you seen Chelsea lately?) That's why getting back on the right track in the league right away is so important.

That's why this is going to be a season defining game for Arsenal.

There are really only two ways this kind of game can go. An Arsenal win can be a springboard moving forward. An Arsenal loss can seriously damage this team's aspirations. A draw can go in either of these directions, depending on how it's played out. There's really no other way around it. It won't be possible to feel any sort of middle-ground mediocre after this game. It'll either be a really high high or a really low low. So, let's hope for the former and reclaim North London for the red and white.

Arsenal Squad News

Out: Squillaci (groin), Ramsey (ankle), Coquelin (hamstring), Mertesacker (ankle), Frimpong (knee), Santos (ankle), Diaby (hamstring), Jenkinson (back), Wilshere (ankle)
Doubts: Gibbs (knock), Chamakh (toe), Koscielny (knee)

Really, Kieran Gibbs might not be fit again? Really?
Photo: Telegraph.

Oh look, nine players are out with injuries. Three more face fitness tests. How about that...

Arsenal have lost seven of those 12 names in the past two weeks. Laurent Koscielny picked up his knee injury at Milan, but is in contention to start on Sunday. Rumors are he'll pass fit, but it's too early to be certain. Kieran Gibbs was going to play for the reserves this week, but he picked up a knock in training and now he too faces a fitness test. Marouane Chamakh did play in that reserves match, but came in carrying a toe injury and left on the half hour mark.

That reserves match was a 5-0 win over Norwich with a very strong line-up that included Chamakh, Ju Young Park, Andrei Arshavin, and Yossi Benayoun, not to mention 45 minutes for Carl Jenkinson, who is on his way back from his... er... back... injury.

Last week, all three Arsenal substitutions came because of injuries. Francis Coquelin was first, looking like he pulled his hamstring as he had against Leeds in January. I haven't heard anything, but it's probably three weeks again. Sebastien Squillaci came on, messed things up for a while, then left with his own groin injury that should keep him far away from the pitch for this one. Meanwhile, Aaron Ramsey picked up a knock to his ankle in the Sunderland match as well, and while I haven't heard anything yet, my feeling is that he's going to be missing this one, too.

Meanwhile, it looks like Per Mertesacker's season with Arsenal is done, since he's right now just proclaiming that he'll be fit to play for Germany in Euro 2012. None of the long-term injuries look ready to return just yet.

The number of big names playing for the reserves this week has brought up the question of squad rotation. We did not see the likes of Andrei Arshavin and Yossi Benayoun in the listless display in the FA Cup last week.

Arsenal's best case scenario for the line-up would involve both Koscielny and Gibbs passing fit, otherwise the back four will be a mess (it would be Vermaelen on the left with Song and Djourou in the middle.) No Ramsey could mean a start for Tomas Rosicky or maybe Benayoun or Arshavin. Which two wingers will start among Gervinho, the Ox, and Theo? Questions, questions, questions... so many questions, I feel it would be pointless to venture a guess at the starting squad right now.

Tottenham Squad News

Out: Bentley (knee), Gallas (calf), Jenas (Achilles), Huddlestone (ankle)
Doubts: Adebayor (knee), Assou-Ekotto (groin), Modric (illness), Sandro (calf), van der Vaart (calf), King (calf)

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Photo: Daily Mail.

Despite being listed as doubts, what do you think are the odds that players like Emmanuel Adeabyor (knee injury) and Rafael van der Vaart (calf injury) actually miss a match like this? Tottenham's doubt list looks larger than normal because they're coming off an FA Cup match where a lot of the bigger names were rested with knocks (that worked out well for them, no?)

Among the other doubts, Benoit Assou-Ekotto had minor groin surgery and Spurs will sweat over his late fitness test. Luka Modric missed last week with the "flu," so he's probably more likely than not. Captain Ledley King is always 50/50 with some sort of injury. Brazilian midfielder Sandro has struggled with a calf injury all year.

Tottenham have four long term injuries, which includes ex-Arsenal ex-Chelsea defender William Gallas, out with a calf injury. Tom Huddlestone is out as well. Jermaine Jenas was on loan, but sent back to Spurs from Aston Villa after rupturing his Achilles.

Continuing punchline David Bentley is out with a knee injury which he suffered on loan at West Ham. Spurs were considering loaning him to the MLS.

Current Form

Spurs failed to win at...the circus? last week.
Photo: Daily Mail.

I have found it very difficult to talk about form in recent weeks, mostly because the trends have been so bizarre. Arsenal had a stirring comeback in the FA Cup against Aston Villa, only to go out a few days later and lay an egg against Bolton. Then, they scored seven goals against a beleaguered Blackburn side, beat Sunderland at the death a week later, and then promptly forgot how to play the sport again over the next two matches. Make up your mind! What team are you gonna be this week? All that craziness aside, Arsenal have won their last two in the league, and will look to win three straight for the first time since their five match winning streak in October-November.

Arsenal have not played at home since that 7-1 thrashing of ten man Blackburn. They have won 15 of 21 home matches this season, losing three (Liverpool, United, and City in the Carling Cup) and drawing three (Marseille, Fulham, and Wolves.)

Aside from beating Watford (barely) in the FA Cup, Spurs have not won away from home since December 27 against Norwich. Let's break this down, match by match, going back to December. Spurs lost at Stoke 2-1 on December 11 (you can blame that damn cyclist referee!,) then beat Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League on the 15th. Their next away game was a win at Norwich on the 27th. On New Year's Eve, they drew at Swansea. Then, their next away game was on January 22, when a late penalty sent them to a loss at Manchester City. This was followed by the close win at Watford, a 0-0 draw at Anfield, and a 0-0 draw at Stevenage.

Overall in the league, Spurs have six wins on their travels, but have dropped points on six occasions as well, drawing three and losing three. They have not won on the road against any team in the top seven.

Match Facts

Great moments in North London derby history.
Oh, Rocky Rocky... Photo: Arsenal Collective.

Tottenham Hotspur have not done the league double over Arsenal since 1993. Even in spite of that, Arsenal knocked Spurs out of the FA Cup in the semifinal that season. That being said, Spurs have had the better mix of results in the derby over the last few seasons. Tottenham won the reverse fixture this season, 2-1 at White Hart Lane. Rafael van der Vaart opened the scoring despite a handball in the build-up, Aaron Ramsey equalized in the second half despite having a poor match on the whole, but Spurs won it late on a long range goal from Kyle Walker that Wojciech Szczesny really should have stopped.

Last year, Spurs took four out of six points from Arsenal in the league, coming from two goals down on both occasions to win at the Emirates in November and draw at the Lane in April. Arsenal had previously knocked Spurs out of the Carling Cup in extra time at White Hart Lane that September.

Arsenal's last league win over Tottenham came on Halloween 2009. Robin van Persie and Cesc Fabregas scored a minute apart late in the first half, as Arsenal went on to win 3-0. Spurs won the reverse of that fixture in April 2010, 2-1. You may recall Danny Rose's wonder-goal in that match, during which I just found myself yelling at Manuel Almunia for not catching the cross in the first place, his punch out setting up Rose's strike.

The Referee

Here's a screengrab of John Terry trying to grab the red
card out of Mike Dean's hand. This picture is just full of
fail. Photo: Who Ate All the Pies.

The referee is Wirral-based Mike Dean, harbinger of Arsenal doom. Arsenal's record with Mike Dean as the referee now stands at one win from 13 across all competitions; that win was last January, in the FA Cup replay at Championship side Leeds United. The last time Arsenal beat a top flight side with Dean as the referee was in November of 2008, as the Gunners beat Chelsea 2-1 at the Bridge, with Robin van Persie's second half brace canceling out a first half own goal from Johan Djourou.

I've documented this stretch of matches pretty much every time Arsenal gets Mike Dean, so this is like beating a dead horse. But, here is the rundown, yet again: 0-0 draw at Spurs, 0-0 draw at Manchester United, 2-1 loss at Manchester United, 1-1 draw at Burnley, 2-0 loss at Chelsea, 0-0 draw with Manchester City, 2-0 loss at Chelsea, 1-0 loss to Newcastle, the one win over Leeds, the loss in the Carling Cup Final last year, the reverse fixture of this week at Spurs, the 1-1 draw with Fulham in November, and the 2-1 loss to United last month.

As for Tottenham, he has worked two matches this year and Spurs have won both (both were at White Hart Lane.) They beat Arsenal in the reverse fixture with Dean, then in December, beat Sunderland 1-0 with the balding man in the middle.

For a great, in-depth piece on Mike Dean, check out this piece from October, written before Arsenal dropped three more games with Dean in the middle.

Around the League

Sheffield Wednesday was the last non-top flight side to
win a domestic cup, winning the League Cup in 1991.
Photo: Down By 20.

The North London derby serves as the prelude into the Carling Cup Final, pitting Liverpool against Championship side Cardiff City at Wembley. The last time a team from outside of the top flight won a domestic cup in England was in 1991, when Sheffield Wednesday won the League Cup over Manchester United, 1-0. Liverpool's involvement in the final means the team they would have played in the league this weekend, Everton, will have the weekend off.

That means there are only eight other league fixtures this weekend instead of nine, and oddly, two others will be played on Sunday. That includes Manchester United's visit to Carrow Road to face Norwich, which kicks off at the same time as the North London derby, followed by Stoke City taking on Swansea at 10:00 a.m. Both of these matches were moved to Sunday due to United and Stoke's involvement in the Europa League.

Manchester City's Europa League second leg with Porto was played on Wednesday instead of Thursday for some reason, which allows City to play on Saturday this weekend. They'll play in the late game as they host Blackburn Rovers at Eastlands. There's no early game (that would have been the Liverpool derby,) so the other matches are the five played in Saturday's normal time slot. They include Chelsea hosting Bolton at the Bridge, Newcastle hosting Wolves at Not St. James' Park (you'll get arrested if you spray paint that it is,) QPR hosting Fulham in a West London derby, West Brom hosting Sunderland at the Hawthorns, and Wigan hosting Aston Villa at the DW.

Root Causes - A Time to Go Reprisal

2012-02-21T00:00:00.001-05:00

Long-time readers know that I've been down this road before...in November of 2010, in fact. I don't like being the proverbial broken record, but given that this side has become one themselves, it's somewhat unavoidable.

It's not that my opinion on the matter is drastically different than it was fifteen months ago - it's just that I read this, followed by this...and then was passed along this by my roommate. Then, that was followed by a discussion on Facebook with some of the Blind Pig regulars, in which I started to outline the basic premise of what I'm going to talk about here.

I posit that the problem isn't down to the players...the personnel in place should easily accomplish fourth place at the bare minimum. No sir, for me, the root cause of our woes comes down to one man and one man only...Le Boss.

Again, (and it's tedious that any criticism has to come with this caveat attached like a remora), this doesn't mean that I don't appreciate everything he's done for the club, and it doesn't mean I think it's right to call him a see-you-next-Tuesday like the dimmer members of our fanbase do in these troubled times.

It just means that I don't think he's the right man for the job anymore.

There's several different factors occurring in parallel here, so for simplicity's sake I will tackle them one at a time:

A Remarkable Talent for Putting Out Fire with Petrol: Exhibit A here is the first link I posted. I honestly don't know at this point if we're being trolled or if this is his actual belief. It's a matter of perspective - were this The Modern Black Cat or The Modern Villain, there would be an exponentially deeper level of truth behind the idea of fourth place as "a trophy". I keep coming back to it, but a club of our resources doesn't have the same standards applied to it - especially in this day and age of financial segregation. Put more succinctly, you don't get to charge the highest ticket prices in Europe on one hand and on the other trumpet...well, not even fourth place, but the increasingly-remote possibility of finishing there.

I mean, Jesus bloody wept.

Here's the thing with that...this isn't the 1970s anymore. Back then, you could spend a few years in the footballing wilderness and still be within the power of the right manager or the right few players of a return to the happy end of the table. Case in point: In 1969-70, Arsenal finished in 12th place, 24 points behind the champions Everton (remember, it was 2 points for a win in those days). The very next season, the Gunners walked away with the First Division trophy.

For the most part, clubs competed on a even playing field financially. The European Cup was a nice side adventure, but it did not mean entry into a completely different footballing strata than your peers.

These days? It's calcified to the point where there are almost insurmountable walls between the VIP part of the club and the common rabble. Returning to the decade of my birth (just), there were 6 different league champions in the 1970s (if you count 69-70 and 79-80). If you expand that to the top three, that adds 7 more clubs for a total of 13. Compare that to the entire Premier League era, which goes back to 1992-93: 4 clubs have won the title, and a further 7 have finished in the top three...11 in all.

Let me reiterate that: two fewer clubs made it even into the top three in the last 19 seasons than there were in a random 11-year stretch back at or near the 70s. The bouncer working the door just got a whole lot meaner, folks.

With that in mind, to claim for what is not the first time that fourth place is a trophy...bloody hell, mate...it's not a trophy, it's a trap door. One step away from the precipice. Don't look down, Wile E. Coyote.

Beyond that, how many times do we have to hear about mental strength and handbrakes and our poor sods having to play a couple of games in a short period of time (you know, like every other major club in the world) before it starts to become self-parody? And those quotes about how it would be hard for any team in the world when Abou Diaby has played no games...how can you hear that without steam coming out of your ears?

Some of it is protecting the players...I get it. But if I thought for one second that any accountability was meted out to this lot behind closed doors, I'd feel infinitely better about it. I remain skeptical that anything of the sort is happening. So, what we're left with is an increasingly-infuriating reel of soundbites that is poking an already fractured and agitated fanbase with a sharp stick.

What's the value in it? Is it tone-deafness or something else? And not to pile on, but those other quotes popping up along the lines of "I'm getting advice from people who've never managed a game"...sure, there's an element of truth to it. But, how many other major managers bust that one out? How does it not come across as defensive to the point of vulnerability? Sometimes I wish he'd let Ricey do the talking.

The Likelihood That He's Been Passed By Tactically: The second link I included in the open was one of those rare pieces from the land of mainstream journalism that cut through the "ZOMG CRISIS CLUB" level to present a cogent and frankly frightening case that Arsenal don't have an identity, tactically speaking.

On some level, it seems that we emulate the Barcelona tiki-taka approach. I admit to not ing Barcelona much on the grounds of my undying hatred towards their football club. But, the little I have seen has shown a team that attacks with purpose and with a flurry of movement off the ball. What we have is a glacially-paced possession game that allows lesser sides to pack everyone including the tea lady behind the ball, with nine dudes standing around while the man with the ball futilely decides what to do with the two or three defenders pressing him.

Also, we don't exactly have Xavi pulling the strings for Leo Messi.

I've leveled a similar charge towards Chelsea in the past - go back and read the 3-5 match report if you disbelieve. Needless to say, it's not shocking to me that they're in a similar place to us right now. The league's on to them too, which is the only reason why I think we still might sneak into fourth place.

It used to be that we could get down into the trenches and win a tight game on a counter-attack or via a more direct route if the showpiece stuff didn't come off. Now? There's a Plan A, and if that doesn't work...well, did I mention we have a Plan A?

I mean, he's never been known as a manager who is on the cutting edge of tactics. The inimitable Red Geezer had that sussed out back in 1998:

And us? Well, we’ve come to realise that Wenger doesn’t really cut his cloth to fit. He plays his best team and lets everyone else worry about tactics. It’s taken us lot a season to realise what he does.

Here's my theory: While he started in 1984 with Nancy, Arsene really cut his teeth with Monaco from 1987-94. The midpoint of that run was 1990 - which was perhaps the apex of shitty, awful, boring and defensive football in the entire history of the game. The World Cup final that year is arguably the exact antithesis of Wenger's footballing philosophy (and also arguably the single worst high-profile game ever played).

Back then, the idea of committing to attack itself was a novel idea. Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to detract from his sparkling career overall, or his persistence in dragging the sport away from the idea of post-match pies and pints. What I'm saying is that the lads from Zonal Marking wouldn't have had a whole lot to work with back in 1990 - it honestly was a much simpler game back then.

His stint in Japan lends itself further to this theory, I believe. While I don't claim to be an expert in Japanese football, I can tell you that most of the guys who have gone on to have European careers - Hidetoshi Nakata and Shinji Ono spring to mind - have been attackers or midfielders. I have a decent knowledge of the game, but I cannot recall a single Japanese defender that made an impact on the Continent.

These days, that won't fly. Even the mid-table sides that used to roll over for us are largely winning the tactical battles - everything is uphill now. That isn't even getting into the substitution patterns, the lack of flexibility (still playing a high line at Old Trafford even after they had already scored 5 or 6) or the other bizarre foibles such as playing central strikers out on the wing.

Spend Some Bloody Money: This one's been done to death. It's still no less true. Maybe one day the Politburo veil of secrecy will finally be pierced and we'll know for certain that we either had no money, or our last bunch of transfer windows were really one man's howling at the moon of the game's new economic reality.

Until then, I'm working off of the assumption that we can't afford a Sergio Aguero type, but we could bring in capable, professional reinforcements if we wanted to. Still, I think that's only a small part of it in the end...

A Chronic Failure to Make the Best Use of What We Have: Yes, really. Yes, I include people in this that you might be surprised to here.

The most obvious point here lies with the defense. For me, Wojceich Szczesny, Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker and Bacary Sagna are a class above most Premier League defenses in ability. But, we still give up ridiculous, schoolboy goals and still cannot defend simple set pieces. We conceded 43 goals last season, and 41 the one before that. It's only getting worse - we're at 35 already this term, which would put us on pace for 53 goals against.

This isn't headline news - Arsenal's defense is as much of a long-standing punchline as Newcastle's used to be. It would be one thing if we had First Division-level journeymen cloggers in there, but the fact of the matter is that we make mistakes that, say, Norwich never would. One can only imagine how many more points we'd have this season (and how many trophies we might have won in the last 6 years) if we just had some basic fundamental solidity among our backline.

I mean, no one is asking these questions. We know Sebastien Squillaci sucks now, but what turned a capable Champions League-experienced international defender into the shambling mess we have now? What turned The Verminator into the guy pratfalling all over the San Siro turf the other day? Why has Johan Djourou gone from a promising young center-half who occasionally had tremendous games to a guy I wouldn't trust to defend my seat at the bar while I went to take a piss?

It's not just the defense, either. Why is it that Andrei Arshavin can be a potent attacking force for Russia but a disinterested passenger for us? Why is Theo Walcott so maddeningly inconsistent, and why is a guy whose pace is his only weapon playing in a team who as mentioned operates at such a glacial pace? Why can Marouane Chamakh show flashes of predatory ability early on his Arsenal career, and end up a broken shell of a man?

Look, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be some accountability towards the players themselves. Hell, I'm the first one screaming for it here on a regular basis. But, who is the guy who pays them insane wages before they've accomplished the square root of fuck all? Who is the one who puts them straight back into the team after a bad game (don't tell me "because there is no one else" - that may be true, but if anything it's another damning indictment on the manager). Doesn't it seem telling when it's not just one or two players whose confidence and form is in free-fall, but the whole side barring RVP (who is cooling off himself, since we're on the subject). Isn't it incumbent on the manager to help bring a team out of the doldrums by means of the hairdryer or the arm around the shoulder when needed?

We'll never know what's going on behind closed doors...but the table doesn't lie, and it hasn't for six years.

Inevitably, anyone with an opinion like mine is going to be told the old chestnut that "no one else out there is better". Like fun, there isn't. The elephant in the room is that Jose Mourinho is likely a goner in Madrid after this season. You can call me anything you want, but the truth of the matter is that I'd cut off my right goddamn arm to have him manage the club next season if that's the case. He'd sort out this locker room in about six-tenths of a nanosecond, I'll tell you that much.

I honestly believe you could throw a rock at the Bundesliga and hit four managers who could do this job.

I honestly believe David Moyes would be brilliant with this club...especially if the financial constraints are as bad as rumored. The fact that he's kept that ragtag batch of misfits up around the decent end of the table despite a transfer budget that wouldn't get a meal at McDonald's is amazing to me.

Of course, no new manager (Mourinho included) would be a certainty. I'll tell you what is a certainty though - every season for the last six years, we have slowly circled the drain as we've lost faith, lost games, lost finals and lost players. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well? What are you expecting will be different? Will "no, really, next year we're totally going to do it" ever really be the case? It's been next year for six years, with no sign of stopping.

If we're going to be kicked out of the VIP section of the club, I don't want to go so damned meekly. I want us to smash a barstool over someone's head and insult the bouncer's mother on the way out. Why not hire Mourinho and see what he can do? Why not hire Moyes and see if he can work his magic at a slightly higher level (let's not fool ourselves, it's not that much higher these days).

It can't be worse than where we're at now...you know, at the dictionary definition of insanity.

Sunderland 2-0 Arsenal: Nope, Chuck Testa!

2012-02-19T00:00:00.005-05:00

This is who we are, folks. Until the personnel or the management of this club massively changes, this is what we will be as seasons go by - an above-average side in talent who flatters to deceive in the beginning of the season until the winter...when every club in England remembers all at once that we have the mental solidity of plywood and attacks us in earnest.

Sure, we'll have the occasional moment where we blacken the eyes of a big side, but doesn't that win at Stamford Bridge look a whole lot less impressive in retrospect now?

Actually, what I should amend to the above is that each season will find diminishing returns as we keep losing our best players - honestly, what reason on earth does Robin van Persie have to stay with us next season? Next season we may get by on what Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain can give us and how many Wojceich Szczesny can keep out...but 2-3 years from now, what reason do they have to stay?

Through it all, there will always be those who say "give it one more year, give it one more year". How many years do we give them? I mean, I've been doing this here for a year and a half or so, and previously off and on I've blogged on my own sites as well. You all surely can't be less tired of reading about our inability to defend, our endless string of injuries that doesn't seem to happen to other sides, our over-reliance on one player, our multiple passengers on the team, our utter lack of a Plan B, our mystifying substitution patterns and our manager who blames everything and anything except the reflection in his mirror as I am of writing about them.

And that, friends, is the thing that drives me insane. With certain exceptions, the guys wearing our kits in the last few years are just so unlikeable. It makes me happier than ever that, essentially, we root for laundry as opposed to the people who wear it. Honestly speaking, I would be happier supporting an Arsenal of honest journeymen who worked their bollocks off and finished in 9th than I would of these flat-track bullies who roll over and play dead any time they encounter the slightest resistance.

I mean, I could handle one Denilson, or one Andrei Arshavin, or one Theo Walcott, or one Johan Djourou, or one sicknote like Abou Diaby, etc and so on. We have them all (remember, Denilson is only on loan and Sao Paulo won't be keeping him. He'll be back next season).

Speaking of personnel, the major team news was Gervinho returning from Africa Cup of Nations duty to slot back into the left wing, Francis Coquelin coming into right back and Lukasz Fabianski maintaining his place as Cup keeper (a move which drives me crazy seeing as how this was our only chance of silverware this season). Aaron Ramsey returned in place of Tomas Rosicky, and the rest picked themselves.

Six minutes in, the Arsenal had already threatened the opposition goal more times than in 45 minutes in that late-term abortion of a match against Milan. A free kick from just outside the penalty area was taken by Mikael Arteta. His effort curved around the wall and went just wide, but at least it forced Simon Mignolet into a full-extension dive.

Two minutes later though, disaster struck our backline again. Coquelin had torched his man for pace down the right, but came up short after getting a very slight push in the back. He had to come off, and in his place came Sebastien Squillaci. A minute later, Sunderland probably should have had a chance to take the lead when Alex Song blatantly handled on a corner kick attempt. Thankfully, Howard Webb kept his whistle in his pocket.

Later on in the first half, Gervinho had a decent chance after being played in by RVP, but Mignolet was able to get two strong hands to it to tip it over. That said, one wonders what could have been if he had taken the chance sooner, rather than bring himself out wider into a more acute angle. Straight up the other end, Sunderland could have scored on a corner, but the ball eluded everyone on its way through the area.

The half wore on, mainly without incident. That is, until yet another moment of defensive brilliance from Djourou led to the free kick that gave Sunderland the lead. He took a backpass from Thomas Vermaelen, and with Craig Gardner charging him down, shoveled the ball right into him. Gardner was about to get around him, and Djourou responded with a waistlock. Needless to say, he was booked for that. Sebastien Larsson's free kick was cleared by TV5, but it came out to Kieran Richardson. He had a go, and it found its way in off of a deflection by the ever-reliable Squillaci. It was probably going wide without Squillaci's intervention, but it should also be noted that Bacary Sagna had given him all the room in the world, too.

That took us to halftime, but not before Sunderland could have scored again off a corner, this time, James McClean's wide-open header finding side netting.

The second period began much as the first ended, the Black Cats again handed a free kick in a dangerous area in the early minutes. Uncharacteristically, Arsene made his final two changes in the 53rd minute - Squillaci coming off for Walcott (Song dropping to central defense), and Rosicky coming on for Ramsey.

Now, OK. I'm all for early action to try and change the game in a desperate time, but what on earth was the boss playing at with these substitutions? I keep harping on it, but Rosicky's best qualities these days are in his defensive duties. There is nothing he does that can contribute to the unlocking of a packed defense. As for the other change, as maligned as he's been all season, Arshavin has shown some signs of life in recent matches. In just a few minutes against the same opposition a few matches ago, the little Russian provided the assist for Thierry Henry's storybook goal.

Instead, Walcott gets rewarded for one of the most cowardly performances of any Arsenal player in recent memory - to go along with his shoddy recent form in general - to get the nod over Arshavin.

There's just no explanation that I can come to in my head that makes any kind of logical sense.

A few minutes later, Djourou was extremely lucky not to be sent off. Thankfully for both us and Stephane Sessegnon, the Swiss man's reckless two-footed lunge did not actually connect with the Sunderland player. That so easily could have been a shattered ankle, and it so easily could have left us with exactly one available center-half for the crucial North London Derby.

I honestly don't know if Djourou makes that tackle if he plays for any other team in the Premiership. Where is the accountability with this team?

It took a while, but Sunderland finally put us out of our misery in the 77th minute. Oxlade-Chamberlain got muscled off the ball and the Black Cats were away. Sessegnon muscled Arteta off the ball like he was brushing off a fly. Only Djourou was back, as more Sunderland players came up in support. Gardner was the late option, having torn past Song, I believe it was. His shot from the back post had Fabianski beaten anyway, so I think it's kind of harsh that an own-goal was awarded to Oxlade-Chamberlain as he slid in to try and stop it.

Hell, at least the kid cares and he tried. That's more than can be said for some of his compatriots.

The remaining twenty minutes were played out with no indication that Arsenal would ever get back into it. This is, once again, a side in absolute free-fall.

Anyway, there are no ratings this week and no MOTM (not that I'd have an easy time picking one out from this rabble anyway) as I didn't watch the whole thing - admittedly, I had the score ruined for me and used the Guardian's MBM to point out which bits of the match to fast-forward to on my DVR. I was indisposed this weekend, at the funeral of a friend I knew from when I was younger. I don't want to be too cliche and go on about how it puts everything into perspective and all that, but...well...it kind of does. Normal service should be resumed next week.

PS - if you're confused as to the title of the match report, this should explain it.

Preview by Numbers: Sunderland v. Arsenal, FA Cup Fifth Round

2012-02-17T00:01:00.019-05:00

Stadium of Light, Sunderland

Saturday, February 18

12:15 p.m. EST, 5:15 p.m. GMT

Match Officials

Referee: Howard Webb
Assistants: Peter Kirkup and Mike Mullarkey
4th Official: Lee Mason

All-Time in All Competitions: 54 Arsenal wins, 49 Sunderland wins, 38 draws
All-Time in the FA Cup: 3 Arsenal wins, 3 Sunderland wins, 1 draw
Arsenal's Path Here

3rd Round: 1-0 win over Leeds United
4th Round: 3-2 win over Aston Villa

Sunderland's Path Here

3rd Round: 2-0 win over Peterborough United
4th Round: 2-1 win (a.e.t.) over Middlesbrough (replay, after 1-1 draw)

Arsenal's League Form: L-L-L-D-W-W
Sunderland's League Form: W-L-W-W-W-L

I won't wax poetic here. Wednesday was abysmal. Sort it out, Arsenal.

With a Friday post coming after a Wednesday night game, there isn't much to say. There's even less to say considering these two teams played each other last week. Also, Wednesday was pretty depressing, so it's hard to say much at all. So, apologies for a terse preview this week.

Arsenal Squad News

Out: Koscielny (knee), Mertesacker (ankle), Frimpong (knee), Santos (ankle), Diaby (hamstring), Jenkinson (back), Wilshere (ankle)

It was a terrible night in Milan for Arsene Wenger's
Banana Army. Photo: Daily Mail.

Because this Arsenal squad can't have every position at full health at any given time, now it's the center backs' turn to enter the physio room. Kieran Gibbs returned to the starting squad on Wednesday for the first time since October, but with his return, it was center back Laurent Koscielny who departed through injury before the interval. Johan Djourou deputized by conceding a penalty. We're just a heartbeat away from Squillaci Time! Or, more likely, Ignasi Miquel. Koscielny announced through his Facebook page (in French, so hopefully the Internet translation isn't too wrong) that there is no ligament damage and that he'll be rested only "for a few days." Great, great news.

Gervinho returns from Africa Cup duty after missing a penalty in the shootout that saw his Ivory Coast lose the final to Zambia, so he's likely just as short of confidence as the rest of the squad is after Wednesday. Thierry Henry's loan spell is over; he has returned to the New York Red Bulls. But, you knew that already. The question is, does Gervinho slip right back into the starting line-up? My guess would be no and that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will get another start, with Gervinho coming on off the bench. Then again, I don't know what Gervinho's fitness level is, so how can I make this prediction?

Otherwise, there's no other new injuries and no new returns.

Predicted XI: Szczesny, Sagna, Vermaelen, Djourou, Gibbs, Song, Ramsey, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, van Persie.

Sunderland Squad News

Out: Bendtner (face), Vaughan (ankle), Brown (knee), Bramble (calf), Gordon (knee)
Doubts: Cattermole (hamstring), Kilgallon (ankle)

Lee Cattermole could return from a hamstring
injury. Photo: SDSU.

Sunderland have been ravaged by injuries through the past few weeks, though having this midweek off will mean Arsenal will face a much more rested side at the Stadium of Light than they did last week. In addition, some of their injured players are returning from their injuries.

Captain and car-smasher Lee Cattermole is in contention for a return, having been out since the end of January with a hamstring problem. He'll face a late fitness test. Fellow car-smasher Nicklas Bendtner has returned to light training after facial injuries, though he's ineligible to face his parent club. Matt Kilgallon is back in contention after returning to training this week from an ankle injury.

Those who remain out for the Black Cats include David Vaughan (ankle), Wes Brown (knee), Titus Bramble (calf), and Craig Gordon (knee ligaments).

Current Form

How much can you say about form when Sunderland's last match was against Arsenal?

Since last Saturday, Sunderland has not played, and Arsenal suffered their worst ever Champions League defeat. That's about it.

Section over.

Match Facts


Bob Wilson concedes Sunderland's opener in the 1973 semifinal. Sunderland would go on to win the cup. Photo: Football Archive.

I won't touch much on Arsenal's overall history with Sunderland; I did that last week. So, let's stick with the history between these two sides in this competition. Arsenal and Sunderland have met in the FA Cup six previous times, dating back as far as 1893, when the Black Cats came away with a 6-0 victory. Of course, they weren't called the Black Cats then; they've only been the Black Cats since they moved to the Stadium of Light in 1997, though the symbol has been with the club long before that. Anyway, I'm getting badly off topic here.

(Woolwich) Arsenal returned the favor in 1906 with a 5-0 victory of their own. Sunderland won again in 1961, then in the 1973 semifinal at Hillsborough (Sunderland won the cup over Leeds in the final that year,) but they have not beaten Arsenal in the cup since. The Gunners came away with wins in 1991 and 1997 in a replay.

The Referee

Howard Webb called this a penalty. Sunderland were
furious. Photo: Peterlee Mail.

The referee is South Yorkshire-based Howard Webb. Seriously, you didn't see that coming? How did you not see that coming?

The good news is Arsenal isn't all of a sudden playing Sunderland at Old Trafford. Remember, if you ignore matches played against Manchester United at Old Trafford, then Arsenal are unbeaten in their last ten matches with Howard Webb as the referee. That's not bad at all.

Yes, he was the referee for the 8-2 debacle in August. The other two matches he's worked for the Gunners this year were Arsenal wins at the Emirates: 2-1 over Sunderland and 1-0 over Everton. I've gone back to read Sean's recaps of these games to see if there was anything of note about Webb's performances (I personally recall him being mostly solid in his decision making) and all I came across were a few harsh yellow cards in the Everton match. Most people tend to fear the worst with Howard Webb, though I feel like on these two occasions, most have thought he's been decent. There's a reason he's considered one of the best referees in England, and any pro-Manchester United bias probably isn't going to rear its ugly head in a competition United is no longer playing in this year.

As for his record with Sunderland this season, he worked their Tyne & Wear derby match with Newcastle back in August, sending off Phil Bardsley for a second yellow in the 89th as Newcastle won 1-0, so Sunderland supporters won't be too happy with that. He worked their league loss at the Emirates, so Sunderland supporters won't be too happy with that. He worked a 1-1 draw at Everton on Boxing Day, where the Toffees pulled level on a phantom penalty at the Stadium of Light, so Sunderland supporters won't be too happy with that. Do you notice a trend here?

On the balance, you would think Sunderland supporters should be more upset about this than Arsenal supporters, so stop worrying.

Around the Fifth Round

Here's Crawley Town at Old Trafford last year, where they
gave United a more difficult 5th round match than Arsenal
did in the 6th round. Photo: Zimbio.

The FA Cup (with Budweiser! Man, that's still stupid) fifth round will see eight ties go ahead this weekend. This is the final weekend where Premier League play is halted for the cup. For the sixth round on the weekend of March 17-18, Premier League matches are scheduled as normal, then postponed to a later date if either or both of the teams are still playing in the cup. Arsenal is slated to visit Goodison Park to face Everton that weekend, though such a match would be postponed if Arsenal, Everton, or both advance this week. For all we know, that match itself could be drawn in the sixth round, who knows?

Everton will play earlier than Arsenal tomorrow, so we'll know by kick-off whether there's still a chance the match is on or not. Should Everton win and Arsenal lose in this round, the Gunners would have that weekend off. Everton is home to Blackpool in this round, one of three 10:00 a.m. matches on Saturday. The other two are Norwich hosting Leicester and Millwall hosting Bolton. The early match on Saturday is a battle of Blues, as Chelsea host Birmingham City at the Bridge. Sunderland v. Arsenal is the late game.

Three more ties take place on Sunday, as Crawley Town (the lowest remaining team still alive in the cup for the second year running at this point) hosts Stoke, then Stevenage hosts Tottenham Hotspur, and in the late game, Liverpool hosts Brighton and Hove Albion.

AC Milan 4-0 Arsenal: Swept Away

2012-02-16T00:00:00.008-05:00

I have watched some Serie A this season - specifically, I wanted to watch a bit of Milan previous to this tie to get a sense of what we were up against. What I came away with was that they are a solid outfit, but nowhere near the vintage of their last two Champions' League winners.

No, seriously: This was the side that won the 2007 Final: Dida - Oddo, Nesta, Maldini, Jankulovski - Gattuso, Pirlo, Ambrosini, Seedorf - Inzaghi, Kaka

And, the one before it in 2003: Dida - Costacurta, Nesta, Maldini, Kaladze - Gattuso, Pirlo, Seedorf, Rui Costa - Shevchenko (before he turned into a pumpkin), Inzaghi.

This outfit are not bad, but they've had some injuries and are not what they were. Had this Arsenal side gone to the San Siro and got their doors blown off by the 2003 or 2007 versions, then, well, shit happens. But, the sight of a listless and mistake-prone rabble in yellow getting annihilated by this version of the Rossonieri was as depressing a low for this side as there has been in recent memory.

And fuck me, that covers some ground, doesn't it?

There isn't much to say about this one, really. At no point did Arsenal ever look like they could even come away from this game with a salvageable scoreline, let alone an away win. Milan controlled from start to finish, without ever needing to exert themselves in any serious way.

The thing is, Arsene Wenger basically had two choices here - tank the game entirely and play with Sebastien Squillaci, Ju-Young Park and the rest of the guys who never get a game, or play for real and put our best lineup out there. Personally, I would have opted for the tanking option - as far as I'm concerned, our entire season is now down to winning the FA Cup and finishing in fourth place...in that order.

The Boss, on the other hand, played this weird hybrid lineup where most of our starters were out there, albeit with Tomas Rosicky shunted off to the wing in place of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. In defense, Thomas Vermaelen was back in the center, Kieran Gibbs returning to the side (from now). As odd as that is, with Rosicky's main strength being his defensive capabilities in the center of the park, it ultimately didn't matter. The team selection is not remotely responsible for the hiding we got today.

Frankly, the team looked tired to the point of being jaded. There was no movement off the ball, no urgency, no desire to win. Passes dribbled to their intended target at 0.1 MPH, slowing play down to a crawl. Robin van Persie ghosted along at the periphery of the game, a forlorn figure waiting for the service that never came.

On the other end of the pitch, there was no defender that escaped castigation today. Man, they were awful. I mean, the post-mortem is shocking reading:

Milan 1-0, 15 minutes - Wojceich Szczesny tries to clear a backpass with his weaker left foot. His effort doesn't make it to the half-way line, and furthermore goes right to Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Swedish hitman plays it up to Kevin Prince-Boateng, who slices through the Arsenal backline. Gibbs was absolutely nowhere near it, and Laurent Koscielny couldn't make it over in time. Prince-Boateng hits a majestic half-volley into the roof of the net. It was a wonderful goal, but it doesn't happen if Szczesny doesn't shank his kick.

25 minutes: A weak header from Koscielny off a free kick goes tamely into the arms of Cristian Abbiati. That is the only touch of the ball the Milan keeper had in the entire half. Good goddamn.

Milan 2-0, 37 minutes - Ibrahimovic has the run of the left wing, having torched Bacary Sagna. He runs to the touchline and sends a purposeful ball across the face of goal. Koscielny had ran back, but was ball-watching and did not catch Robinho's run coming in right behind him. Vermaelen surely saw that run coming in, but did not think to shout at his compatriot to warn him. Robinho had an easy header, and the downward spiral was well and truly on.

Halftime: I told my roommate at this point: "I bet I can predict the final score of this match five minutes into the second half." Right before the half, yet another defender goes off injured, this time Koscielny. Johan Djourou comes on in his place, because THAT will solidify things. At the half, Thierry Henry makes his last-ever appearance for Arsenal in relief of Theo Walcott.

Less than five minutes into the second half - Milan 3-0, 48 minutes - Djourou has the chance to clear, and shanks a weak effort right to Ibrahimovic. He feeds Robinho, who takes advantage of Vermaelen slipping on the turf to fire into the near corner past a stranded Szczesny. What can you say? It was clown shoes all around.

Incidentally, my prediction was 5-0 at this point. Oh, and I started fast-forwarding around the 55 minute mark or so. You may call me a plastic if you wish, but I've had a remarkably awful week and this was the capper on it. Life is just too short, sometimes.

65 minutes - Arsenal had one chance to get back into it. If they had pulled it back to 3-1 and gotten an away goal in the process, that could have changed the entire complexion of the tie. In fairness to our guys, it was a well-worked chance that was repelled by brilliant goalkeeping by Abbiati. Alex Song played the ball in, and it was imperiously back-heeled into the path of RVP by Thierry Henry...one last moment of absolute magic from him. The Dutch wizard had time and space to lash a ferocious shot towards the far corner. Abbiati got down very well to get a hand to it and tip it around the post. Any nascent show of spirit or drive from the Gunners was well and truly choked off.

67 minutes - Now the Ox comes on. Why? What's the point? We're not getting back into this one, and we may as well have saved him for the FA Cup at this point. This goes back to what I was saying before - this half-in, half-out stuff may end up coming back to bite us in both competitions now.

Milan 4-0, 79 minutes - Djourou is really just not any good at professional football. I mean, he's had good games here and there and he used to be solid, but for whatever reason his head is well and truly gone and he doesn't ever make a garden-variety mistake...it's all "what the eff were you thinking, lad?" kind of stuff. Ibrahimovic destroyed him with a simple head fake and was past him. So, in response, Djourou responded with what looked like a failed attempt at a Rock Bottom. Ibrahimovic duly slotted home the penalty, Szczesny guessing right but not able to keep it out (there may have been a re-take if he had though....he was about 2.4 light years off his line).

Really, what else can you say about this? All four of Milan's goals were gift-wrapped to them thanks to remarkable bouts of defensive idiocy, often more than one on a given play. The midfield and attackers did nothing at all to help them out, as they were unable to hold on to the ball and had no energy to harry the Milan attackers. Poor old RVP was abandoned by his mates, and it still took one of the best saves of the tournament to prevent him from scoring. Thierry Henry goes back to New York, probably for the last time, with the memory of this as his last appearance in an Arsenal shirt.

It may be for the best so that we can concentrate on other things, but I don't know where the drive is going to come from at this point. If you can't get up for playing AC Milan at the San Siro in the Champions' League, how on earth are you going to get up for playing Sunderland at the Stadium of Light in the FA Cup.

Forebode.

The Modern Gooner Player Ratings:

Szczesny 5, Gibbs 4 (Oxlade-Chamberlain N/A), Vermaelen 4, Koscielny 4 (Djourou 4), Sagna 5, Rosicky 5, Arteta 5, Song 6, Ramsey 5, Walcott 4 (Henry 6), van Persie 6

Man of the Match: It's damn near impossible to pick one, but the fact that Robin van Persie came within Cristian Abbiati's fingertips of scoring a goal in the wake of that team performance means that he wins this at a canter.

Preview by Numbers: AC Milan v. Arsenal, Champions League Round of 16, First Leg

2012-02-15T00:01:00.288-05:00

Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro), Milan

Wednesday, February 15

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

RSVP on Facebook!

Match Officials: from Hungary

Referee: Viktor Kassai
Assistants: Gabor Eros and Gyorgy Ring
4th Official: Tamas Bognar
Additional Assistants: Istvan Vad and Mihaly Fabian

All-Time in All Competitions: 1 Arsenal win, 1 Milan win, 2 draws
Arsenal in the Group Stage: Group F Winner
AC Milan in the Group Stage: Group H Runner-Up
Arsenal's Premier League Form: L-L-L-D-W-W
AC Milan's Serie A Form: L-L-W-L-D-W

LEGEND. Photo: Guardian.

I spoke on Friday about how essential it was for Arsenal to win at Sunderland at the weekend in order to continue moving forward. And what we saw was nearly perfect (aside from the injury to Mertesacker.) A comeback win capped off by a final Premier League goal for a legend in Thierry Henry. Coupled with a Chelsea loss, Liverpool loss, and Newcastle loss, Arsenal managed to climb back into fourth place after they were seventh two weeks ago. Remarkable, really.

But again, winning isolated games doesn't mean much if they remain isolated occurrences. After the hole this team dug themselves at the start of the season (and then again in January,) Arsenal have to keep winning games. They don't play again in the league until February 26 in the North London derby, so now it's time to focus on some silverware. The FA Cup obviously remains Arsenal's best shot at winning something this season, but let's not worry about that until the time comes this weekend. It's time to head back to Europe!

When you play in the Champions League, it's best for the players to face big teams. Games like this in Milan are the reason why top quality players make moves to Champions League teams. It's a big reason why Arsenal was able to snatch Mikel Arteta from Everton. But this instant is not the time to worry about not finishing fourth in the league; save that worry for the league games.

Arsenal have played well at the San Siro in recent years, winning two unforgettable matches: 5-1 over Inter and 2-0 over AC Milan. Today, there may be a third chapter added to the story.

Arsenal Squad News

Out: Mertesacker (ankle), Frimpong (knee), Santos (ankle), Diaby (hamstring), Jenkinson (back), Wilshere (ankle)
Africa Cup: Gervinho

Per Mertesacker doesn't even fit on the stretcher!
Photo: Daily Mail.

What I love about European road ties in terms of writing in this space is that by the time I'm ready to publish the article, it's already been announced which 18 players are making the trip. It removes a lot of the guesswork for me, though often times, there isn't much of that anyway. Still, anything to make the work easier. That said, I wrote down my predicted line-up plus seven subs yesterday morning before the presser and indeed, they were the 18 names on the squad list. Because I'm amazing. Even though I can't really prove I did that. You're just going to have to take my word for it.

I've also, after almost a year of writing this feature, decided on how to order the list of Arsenal injuries at the top. It now goes by how long they've been out, with the most recent injury first and the oldest injury last.

Per Mertesacker's season could very well be over after looking like he snapped ankle ligaments in a crater on the pitch at the Stadium of Light. He has gone to Germany to be evaluated by the national team physios there (to get a second opinion,) though Arsene Wenger has said he'll be out for "months." Every time someone gets injured, I tend to say, sometimes out loud, "oh, well, his season is over" in order to mentally prepare myself for the worst case scenario. More often than not, they're fine ten seconds later and I look like an idiot. I wish that were the case this time.

Kieran Gibbs's return to fitness means that he'll now start at left back, with Tom Vermaelen sliding back into the center to replace the injured BFG. Obviously, it would have been nice for Gibbs to get some playing time before being thrown right into the fire. Had Arsenal been winning at the time Mertesacker was injured, Gibbs probably would have been the substitution. But down 1-0 (because of the injury,) Wenger had to make an offensive substitution, Aaron Ramsey came on, and the rest is history. Meanwhile, scans on Jack Wilshere look positive and now word is he could be back in a month. I've heard that before.

There are no new injuries to report, so the remaining line-up questions surround team selection in two places. Tomas Rosicky has started two straight in place of Ramsey, and has been excellent in midfield, but at his age, does he start again today four days after the Sunderland match or does the young Welshman return to the XI? Also, will Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain get another start on the left wing in what is likely the biggest match of his career to date, or do you start someone else and bring the Ox on later when you need more pace in the final twenty minutes?

Predicted XI: Szczesny, Gibbs, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Sagna, Song, Ramsey, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, van Persie. Subs from: Fabianski, Djourou, Coquelin, Rosicky, Benayoun, Arshavin, Henry.

Milan Squad News

Out: Merkel (knee), Aquilani (ankle), Yepes (ankle), Strasser (ankle), Cassano (heart), Flaimini (knee), Gattuso (cranial nerve)
Doubts: Muntari (Africa Cup)

Kevin-Prince Boateng, returning from injury, does not
think Arsenal can win titles. Nice glasses, douchebag.
Photo: Ghana Movie.NET.

The Rossoneri will be boosted by having a whopping four players return from injury for this match. Goalkeeper Christian Abbiati, defenders Alessandro Nesta and Kevin-Prince Boateng, and striker Alexandre Pato all will return from their individual thigh injuries to play today. This is a huge boost for AC Milan, who were without these players and suspended Zlatan Ibrahimovic in their 2-1 comeback win over Udinese at the weekend.

There are still plenty of players out injured for Milan, including ankle injuries for Mario Yepes and Alberto Aquilani (did you know he's still a Liverpool player out on loan?) Both are back working with personal trainers, but have not returned to full training. Ex-Arsenal Mathieu Flamini has been out since the summer after suffering ligament damage in his knee; he's back in training but has been dropped from Milan's Champions League squad.

Also dropped from the Champions League squad are long-term injured players, like Antonio Cassano, who had heart surgery in November, and vice-captain Gennaro Gattuso, who has been diagnosed with paralysis of the sixth cranial nerve, which controls eye movement and has resulted in double vision. Rodney Strasser, out for another month or so after ankle surgery, was also dropped.

Alexander Merkel is out another month and a half with a knee injury, though he is making "great improvement." Sulley Muntari was on international duty with Ghana in the Africa Cup and may not return in time to feature.

Current Form

A.C. Milan also came from 1-0 down to win 2-1 on the
road on Saturday. Photo: Fox Sports.

Arsenal's 2-1 win at Sunderland on Saturday marked the first time the Gunners have won consecutive league fixtures since December (over Wigan and Everton,) and the first time they have won two across all competitions since November (over Norwich and Dortmund.) It was also Arsenal's first road win in three tries, after losses at Fulham and Swansea and a draw at Bolton.

The overwhelming statistic you will see online is that Arsenal have won just three of their last 12 away matches in the Champions League. Keep some perspective though; they've won twice away from home this season (including once in Italy,) drawn once, and their loss at Olympiacos came after the group was clinched.

AC Milan are winless in their last five matches against English competition; their last win over an English team was in the 2007 final against Liverpool. The Rossoneri have been eliminated by English sides in each of the last two Rounds of 16, losing three of four matches in the process. In 2010, it was Manchester United who won 3-2 and 4-0 and last year, it was Tottenham Hotspur who won 1-0 in Milan and drew 0-0 at the Lane. The fifth match in the winless run was a 2-2 draw at Portsmouth in the 2008 UEFA Cup.

Overall, Milan had been winless in three across all competitions before doing exactly what Arsenal did on Saturday: they came from 1-0 down on the road to win 2-1. They did this at Udinese, which is a feat Arsenal also did in August. Prior to that, the Rossoneri lost the first leg of their Coppa Italia semifinal tie with Juventus, which had followed a league draw with Napoli and a loss at Lazio.

Match Facts

Arsenal have fond memories of playing at the San Siro.
Photo: Free Kicker.

Arsenal and AC Milan have met twice in official European competition: in the 2008 knockout stage of the Champions League and in the 1994 European Super Cup (which comes from having won 1994 competitions, but was played in February of 1995.)

Arsenal have had some fine moments at the San Siro, including the 5-1 win against Internazionale that saw Thierry Henry pick up a hat trick. It was in the second leg in 2008 that Arsenal picked up their only competitive win against Milan. It was Cesc Fabregas's amazing long range goal six minutes from time that put Arsenal ahead in the tie, and Emmanuel Adebayor put the final nail in the coffin with another goal in injury time.

Milan won their only other meeting with Arsenal at the San Siro in the 1994 Super Cup. That cup tie pit Milan, the Champions League holders, against Arsenal, the previous year's Cup Winners' Cup winner (wow, now that's a phrase...) In that second leg, Milan won 2-0 on goals from Zvonimir Boban and Daniele Massaro.

Arsenal and Milan have played 0-0 draws in both competitive meetings in North London, both of which were the first legs of the aforementioned two European ties. They also played a 1-1 draw in last season's Emirates Cup, when Alexandre Pato canceled out Marouane Chamakh's opener.

The Referee

Viktor Kassai shows Lionel Messi where the
ball is during the 2008 Olympic gold medal
game. It's right there, Lionel. God, that guy's
hopeless at this sport. Photo: Origo.

The match officials are from Hungary and the referee is Viktor Kassai. Kassai has only worked one Arsenal match in his career, their Matchday 5 loss at Braga last season. This is his first AC Milan match.

The fact that Kassai has not worked much with these two teams before does not mean he has little experience. In fact, Kassai was the man in the middle of the final last year at Wembley, as Barcelona beat Manchester United. In the 2010 World Cup, Kassai worked four matches, including the match that saw Ghana eliminate the United States and the semifinal that saw Spain eliminate Germany. He also refereed the gold medal match of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which saw Argentina defeat Nigeria 1-0. Earlier this season, Kassai worked the Euro qualifier playoff between Estonia and Ireland that saw Estonia end the match on nine men and down 4-0 on aggregate.

In his native Hungary, Kassai works as a travel agent and his principle interests are sports and film. He originally hails from Tatabanya. His wife's name is Eva. His favorite food is squash. He is a black belt in tae kwon do. He once survived a wolf attack in the Hungarian wilderness. Okay, fine, I completely made the last four things up, but everything before the wife's name is true.

Around the Champions League

Colgate Toothpaste F.C. defeated Bayer Leverkusen with
ease, 3-1, yesterday. Photo: Guardian.

This is the first week of Champions League Round of 16 action. Two of the eight ties started yesterday, two more (including this one) start today, and the remaining four will begin next week.

Yesterday's action did not see much in the way of surprises. Cypriot side APOEL Nicosia was the shock of the first round as they won their group, but they'll head home for the second leg of their tie with Lyon trailing 1-0, after losing in France. Meanwhile, Barcelona took care of business (which is more than you could say about the first leg of the round of 16 last year!) as they beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 in Germany.

Before the Milan-Arsenal match today, the other tie is in St. Petersburg, so it kicks off at an earlier time, as Zenit hosts Benfica at the Petrovsky Stadium.

Next week, on Tuesday, CSKA Moscow hosts Real Madrid on the artificial turf of Luzhniki, Russia's largest stadium, where you may recall John Terry famously slipped on the imported grass surface in the 2008 final. Also next Tuesday, Napoli hosts the only other English side still in the tournament, Chelsea, at the Stadio San Paolo, where the home side has already beaten Manchester City this season. On Wednesday, Marseille, the runner-up from Arsenal's group, hosts Inter Milan in France, and Basel, who famously eliminated Manchester United, hosts Bayern Munich in Switzerland.

And remember, Manchester City and Manchester United play on Thursday.

Sunderland 1-2 Arsenal: Superb Fightback

2012-02-12T00:00:00.006-05:00

You know, I just had a feeling about this game. Even at the very instant that Sunderland had scored, I turned to our Preview by Numbers man John and said "Don't worry, there's plenty of time."

Plenty of time for a legend to do his thing, that is.

But, we get ahead of ourselves. Arsenal fielded exactly the same XI that so imperiously swept Blackburn Rovers aside, while Sunderland countered with their strongest possible lineup as well despite the 120 minutes they played on Wednesday.

The Gunners dominated the early proceedings, if by "dominated" one means "had more possession but looked about as likely to score as Leisure Suit Larry". Chances were few and far between - Robin van Persie drew a routine save out of Simon Mignolet with a slow daisy-cutter of a shot, while Wojceich Szczesny was almost caught out by a weird inwardly-swerving corner kick.

The Pole also had to be alert and decisive to clear one out after some miscommunication on a high ball with Laurent Koscielny, then RVP saw a shot flash just wide of the far post.

Yes, folks...that was the whole first half-hour in those last two paragraphs. Good lord, this was dull fare.

The 38th minute saw a bit of controversy though, and Sunderland will feel a bit hard done by. However, rookie referee Neil Swarbick (despite some wonky moments in the second half) had a pretty good game I thought, and I think he got this right. A ball was played into the Arsenal area towards Per Mertesacker, who slipped as it was coming in. The ball bounced up and hit Mertesacker's outstretched hand, but Swarbick motioned to play on.

Here's the thing, though. The rule is "intentional handling", and despite Mertesacker's hand being in what would be termed an unnatural position, it was there as he was trying to regain his balance. He was not attempting to get any kind of unfair advantage, and there was no Sunderland player within 7 postal codes of the big German. Had there been one or two there and a scoring chance arguably lost from the contact, then I imagine Swarbick would have whistled for the spot-kick...and he'd be correct to do so. However, in this case, the man in the middle got this one spot-on.

The match dragged on to halftime, after about 2.4 seconds of time added on. I suspect Swarbick was as dreadfully bored as the rest of us. The first few minutes after the restart were also fairly turgid, though worryingly Sunderland were starting to keep the ball for extended periods at a time. The passing was just not coming off for the away side, and there was just no movement off the ball. Uncharacteristically, Mikael Arteta had a poor game and was largely consigned to the periphery. Theo Walcott's internal randomizer was set to "Jekyll", and he was the cul-de-sac where countless Arsenal attacks went to die. The frustration was palpable all around.

Worse than that, Sunderland took advantage and could so easily have taken the lead. A corner was cleared out by the Arsenal defense, but the ball came out to Craig Gardner in prime shooting position. The effort was low and in the corner, but somehow Szczesny was able to pick it out through the forest of bodies in front of him, and did remarkably well to tip it around the post. Gardner had another effort just a minute later, but Szczesny repelled him again with a brilliant save.

Remember those two saves when we talk about the three points won today.

The Gunners were up against it a bit, and in response the Boss took off the somewhat-subdued Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and put on Thierry Henry in his stead. The change looked to lift the team a bit, but then disaster struck in the 70th minute.

It all came out of nothing, too. A Sunderland attack had fizzled out, and Mertesacker was in possession. I imagine he was about to pass it back to Szczesny or cycle it out to one of the fullbacks. However, as he was running, he came up short and crumpled to the ground. In retrospect, I'm not entirely surprised - Mertesacker looked like he was limping badly earlier on in the game. Sunderland's young winger James McClean took advantage, rampaging into the Arsenal area and hammering a shot past the surprised Szczesny and into the far corner. Szczesny's angle wasn't great, but I hardly think he could be faulted in the circumstances.

One other thing, while we're on the subject. There will be bleating in many corners that what Sunderland did was somehow unsporting, but let me ask you this: With the knowledge that Chelsea were 2-0 down to Everton, if one of their lot went down injured leaving RVP a chance to put one away, how would you react if instead it was played out to touch? It all happened so fast, too...it would have been a dereliction of duty on McClean's part if he didn't take that in and shoot on goal.

One question, though: Did Sunderland's ground staff harvest the potatoes from the pitch half an hour before kickoff, or did they hold a rave there the night before? The state of that playing surface was absolutely shocking, and as a top-flight club they should be embarrassed with themselves.

Aaron Ramsey came on for the injured Mertesacker, with Alex Song dropping back into defense. Immediately, the men in the awful blue shirts looked far more dangerous. Clearly, the rest looked like it did wonders for the Welshman. Within three minutes, Arsenal had equalized. Arteta had a shot from outside the area blocked, but the rebound fortuitously came out to Ramsey in a central location. He too had a lash from outside the area, but this time it found its way through the bodies in front, off the far post, off the near post, and in. Mignolet never had a chance, which is perfectly fine with me.

So, Arsenal were back on level terms, but more importantly they had recovered from an awful twist of fate to get themselves back into the game. I remember the not-too-distant past when the Gunners would crumble when things like this went against them. This time, they redoubled their efforts and started to attack Sunderland's net in earnest. Walcott finally was withdrawn for Andrei Arshavin, who went out on the left - switching wings with Henry.

The little Russian gave us a preview of things to come with a nice cross to RVP, that saw the Dutchman tamely place his header into Mignolet's breadbasket. A few ticks of the clock later though, Arsenal had their winner. Arshavin was given far too much time and space to send in his cross, and AA23 duly obliged with a peach of a ball into the area. Henry got goalside of his marker, Michael Turner, and side-footed the ball past Mignolet and into the net.

There were still four minutes of injury time to go, which ended up becoming more like 5 1/2. However, Sunderland had the look of a defeated team, and other than one corner kick, never seriously threatened Szczesny's goal. Everton's lead held, so Arsenal find themselves back in fourth place thanks to Chelsea's generosity. They may not necessarily be there entirely on merit, but I'm also not complaining too much, either.

It only gets more difficult from here, though. This was a good start, but Milan away, the FA Cup rematch with the same opponent and venue and then the North London Derby will be as testing a run as this team has had in recent memory. Right now, if you told me the team could only win one of them, believe it or not I'd take the FA Cup game. This team needs a trophy, and I don't really care where we get it at this point. We'll see how it shakes out, though.

The Modern Gooner Player Ratings:

Szczesny 7, Vermaelen 7, Koscielny 7, Mertesacker 7 (Ramsey 8), Sagna 7, Oxlade-Chamberlain 6 (Henry 8), Song 7, Rosicky 8, Arteta 6, Walcott 6 (Arshavin 8), van Persie 6

Man of the Match: There will be a large contingent of those who say it's Thierry Henry, and I wouldn't argue with that view. However, I have to throw my hat into the ring for Tomas Rosicky, who covered every blade of grass on both sides of the ball today. We may have seen the last of Rosicky as any kind of goal-scorer, but he's been revitalized in recent weeks and had a storming game today.

Preview by Numbers: Sunderland v. Arsenal

2012-02-10T00:01:00.271-05:00

Stadium of Light, Sunderland

Saturday, February 11

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

RSVP on Facebook!

Match Officials

Referee: Neil Swarbrick
Assistants: Peter Bankes and Richard West
4th Official: Scott Mathieson

Reverse Fixture: Arsenal 2 - 1 Sunderland
This Match, Last Year: Sunderland 1 - 1 Arsenal
All-Time in All Competitions: 53 Arsenal wins, 49 Sunderland wins, 38 draws
Arsenal's League Form: W-L-L-L-D-W
Sunderland's League Form: W-W-L-W-W-W

Robin van Persie: scorer of this many against Blackburn.
Photo: Daily Mail.

I don't mean to be sensationalize things, or use hyperbole, so please hear me out. I think this is the most important match of Arsenal's season. And not just in the sense of "it's the next match to play, so of course it's the most important right now." This match has to be won. Here's why:

Arsenal are coming off their most emphatic win in a long time, a 7-1 thrashing of Blackburn Rovers. But, in the end, that's three points in the table, and tomorrow's match at Sunderland is worth the same. Ultimately, winning by such a large margin means nothing if the Gunners don't use it as a springboard to bigger and better things. Dropping points on Wearside brings us right back to where we were after the 0-0 at Bolton, full of questions.

The six fixtures which follow tomorrow's match are immense, building up to what could be an FA Cup quarterfinal. Arsenal travel to the San Siro for the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 against AC Milan on Wednesday. They're back in Sunderland in a week's time for the fifth round of the FA Cup. A week later, it's the North London derby, followed a week later by Liverpool away, the second leg with Milan at the Emirates, then Newcastle (who are still in the hunt for the top four) at home. Who knows, there could even be an FA Cup replay in there if next Saturday's match ends level.

All of these games are immense. So, why is this one league match so important? Obvious; it's the one that sets the tone for the coming month. Win this and anything can happen going forward, but lose or draw and the doubts and the questions and the criticism all comes flooding back. And really, nobody wants that at a time like this.

Hopefully, by the third weekend in April, we can talk about how Arsenal's home meeting with Chelsea is the most important match of Arsenal's season, with the Gunners still in the battle for Champions League football. But, in order for that to be the case, then this difficult stretch of fixtures needs to start with three points tomorrow.

Arsenal Squad News

Shit, Robin's pregnant?
Photo: Daily Mail.

Out: Diaby (hamstring), Jenkinson (back), Santos (ankle), Wilshere (ankle), Frimpong (knee)

The big news this week is that perma-hurt left back, Kieran Gibbs, is no longer listed above in the injury section. The 22-year-old has been back in training since last week and could appear off the bench tomorrow. Reports are that he will be named in the squad and then could start on Wednesday in the Champions League. Excellent news, considering it's been two months since Arsenal started a match with a natural left back at that position.

There's bad news, of course, to temper this, and that is regarding Emmanuel Frimpong. The midfielder, who was on loan at Wolves, has torn cruciate ligaments in his knee and his season is over. It's important to note that this is not a recurrence of the cruciate injury that forced him to miss all of last season; it's in the other knee. It's unfortunate, since Frimpong was well liked at Molineux and really needs Premier League starts to be ready to feature for Arsenal. Another six month set-back is really NOT DENCH.

Jack Wilshere is currently on holiday (since he's broken and all,) but he's using an exogen machine in an attempt to heal his bone injury faster. What's an exogen machine, you ask? Well, that's an excellent question. Just let me ask Google for a moment...

Okay, every Google search just returns more news about Jack Wilshere. Apparently, it's an ultrasound system used to accelerate the healing of bone fractures. According to Exogen's Web site, fractures* (note: asterisk theirs) are just a bump in the road! Where the bump is significant pain and a hole in the Arsenal midfield and the road is most if not all of this season.

Abou Diaby is back "earliest at the end of February," Carl Jenkinson was back running weeks ago, yet I haven't heard anything about him since before the United game, and Andre Santos is probably at least a month away now.

The one other question in the squad, I believe, is how many games Bacary Sagna is match fit to start. Obviously, you want him playing at the San Siro, so do you rest him in this match, or is he fit enough to start both? Considering how important I said this match was, if I were in control, I'd start him. But what do I know? I'm typing this from my bedroom.

Predicted XI: Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Song, Ramsey, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, van Persie. Subs from: Fabianski, Coquelin, Gibbs, Rosicky, Arshavin, Benayoun, Henry.

Sunderland Squad News

Out: Bendtner (face), Cattermole (hamstring), Vaughan (ankle), Brown (knee), Kilgallon (ankle), Bramble (calf), Gordon (knee)
Doubts: Sessegnon (cramp)

Stephane Sessegnon picked up the match winner on
Wednesday, but his leg cramped in the process.
Photo: Daily Mail.

Midweek goal scorer Stephane Sessegnon may not be fit to start tomorrow after cramping following Sunderland's extra time FA Cup replay win over Middlesbrough on Wednesday. The Benin international scored the winner in the 112th minute but then limped off the pitch at Riverside. Sessegnon has not missed a match for Sunderland this season, something new manager Martin O'Neill apparently did not realize until this week.

The Black Cats are also dealing with a rather large sum of injuries to their side at the moment in addition to Sessegnon; only Manchester United have more players out through injury. Captain and generally classy fellow Lee Cattermole is expected to miss his fifth straight game with a hamstring injury. John O'Shea has worn the armband in his place. Fellow car-smasher and greatest striker to ever live Nicklas Bendtner has been unavailable due to facial injuries, though he would not be eligible to face his parent club anyway due to loan terms.

Ah, but the list keeps going. Midfielder David Vaughan (ankle), and three defenders: ex-United Wes Brown (knee), Titus Bramble (calf), and Matt Kilgallon (ankle) are all expected to miss a few more weeks. Former number one goalkeeper Craig Gordon has been out with knee ligament damage since the end of last season.

Current Form

Martin! You look like a dork! Photo: Guardian.

Sunderland are currently the league's in-form side, the only top flight team with five wins during their last six matches. It is obvious to see that the team have been rejuvenated under Martin O'Neill. O'Neill took over as Black Cats manager on December 3 and the side slumped to a 2-1 loss at Wolves the following day. That loss dropped them to 17th in the table at that time.

From there, Sunderland have lost twice, drawn once, and won seven league matches. Both losses came away from home (at Spurs and at Chelsea) by 1-0 scorelines. Only Everton have come out of the Stadium of Light with a point since O'Neill took over (a 1-1 draw on Boxing Day.) They have climbed to eighth in the table and are now just seven points behind Arsenal in sixth.

That weekend in early December saw Arsenal win 4-0 at Wigan Athletic. In six road matches across all competitions since that day, Arsenal have won just once and drawn once, losing four. They lost at Olympiacos and Manchester City in December, then beat Aston Villa just before Christmas. In 2012 away from home, they lost at Fulham, lost at Swansea, then played a frustrating 0-0 draw at Bolton.

Match Facts

Damn it, Phil Dowd! Photo: Daily Mail.

Arsenal have struggled at the Stadium of Light in recent seasons (largely thanks to Darren Bent, though,) so it's not great news for the Gunners that they'll have to play there twice in the span of eight days. Arsenal's last win on Wearside was a 1-0 victory on May 11, 2008, the final game of that season. Theo Walcott had the lone goal on 24 minutes. Neither side had much to play for in that match: Arsenal were locked in third place and newly promoted Sunderland were not in danger of relegation, finishing 15th.

The next season, Sunderland looked to have an 86th minute winner at the Stadium of Light, when Grant Ledbetter scored in the 86th minute, but the goal was canceled out by an injury time header from Cesc Fabregas off a corner, helping Arsenal escape with a 1-1 draw.

In November of 2009, Sunderland took all three points at home thanks to a 1-0 win when Darren Bent scored in the 71st. Last year, a fluke Fabregas goal gave Arsenal a 1-0 lead, but in the second half, Alex Song was sent off, Tomas Rosicky missed a penalty (after Fabregas was removed through injury,) and Bent equalized in the 95th minute.

So, Arsenal have not won in Sunderland in three tries, but it bears noting that Robin van Persie missed the last two through injury.

Speaking of the Dutchman, RVP had both goals in the reverse fixture of this match, a 2-1 win at the Emirates in October. Van Persie's opening minute goal was the fastest league goal in Arsenal history, breaking a record that had been set by Marouane Chamakh at Molineux last year. The opener was canceled out by a perfectly taken free kick from ex-Gunner Sebastian Larsson in the 31st, but van Persie one-upped him with the winner from a set piece in the 82nd.

The Referee

Swarbrick sends off Joey Barton, which means I'm okay
with this guy. Photo: Daily Mail.

The referee is Lancashire-based Neil Swarbrick, taking charge of his first career Arsenal match. He's been involved as the fourth official in two previous Arsenal games this season, both against Aston Villa (in the league in December and in the FA Cup two weeks ago.) He worked one Sunderland match last year, his first Premier League appointment, a 0-0 draw at Craven Cottage.

Swarbrick has taken charge of only seven Premier League matches this season to date, plus two cup ties involving Premier League teams. The league matches include: Norwich's 1-1 draw with Stoke (hey, he showed Ryan Shawcross a yellow card, that counts for something,) Aston Villa's 1-1 draw with Newcastle, Newcastle's 1-0 win over Wigan, Manchester City's 5-2 Carling Cup win at Wolves, West Brom's 2-1 win over Bolton, Swansea's 0-0 draw with Villa, Norwich's 2-1 win at QPR (hey, he sent off Joey Barton for that headbutt; that also counts for something,) Liverpool's 5-1 FA Cup win over Oldham Athletic, and Villa's 2-2 draw with QPR last midweek.

Around the League

United's last home loss to Liverpool, in 2009 was
aided by this red card to Nemanja Vidic. Wow, I've
shown a lot of pictures of red cards in this preview.
Photo: Daily Mail.

This weekend starts with a pretty big fixture, as Liverpool gets set to battle Manchester United at Old Trafford. The sides meet for the first time since Luis Suarez returned from suspension, the suspension he received for hurling racial abuse at Patrice Evra during the sides' first meeting of the season. That was a 1-1 draw on October 15 at Anfield. Liverpool got the better of United in the FA Cup, also at Anfield, on January 28, winning 2-1. United have beaten Liverpool in their last three meetings at Old Trafford; their last home loss to the Reds was by a 4-1 scoreline on March 14, 2009 (that was the last home loss in the series between the two dies.) On that day, United were hampered by a red card to Nemanja Vidic when the match was 2-1. Tomorrow, it's Phil Dowd in charge, so, you know, expect some controversy.

Sunderland v. Arsenal is one of six matches to kick-off in the standard 10:00 a.m. in New York City time slot. The other five will see Blackburn Rovers host Queens Park Rangers at Ewood Park. Both of these sides have now lost matches by six goals this season. There's only one other team in the league that has lost by six, and I've made myself sad by stating that fact. Bolton Wanderers host Wigan Athletic in a relegation six-pointer big enough to get Howard Webb as the referee. Meanwhile, Chelsea battles Everton at Goodison Park, Fulham hosts Stoke at the Cottage, and Swansea hosts Norwich in Wales. The late game sees Tottenham host Newcastle in North London.

Two matches make up "Super Sunday" this week. First, Wolves host West Brom in the Black Country derby, then the weekend ends with another match in the West Midlands, as Aston Villa hosts Manchester City in Birmingham.

Arsenal 7-1 Blackburn Rovers: Evisceration

2012-02-05T00:00:00.010-05:00

We have seen all too often in the recent past the games where the Arsenal method of attack just doesn't come off. The defense-splitting passes get intercepted, the movement off the ball tracked by shadowing defenders. In the wake of that, we sometimes can forget what can happen when it does come off. Today, a horrid Blackburn Rovers side was simply standing on the tracks when the train came through.

There was some rotation in the side as the Boss had promised, Tomas Rosicky and Francis Coquelin coming in for the exhausted Aaron Ramsey and the still-recovering Bacary Sagna. I don't want to bag on Ramsey too much as he's worked hard and been asked to play far too many games - but I think a big reason why we were so effective today is because we didn't have tired legs in the center of midfield breaking up plays.

While I said above that the visitors were shocking today (and man alive, they were abysmal), I also don't want to give the impression that it was the only reason for the scoreline. Whatever got into the Arsenal side today, they descended on the hapless yellow-clad Rovers in ferocious, bloodthirsty packs right from the opening whistle. Frankly, I didn't know that some of this lot had it in them, but on the day they were merciless to the point of being feral.

The Gunners dominated possession immediately, and had the lead inside of two minutes. Alex Song played the ball out wide to Theo Walcott, who in turn laid it off for the overlapping Francis Coquelin. His initial cross was poor, but the clearance from the Rovers defense was ridiculously casual. It came back out to Coquelin, who first-timed a fabulous chipped pass onto the onrushing Walcott. He sprinted to the goal line, and shredded the Blackburn defense with a simple dragback. Robin van Persie was in acres of space with Gael Givet nowhere near him, and he could not miss from 3 yards out. It was a goal that was beautiful in its simplicity, and it was exactly the start this Arsenal squad needed.

The visitors could barely get a touch on the ball as the minutes went by. The men in red continued to probe around the Blackburn area but were unable to break down a defense that had largely gotten itself back together after the opening goal. Rovers played a 4-5-1 with Anthony Modeste looking a forlorn figure up top. In fact, the on-loan striker's main contribution was nearly getting booked for a foul on Mikael Arteta, and then harshly getting his yellow card for a collision with Wojceich Szczesny. Speaking of which, it was worrying at the time as our keeper was down for a while, but he was able to play the rest of the game. That said, one wonders if his injured knee didn't contribute to two critical moments later on.

As the half wore on, Arsenal had some half-chances but couldn't covert. A Per Mertesacker header from a corner kick flashed over the bar, and RVP tried his now-signature chip across the face of goal, which didn't miss by much. The domination was great, but a second goal would have calmed nerves in all of Goonervana.

Naturally, Blackburn scored on their first shot of the game.

The men in yellow were in unfamiliar territory (that being beyond the halfway line), when Modeste was fouled by Laurent Koscielny. Up stepped Morten Gamst Pedersen to take the free kick, and he casually curled it up into the top right-hand corner of Szczesny's net. The young Pole did get a hand to it, and I do wonder if perhaps his knee problem kept him from getting there sooner. Still, it was a quality set piece from the Rovers man and either way, they were level.

I don't believe I was the only Gooner to think "here we go again" at this point.

Calamity struck for Rovers right after though, as an innocuous tackle from Rosicky resulted in their right back Jason Lowe having to come off injured. Bradley Orr, who they poached from QPR's dustbin, came on in his place. That said, the next chance fell to Blackburn. A long free kick from Paul Robinson was sent into the Arsenal area, and Szczesny flapped badly at it and missed. Again, was it the knee slowing him down? Luckily for us, it not only came off of Steven N'Zonzi's head and went wide, but Sian Massey had correctly flagged for offside anyway.

That was Blackburn's chance. A few minutes later, the ball was in their net once again and Arsenal had the lead they'd never relinquish (...and the winner for Understatement of 2012 goes to...The Modern Gooner!).

This one was literally box-to-box, starting with a backpass to Szczesny. Mertesacker and Arteta also touched it before coming to Coquelin out on the right. Song and Rosicky got involved, as did Vermaelen. It came back to Song in the center, and his brilliant diagonal ball left everyone in a yellow shirt for dead. Walcott ran onto the end of it, and from there it was a carbon copy of the opening goal. Again, RVP was left with a ludicrously-easy tap-in to wrest control of the match back from Blackburn once and for all. I don't know how the defenders left him that open, and I don't know why Paul Robinson didn't try and cut out the pass to Walcott. No complaints here, though!

Random thought: People rightly point to Argentina's goal against Serbia/Montenegro in the 2006 World Cup as being one of the great team goals ever, but wasn't this one nearly as good? We'll see if anyone talks about it in the coming days.

Given the shitshow that the reverse fixture against this lot was, I still was not breathing easily. Thankfully, the rampant Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put paid to any lingering doubts with his first league goal for the club. This time, the opening came from a tackle that briefly took Rosicky down injured. The ball bobbled out to Walcott, whose pass was poor and behind RVP. The Dutch wizard corralled it in though, spun around, and released Oxlade-Chamberlain with a devastating pass inside the defenders. The young lad's first touch betrayed him a bit, but he hit the afterburners and sped away from his markers. Robinson lumbered out but was never going to get there, and he just made it easier for the Ox to round him and tap into the empty net. You could tell what the goal meant to this kid, and hopefully this is just the first of a great many.

Rovers were reeling now - if this were in UFC the referee would have stopped the fight at this juncture. You get the feeling that they were clinging on until halftime, but the worst was yet to come for them. Givet had already been partially culpable on both of RVP's goals, and in the 43rd minute his day was complete when he was sent off by Andre Marriner for a two-footed lunge on van Persie. Thankfully our captain was OK, and it meant that a Blackburn defense already in disarray was plunged into outright chaos.

They did make it to halftime with no further goals conceded, after a reshuffle that saw David Dunn come off for young center back Grant Hanley (in fairness, he was probably Blackburn's best player in the second half...whatever you think of why Christopher Samba was not in the squad for them today, you also have to wonder why this kid didn't play from the start). Before that though, Vermaelen was unlucky to hit the post when a corner kick came out to him on the left.

The first few minutes of the second half were a bit more even, but it was a false dawn for Rovers. The warning signs came when Hanley damn near put the ball into his own net in the 50th minute, and it didn't take long from there for Arsenal to begin the rout in earnest. Off of the resulting corner kick, the delivery was cleared out by N'Zonzi, but it came back centrally to Arteta off of a deflection from Koscielny. The Spaniard had scored in the reverse fixture from range, and had a go here as well. Orr tried to deflect it out, but could only guide it into the bottom corner. It was going in anyway, so Arteta will rightly claim it.

Blackburn were all over the shop now, any remnants of fight well and truly beaten out of them. RVP skied one over the bar right off the restart, and a few minutes later it was 5-1. Song won the ball in the middle of the park and laid it off to Rosicky, who hit a gorgeous long pass to Walcott who was bombing down the wing. Walcott drove into the area with purpose and cut inside, drawing the entirety of the Rovers defense to him. That left Oxlade-Chamberlain open on the left side of the area, and his low drive to the near post left Robinson rooted to the spot (though he may have been unsighted as the shot came through the legs of Gamst Pedersen).

Arsenal were running riot now, and they remorselessly laid siege to the Blackburn area. Given that our guys have sometimes been guilty of easing off in games too soon, it was nice to see them really stick the knife into someone. The next chance was again down to the Ox, whose mazy run down the left wing left three markers trailing in his wake. His back-post cross was perfectly weighted, but Arteta could only volley over. Still, the men in red attacked in waves, and right around the hour mark they extended the lead yet again.

Oxlade-Chamberlain was in the thick of it again, playing a one-two with Rosicky that left him with the ball in a central location. His cross to Coquelin on the right was spot-on, and the ersatz right-back charged beyond Junior Hoilett and played it to a shockingly-open RVP. The Dutchman was on a hat trick, and was duly obliged as his imperious flicked shot flashed past Robinson at about Mach 7 and into the top corner. Fuck me, what a goal that was. Hanley had played well for the most part, but why on earth he was standing so far off the captain, I have no earthly.

There was still half an hour to go, and I thought that double digits might not be out of the question. Understandably though, the team eased off a bit and the rest of the match was played at a testimonial pace. Changes were made in the 68th minute, with Oxlade-Chamberlain and Koscielny coming off for Thierry Henry and Bacary Sagna.

Now, I totally get Henry coming on, but honestly I would have infinitely have preferred RVP coming off instead. It's 6-1, he has his hat trick, why risk injury by keeping him in? Besides, he's played a lot of football lately - wasn't this the best possible time to give him some rest? I know it seems churlish to complain after a huge win, but this could come back to bite us.

Anyway, the rest of the team were quite obviously trying to get Henry involved. Sadly, the Blackburn defense knew this and were marking him tightly. The sentimentality perhaps cost us a few goals as others were in better positions at times, and it looked for all the world like it would finish 6-1.

We got our fairy tale moment right as injury time was expiring, though. A casual backpass from Scott Dann (remember when everyone wanted us to sign him?) caused Hanley all kinds of bother. RVP nicked it off of him and played it to Henry. It was a 2-on-3 and honestly the defense should have dealt with it. Instead, they did another give-and-go, the initial pass to RVP drawing Hanley and Martin Olsson. The return came back to Henry, 1-v-1 with Dann. Henry's effort was a bit on the soft side, but it deflected off of Dann and past the wrong-footed Robinson. There was perhaps a bit of luck to it, but who cares? Henry had his first league goal for the club in over five years, and I can think of no better cap to an already hugely satisfying day than that.

Make no mistake though, there's a lot of hard work ahead for this team. Fourth place is still quite a distance away, and we'll need consistency and more of this fight and ruthlessness shown today. In the meantime though, I think every Gooner can enjoy a day in which seven goals were scored and plenty of good attacking movement was on display. Now it's up to this team to stop the Jekyll-and-Hyde act and put together four or five wins on the trot.

The Modern Gooner Player Ratings:

Szczesny 6, Vermaelen 7, Koscielny 8 (Sagna N/A), Mertesacker 7, Coquelin 8, Oxlade-Chamberlain 9 (Henry 7), Song 8 (Benayoun N/A), Rosicky 8, Arteta 8, Walcott 9, van Persie 9

Man of the Match: No shortage of people to choose from here, eh? Alex Song showed a tremendous range of passing, Laurent Koscielny was everywhere, Theo Walcott was always a danger down the right and Robin van Persie had a hat trick. Still, I have to give the nod to young Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored his first two league goals for the club and gave us all a glimpse of what could be a brilliant future.

Preview by Numbers: Arsenal v. Blackburn Rovers

2012-02-03T00:01:00.269-05:00

Emirates Stadium, London

Saturday, February 4

8:00 a.m. EST, 1:00 p.m. GMT
RSVP on Facebook!

Match Officials

Referee: Andre Marriner
Assistants: John Flynn and Sian Massey
4th Official: Paul Tierney

Reverse Fixture: Blackburn 4 - 3 Arsenal
This Match, Last Year: Arsenal 0 - 0 Blackburn
All-Time in All Competitions: 57 Arsenal wins, 30 Blackburn wins, 31 draws
Arsenal's League Form: D-W-L-L-L-D
Blackburn's League Form: D-W-L-W-D-L

Hey, that's how I feel too! Photo: Daily Mail.

Look at that. The last two bullet points just above this sentence. The current league form statistic. Arsenal: one win from six with two draws. Blackburn: two wins from six with two draws. Blackburn Rovers are currently in better form than Arsenal Football Club. And that's worrying.

Yes, the comeback against Aston Villa on Sunday was great, but it sort of prolonged the inevitable. All of those negative feelings we had at halftime are back after Wednesday's 0-0 draw at Bolton. There are huge things for this club to worry about in the league. It's February 3 and this team has won zero league games in this calendar year. They have gone without a win in four. This is unacceptable. It has to change now, otherwise, I'm not even sure this team can qualify for the Europa League. They are currently in seventh. SEVENTH. And with the transfer window closed, from where does the change come?

I try not to resort to profanity in this blog piece, but this status quo is bullshit.

Arsenal Squad News

Out: Gibbs (groin), Diaby (hamstring), Jenkinson (back), Santos (ankle), Wilshere (ankle)
Africa Cup: Gervinho, Chamakh

While Arsenal drew 0-0 at Bolton, Jack Wilshere made
steak. He really spends a lot of time on Twitter.

The time period between a Wednesday night fixture and an early Saturday clash is as small as possible going into a weekend of games. The last time Arsenal played on a Saturday after a Wednesday game, they drew Fulham. Of course, given the fact that Arsenal have to win this game to restore any sense of sanity around the club, this is no time for rotation. Arsene Wenger must selected his strongest possible line-up, otherwise the questions will just continue. I think it has to be the same XI that started at Bolton, though I'm concerned Bacary Sagna, just back from a broken leg, might not be able to complete a full 90 minutes again after playing Wednesday.

As for the injuries, there's nothing new to report. Kieran Gibbs is probably about a week away. Abou Diaby is supposed to return this month, maybe if the stars align properly. Carl Jenkinson was running again, so he should be due back within a month (I've never actually heard a time frame on him.) It should be late March to early April for Andre Santos, and we're all keeping our fingers and toes and eyes crossed that we see Jack Wilshere play a competitive game this season.

As for those away on international duty, Morocco is out of the Africa Cup of Nations, so Marouane Chamakh will return soon, but the Ivory Coast and Gervinho have advanced.

Predicted XI: Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Song, Ramsey, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, van Persie.

Blackburn Squad News

Chris Samba wanted out. He didn't get his way.
Photo: Caught Offside.

Out: Grella (knee)
Doubts: Samba (stomach)
Suspended: Yakubu (third of three)

Well, the transfer window has come and gone and team captain Chris Samba, who wanted out of Ewood Park, is still there. Blackburn twice turned down his request for a transfer. Now Steve Kean, who has had so much to deal with during this tumultuous season, has to deal with his captain not wanting to play for his team. Samba, who has been dealing with a stomach ailment as well, has not featured for Blackburn since the middle of January.

Meanwhile, Blackburn canceled the contract of 34-year-old defender Ryan Nelsen, who has been dealing with injuries for the better part of the last year. This allowed Spurs to sign him as a free agent.

Yakubu, he of 13 goals this season including a brace against Arsenal in the reverse fixture, will serve the third match of his suspension after his red card against Fulham on January 14. New signing Anthony Modeste started up front on Wednesday in Yakubu's place and the Frenchman is likely to start again Saturday.

Blackburn have two players out with long term injuries who do not have a time frame for return: Michel Salgado's rib injury has cost him his place in Blackburn's 25-man squad, meaning he has likely already played his final game for the club. Vince Grella remains out with a knee injury.

Current Form

Blackburn got a point at Everton last weekend, after
some guy named Goodwillie scored. Photo: Guardian.

Ha, that's a good one. There's no denying how badly Arsenal needed a win and not just a draw on Wednesday. No wins in four league fixtures for the first time since a six match run that spanned the end of last season and the beginning of this one. And, to go through a second stretch like this in the span of one calendar year is depressing.

On the plus side, Arsenal is at home for this match, and their home form has been okay. This season at the Emirates, Arsenal have lost three, drawn three, and won 14 across all competitions. But, since beating Dortmund at the end of November, Arsenal have won exactly half of their eight total home games and two of those wins were in the FA Cup (Everton, QPR, Leeds, and Aston Villa.) In the other four matches, they've drawn Fulham, lost to City in the Carling Cup, drawn Wolves, and lost to United.

There is no use beating a dead horse, we all know how poor Arsenal's form has been, so let's just move right on to Blackburn. Rovers crashed out of the FA Cup in the third round by losing to Newcastle, something they did again on Wednesday night (though, at home this week and away in the Cup.) The good news for Arsenal about that is had Blackburn played a replay or a fourth round tie, Yakubu would be returning from his suspension for this match instead of the next.

Starting with Boxing Day, Blackburn drew Liverpool (at Anfield) and beat United (at Old Trafford,) so that's worrying from an Arsenal perspective as those were both road games for the Rovers. Then they lost at home to Stoke and lost to Newcastle in the Cup. This was followed by a home win over Fulham (which was when Yakubu was sent off,) a draw at Goodison Park against Everton, and then Wednesday's loss at home to Newcastle. Still, that's better form than Arsenal's since the same point. Blackburn have scored a goal in each of their last 12 away league fixtures.

Match Facts

Arsenal fed the Yak twice in September. Good thing he's
banned tomorrow. Photo: Guardian.

You may recall in years past that Bolton was always a bogey team for Arsenal, especially under Sam Allardyce. In a way, even though Big Sam isn't at Blackburn anymore either, the Rovers have become a bit of a bogey team too. Arsenal has already lost to Blackburn this season, they dropped points at home to Blackburn last year, and also lost at Ewood Park the year before that. And two of those matches have already been post-Walrus.

I hate to relive that match, but this is where I have to. Arsenal led early, 1-0, through Gervinho's first Arsenal goal in the 10th minute. Yakubu equalized in the 25th, but Mikel Arteta's first Arsenal goal in the 34th gave the Gunners a 2-1 lead at the half. Then, the wheels fell off. Alex Song's own goal leveled the game in the 50th, which came directly from a free kick that probably should not have been given in the first place. Then, Bacary Sagna left injured, forcing Johan Djourou on at right back, which was a totally alien position to him at the time (funny how much he's been forced to play there since.) Yakubu put Blackburn ahead in the 59th (from an offside position, according to recaps... funny how I forgot that myself,) then a Koscielny own goal made it 4-2. Marouane Chamakh, off the bench for Arsenal, pulled one back in the 85th, but it was not enough, after Arsenal missed three chances in injury time.

The previous meeting between the sides was a dreadful 0-0 draw at the Emirates in April. Arsenal had won at Ewood Park earlier in the season, 2-1, through goals from Theo Walcott and Andrei Arshavin.

Blackburn's last win at Arsenal came in 2002 at Highbury, by a 2-1 scoreline. Before last year's draw, Arsenal had won seven straight home league meetings against Blackburn.

The Referee

"Why should I listen to you? You're Denilson!"
Photo: Bleacher Report.

The referee is West Midlands-based Andre Marriner. Marriner actually worked the reverse fixture of this match at Blackburn in September. As dreadful as that match was, I'm pretty certain Marriner was not at fault for Arsenal's defense forgetting how to play the sport. That was his first of two Arsenal matches this season. The other was the 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge, which was a significantly better early Saturday morning. Odd that Marriner is working yet another early Saturday match for Arsenal. Also, given these trends, you'd expect seven or eight goals to be scored in this match, but I'm not sure if Arsenal knows how to do that anymore.

For Blackburn, Marriner has taken charge of their win over Arsenal and a 3-3 draw with Wigan, in which David Dunn was sent off. Rovers salvaged a draw at the death in that match, when deep into injury time, goalkeeper Paul Robinson, pushing forward for the equalizer, was pulled down in the area to draw a penalty, which Yakubu converted. Marriner was highly criticized for allowing a Blackburn goal from a corner when Yakubu never touched the ball to set it into play, allowing Morten Gamst Pedersen to dribble down the line to set up David Hoilett to score. Marriner was punished severely for the error: this match happened on November 19 and he has worked just two Premier League games since, the second of which was this midweek. He worked the Swansea-Chelsea game, meaning Ashley Cole became the second player he has sent off this season, after Dunn was the first.

Around the League

Arsenal's match was moved early due to construction on
the Victoria line. The Arsenal stop isn't on the Victoria
line, it's on the Piccadilly line. I've just used this image to
mess with you. Photo: Morgan Driscoll.

Arsenal had their game moved to the pseudo-early time slot due to concerns about the public transport in London (there's construction on the Victoria Line.) I wish they'd move game times when there's construction on the L train in Brooklyn, but what are you gonna do? This match was not moved to the early time slot for Sky Sports (otherwise it would have been at 7:45;) Sky is showing the East London derby in the Championship between West Ham and Millwall, and possibly coverage of the riot that will inevitably ensue. The move to an earlier time means that in the U.S., the match will air on ESPN2.

Afterward, while we hang out at the pub afterward, hopefully not doing as many shots in commiseration as we did the last time Arsenal played Blackburn, five matches will kick-off in the 10:00 a.m. time slot. They include Norwich City hosting Bolton at Carrow Road, Queens Park Rangers welcoming Wolves to Loftus Road, Stoke City hosting Sunderland in a battle of red-and-white stripes (fine, Sunderland will have to wear their change kit) at the Britannia, West Brom welcomes Swansea to the Hawthorns, and Wigan hosts Everton at the DW Stadium. Saturday's late game will see Manchester City host Fulham at Eastlands. Fulham nicked a 2-2 draw from City at Craven Cottage earlier this season.

It's Super Sunday in the United States, with the Super Bowl later at night. In England, Sky Sports calls every Sunday they air doubleheaders Super Sunday. Kinda takes the specialness out of the term, doesn't it? Sunday's early match sees Newcastle United host Aston Villa at OMG MIKE ASHLEY IS THE BEST Stadium (give it time, he'll call it that soon enough.) The late game sees Chelsea (without Ashley Cole) host Manchester United at Stamford Bridge. Then, it's Super Monday (no, that doesn't have the same alliterative effect... how about Mega Monday?) as Liverpool hosts Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield.

These are the reverse fixtures of those played the weekend of September 17 and 18.

Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Arsenal: Zzzzzzzzz

2012-02-01T23:35:00.009-05:00

Today, we sit in seventh place after one of the most skull-fuckingly boring 0-0 draws in the history of this esteemed game. Honestly, this made me long for the days of scoreless Boxing Day draws away to Coventry City or Wimbledon back in the early and mid 1990s. Worse than the match itself however is the fact that this late in the season, the Champions League looks like the same kind of hopeless lottery-ticket dream that a fourth-tier side has away at Old Trafford in the third round of the FA Cup.

The lack of squad depth in many positions meant that, despite the fact that we just played on Sunday, there was no rotation in the squad. Bacary Sagna made a first start back from injury, but other than that it was essentially our starting XI.

We should have won this game. As dire as much of it was, the Gunners could have been 2-0 up and off to the races inside of 15 minutes. Whether it's tired legs or just the fact that everyone not named Robin van Persie is highly flawed in their finishing, we spurned chances that just about any other team in the league would have finished at least one of.

It's so frustrating.

Arsenal had the better of the opening exchanges, and started to pour it on from the 8th minute on. The first warning shot was a downward header from van Persie that had Bolton keeper Adam Bogdan (who looks to be taking Jussi Jaaskelanien's job) caught flat-footed. Sadly, David Wheater was there to hack it off the line with a minimum of fuss.

That wasn't the big chance, though. The next few minutes saw two glorious chances that should have been buried. A minute after RVP came close with that header, he turned provider and played in Aaron Ramsey with a killer diagonal ball. The Welshman beat the offside trap and was in alone, but he toe-poked a dismal, tepid effort straight at Bogdan.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had caused Bolton some problems by cutting into the middle from the flank, allowing overlaps from other midfielders or Thomas Vermaelen. The 12th minute saw this bear fruit again, as Mikael Arteta passed to the Ox in the middle. In turn, it was sprayed out left to the overlapping van Persie, drawing just about everyone in a white shirt in the stadium. He put it onto his right, and played a perfect dragback back to Ox in the penalty area. Unfortunately, he panicked and dragged his shot well wide.

For 78 further minutes, Arsenal vaguely probed around the edges of Bolton's penalty area, often populated by 9 Praetorian Guard members in white. I mean, I was stuck at work until almost 9 today, and had I known what awaited me on my DVR, I would have stayed later.

Bolton did hit back once every great while on the counter. Early on, a few long balls from Chris Eagles resulted in 50-50 battles that Laurent Koscielny badly lost to David N'Gog - luckily, the latter is extremely shit at football and couldn't do much with it. Wojceich Szczesny saved fairly well on one of them, but other than that the young custodian's contribution to the game was mainly shanking passes out of bounds and nearly getting the ball nicked off of him while trying a bit of Brazilian dribbling in his own penalty area.

Theo Walcott had our last chance of the match in the 26th, having been played in by the Ox. It's amazing, just having seen Ramsey try and fail to nutmeg Bogdan a while before, he tried the same exact thing with either corner of the goal gaping. How are we so goddamn bad at finishing? You'll be stunned to know that Bogdan got enough on it where it hit the inside of his leg and went out for a corner.

I am only partially being facetious when I say that I would expect at least 3 members of my Sunday night rec-league team to make better efforts at finishing in those spots than Walcott and Ramsey did...and that's just among the girls.

The second half was much like the first, minus most of the scoring chances. RVP was unfortunate to hit the post with a volley in the 61st, and his beautiful chip in the 80th had Bogdan beaten all ends up but hit crossbar instead of twine. The way this season has gone, would you have expected anything else.

Oh, and Szczesny absolutely fouled Mark Davies in the penalty area right at the end of normal time. How that wasn't a penalty, I have no idea - we really got out of jail there.

It's truly amazing - as much as Sunday's game enervated the Arsenal fanbase and made us believe we really could kick on, this effort has drained it all away. I hate to keep harping on it, but the fact that a club with our resources has a squad so threadbare that we have to play all the guys who played three days ago and we don't have anyone to come on and change the game is somewhere in the range between disgraceful and a dereliction of duty.

Riddle me this, Gooners. If we win the UEFA Cup next year, how stoked will you be about it? Even worse, if we manage to make a final and then Galatasaray it again, would that be even worse than anything that's happened this season?

Sigh. Just.................sigh.

The Modern Gooner Player Ratings:

Szczesny 6, Vermaelen 6, Koscielny 6, Mertesacker 6, Sagna 8, Oxlade-Chamberlain 7 (Henry 6), Song 6, Arteta 6, Ramsey 6 (Rosicky N/A), Walcott 6, van Persie 7

Man of the Match: He faded a little at the end, but Bacary Sagna made a welcome return to the first team with a storming performance on both sides of the ball. He was the lone bright spot on the day.

Preview by Numbers: Bolton Wanderers v. Arsenal

2012-02-01T00:01:00.222-05:00

Reebok Stadium, Bolton

Wednesday, February 1

3:00 p.m. EST, 8:00 p.m. GMT
RSVP on Facebook!

Match Officials

Referee: Chris Foy
Assistants: Gary Beswick and Simon Bennett
4th Official: Peter Walton

Reverse Fixture: Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton
This Match, Last Year: Bolton 2 - 1 Arsenal
All-Time in All Competitions: 58 Arsenal wins, 39 Bolton wins, 35 draws
Arsenal's League Form: W-D-W-L-L-L
Bolton's League Form: W-L-D-W-L-W

PENALTY! PENALTY!!! Photo: Daily Mail.

Had Arsenal not come from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and advance in the FA Cup on Sunday, this section was merely going to say "Just win this match, God damn it," or something to that effect. Thankfully, I don't have to resort to that.

Arsenal has moved on to face either Sunderland or Middlesbrough in the FA Cup fifth round, but we'll worry about that in February. It's back to the league now, a competition in which Arsenal has not yet won in 2012. Three losses from three is dreadful for a team with Top Four aspirations, so that streak has got to stop right now.

Bolton may have had a tough start to their season (disastrous, even,) but their form started to turn around the festive period and they are coming off a win over Liverpool and advancement in the FA Cup. One hopes Arsenal can retain some of that second half momentum from Sunday's match in this game and right the ship in the league. Anything less at this point is, frankly, unacceptable.

Meanwhile, Chelsea has dropped points, so Arsenal can close the gap a little bit with a win, while also keeping pace with Liverpool, whose win on Tuesday moved them into fifth.

Arsenal Squad News

Hey, look! It's fullbacks back in training!!!
Photo: Official Site via Facebook.

Out: Gibbs (groin), Diaby (hamstring), Jenkinson (back), Santos (ankle), Wilshere (ankle)
Doubts: Sagna (match fitness)

Well, the transfer window has come and gone and all we have to show for it is Thierry Henry for a few more weeks and a German kid. Color me shocked. Then again, with some of the good injury news, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The bad injury news since my last preview was posted was, of course, the set-back suffered by Jack Wilshere. Word from the specialist he had to see came back positive, but there is still a chance Wilshere's season could be over, without it having ever really started, which is disappointing news for the Gunners.

On the positive side, there are no new injuries following the FA Cup tie on Sunday, and Kieran Gibbs is back in training (though still short of fitness just yet. He's probably two weeks away.) The injury list is down to just five, knock on wood. This means Arsenal will likely field a close-to-full strength squad. Mikel Arteta should return to the starting role in midfield after making an appearance off the bench on Sunday. There's a chance Bacary Sagna could start as well, though that might be a little more doubtful. He has only played for six minutes after being out for four months, so perhaps it's best to use caution with such an integral player. On the other hand, now is not really the time for caution, with three points so crucial. So really, it's a good thing I don't have to make these decisions, because apparently, I'd be terrible at it.

Predicted XI: Szczesny, Coquelin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Song, Ramsey, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, van Persie. Subs from: Fabianski, Sagna, Djourou, Rosicky, Benayoun, Arshavin, Henry.

Bolton Squad News

U.S.A., NOT TODAY. Tim Ream looks to be unavailable for
Bolton after having to fly back to the States to clear a
work permit / passport issue. Photo: Daily Mirror.

Out: Miyaichi (loan terms), Alonso (ankle), Gardner (hip), Lee (broken leg), Holden (knee), Davis (knee)
Doubts: Ream (work permit)

Yesterday, Arsenal and Bolton agreed to terms to send Ryo Miyaichi to the Reebok on a loan deal for the remainder of the season. Of course, due to the terms of the loan deal, Ryo is not available to play today against his parent club.

Bolton have five injuries to their squad: Chung-Yong Lee, out with a broken leg, won't be returning until the end of this month. American Stuart Holden is out until the end of next month with a knee injury, Spanish defender Marcos Alonso is out until April with a knee problem, while there is no timetable for the returns of Ricardo Gardner (hip injury) and Sean Davis (knee.)

Bolton could have former Red Bulls defender Tim Ream available after completing his signing last week, but the uncertain status of his work permit could prevent the American from playing. Tyrone Mears has returned from a long spell out with a broken leg, and Jussi Jaaskelainen could be available as goalkeeper after coming back from injury, though he'll still have to unseat Adam Bogdan for the starting spot. Both Mears and Jaaskelainen were on the bench for Bolton's FA Cup win over Swansea at the weekend.

Current Form

Bolton's win over Liverpool two weeks ago will be a lot
less funny to us if they duplicate the feat today.
Still funny for now, though. Photo: Daily Mail.

So, as you may know, Arsenal in league play, have been terrible in 2012. After beating QPR on New Year's Eve, they blew a lead at Fulham and lost, they blew at lead at Swansea and lost (though, they blew that one faster,) and then they pulled level with United at home only to have the wheels fall off again. Three league games in January. Three losses. Three matches without a win for the first time in five years. Away from home, Arsenal have not won since the 2-1 win at Villa Park on December 21. To be fair, five of their seven matches since have been at home, so only the losses to Fulham and Swansea count to that stat. Still, their run of form is enough to have taken them from sole possession of fourth place for the first time this season to five points behind Chelsea for that final Champions League slot.

On the other side, over the first 16 games of this season (through December 17th,) Bolton Wanderers won just three matches and lost 13. Since then, over their last six matches, Bolton have equaled those three wins, drawn once, and lost just two. Their wins in the last six have come against the likes of Blackburn away, Everton away (despite allowing goalkeeper Tim Howard to score against them,) and Liverpool at the Reebok. They have, also in that time frame, advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup, where they will face a Championship side, the winner of the replay between Millwall and Southampton. Bolton Wanderers are fifth in the form table (over the last six matches) while Arsenal are 13th. This form has now been just enough for them to climb out of the relegation zone for the first time since October.

Match Facts

This was pretty much Park Chu-Young's only moment
in an Arsenal shirt... Photo: Daily Mail.

This will already be the third meeting between Arsenal and Bolton Wanderers this season, with both sides having met in the fourth round of the Carling Cup. With both sides advancing to the fifth round of the FA Cup, it's still plausible there could even be a fourth meeting between the two this season in a later round. Both prior matches were at the Emirates Stadium and both were Arsenal wins.

The first meeting this year between the two sides came on September 24 at the Emirates. Arsenal were coming off a loss at Blackburn Rovers, followed by a Carling Cup win over Shrewsbury Town that had seen them momentarily trailing, so things were not pleasant for the Gunners. The match was still 0-0 at halftime, but Robin van Persie scored in the first minute after the restart and then David Wheater was sent off for Bolton. Van Persie completed a brace and Alex Song scored on the cusp of injury time and Arsenal won 3-0. In the Carling Cup meeting a month later, it was also 0-0 at halftime, but this time, Bolton had the first goal inside of two minutes after the restart, courtesy of Fabrice Muamba. Andrei Arshavin engineered the comeback, scoring the equalizer in the 53rd minute, then setting up Park Chu-Young's only Arsenal goal to date, the winner, three minutes later.

Bolton won this fixture last year, 2-1, on Easter Sunday. Bolton led 1-0 at halftime thanks to a Daniel Sturridge goal, nodding in a header after Samir Nasri cleared a Gary Cahill shot off the line. The Trotters got a penalty just after halftime, but could not extend the lead after a terrible spot kick attempt, then Arsenal equalized through Robin van Persie a minute later. The match continued 1-1 until the 90th minute, when Tamir Cohen scored a free header off a corner to put the final nail in the coffin of Arsenal's season.

Before that 2-1 Bolton win, Arsenal had won nine straight against the Trotters, and after the two earlier matches this season, the Gunners have now won 11 of 12.

The Referee

Chris ~~Hoy~~ Foy has been a fan of red cards
this season. Photo: MTN.

The referee is ~~Edinburgh-born cyclist Chris Hoy~~ Merseyside-based Chris Foy. Foy has had a very eventful season, as you probably know, after some criticism for him from Spurs supporters following their loss at Stoke City was misplaced and directed at Great Britain cyclist Chris Hoy on Twitter. Hilarious stuff, but it's a joke you might have seen before. The football comic Studs Up is written by a guy named Chris Toy, who has already drawn his frustration about their similar names.

All of that said, this is Foy's first Arsenal match of this season. Last year, he took charge of Arsenal's 2-1 win at Blackburn, their 2-1 win over Fulham at the Emirates, the 2-0 win over Wolves at the Emirates, then a pair of games against Manchester United (the 2-0 FA Cup loss and the 1-0 win at the Emirates.) Not a bad series of games, on the whole of it.

As for Bolton, this is his second match this season. The other previous game was Bolton's 2-0 loss at Fulham, which was, incidentally, the aforementioned December 17th match that marked Bolton's 13th loss over their first 16 games. Again, since that game, Bolton have won five times over eight matches in all competitions.

Around the League

Today, Chelsea was this close to losing at Swansea (like some team I know well,) before a late goal gave the ten-man Blues (ha ha, Ashley Cole) a point and a 1-1 draw at the Liberty Stadium. Meanwhile, Manchester City lost as they were shut down by Tim Howard, Darron Gibson, and Everton, 1-0 at Goodison Park. Apparently, the way you beat City is to have a fan handcuff himself to the goalpost during the first half.

The other results from yesterday were basically, business as usual, which is to say, not helpful to Arsenal. Manchester United beat Stoke behind the strength of two penalties, Tottenham Hotspur coasted to three points against Wigan at the Lane (at least it wasn't 9-1,) and Liverpool made easy work of Wolves at Molineux.

With all of the particularly enthralling fixtures being played yesterday, today also sees Aston Villa hosting Queens Park Rangers at Villa Park, Blackburn hosting Newcastle, Fulham hosting West Bromwich Albion, and Sunderland hosting Norwich City. Those are some real glamor fixtures right there.

Arsenal 3-2 Aston Villa: Back From the Dead

2012-01-30T00:00:00.005-05:00

Arsenal's season was clinically dead for about 35 minutes. Hopelessness and dread once again descended onto Ashburton Grove in a sickly gray pall, the reaper closing in with sickle in hand. All seemed lost, that is, until Dr. Richard Dunne resuscitated the patient with one of the stupidest and most needless fouls in recent FA Cup history.

Believe me, I'm not complaining.

Let's start from the beginning, though. Arsene Wenger fielded largely a full-strength lineup, with the main exception being Lukasz Fabianski deputizing for Wojceich Szczesny in goal. This move elicited more than a few groans, but the rest of the lineup seemed strong enough to see off what has been a largely unimpressive Aston Villa side. Another heartening sign was found on the bench, where Mikael Arteta and Bacary Sagna (YAY!) made their returns from injury.

The opening minutes belonged to the Arsenal, the ball pinging around from red shirt to red shirt with only the occasional intervention from someone in white. Aaron Ramsey was the first to test the returning Shay Given in the Villa goal, but his shot was weak and easily handled. A minute later, a free kick was worked out to Thomas Vermaelen, whose shot was anything but weak. He brilliantly found space through Robbie Keane's legs and still managed to get his shot to rise. Given had to be exceptionally sharp to claw it out for a corner.

Villa found their sea legs eventually though, and were assisted in their cause by the now-usual comedy stylings of Fabianski. I've alluded to it before, but it's at a point where keeping him at Arsenal borders on the cruel-and-unusual. He's got some talent but badly needs to play under a far less harsh spotlight than the Premier League - I imagine the Eridivise or something similar would do him good. Anyway, he made a right old hash of a backpass and nearly gifted a goal to Villa. This was followed by Theo Walcott finding plenty of space in the area after a great ball from Tomas Rosicky. Walcott took far too long to shoot though, and fired well wide under pressure.

This was the point where, just a little, doubt crept into the Arsenal side.

A perhaps fortuitous call from referee Michael Jones led to a free kick in prime territory - central and just outside the area. Robin van Persie weakly dinked it into the wall, though. If frustration was growing here, it only grew at the sight of Fabianski charging out and getting nothing but air after a cross rebounded off of Laurent Koscielny. Luckily, Darren Bent wasn't able to capitalize.

Villa, feeling it now, came right back and should have at least tested Fabianski a minute later. Gabriel Agbonlahor roasted Francis Coquelin (who had a torrid time at right back) and had plenty of time to cross to a disgracefully-open Bent. Luckily for us, his cross was poorly over-hit.

The goal was coming though, and sure enough the visitors found it in the 33rd minute. A simple training ground short-corner shredded the Arsenal defense, with just about no one out wide to cut off the delivery into the middle. Keane's cross to the far-post was perfect, but the fact of the matter is that there were three guys in red standing there. Fabianski couldn't come out with the mass of humanity there, but one of them should have dealt with it. Instead, Dunne powerfully rose over a weak jump from Koscielny (a poor effort from the Frenchman there) and hammered a header into the net. The Gunners had lost control of the match, and the Villains got their just rewards there.

We were hoping for a reaction from our guys after the goal was conceded. Oh, we got one, all right. As bad as they were in that stretch leading up to the goal, they were worse afterwards. Passes were misplaced, Coquelin was routinely getting destroyed by Agbonlahor, and even when Carlos Cuellar gifted possession to Ramsey in the penalty area, he couldn't do anything with it.

The excellent Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain stung Given's palms from distance as the half wound to a close, but Villa came right back up the other end and seemingly delivered the coup de grace to the remnants of our season. For some reason, Per Mertesacker was all the way up in the Villa penalty area despite it only being 0-1 with halftime approaching. Villa repelled the attack and off they went on the counter, Stephen Ireland playing a gorgeous ball to Bent with Coquelin all at sea once again. His powerful drive was well-saved by Fabianski, but the rebound came back out to Bent. Coquelin still wasn't back, and the guys in the middle were all just kind of standing around. Still, Bent didn't have much to shoot at with the angle so acute, but he somehow slid the ball past Fabianski's dive and into the one angle it could have gone in.

I am not a fan of praising Bent, but that was a hell of a finish.

Needless to say, the atmosphere at halftime was funereal, a stunned silence enveloping the space normally filled with drinking and camaraderie. This was one of those all-too-familiar moments this season where it felt like our next step would send us collectively plunging into the abyss.

We probably will never know what the Boss told his charges in the locker room at halftime. Whatever words were spoken or objects were thrown, it worked. Directly after the second-half whistle, Arsenal played with the verve and purpose that we know they have inside them. It's exactly what I was saying in my piece before this game - the fortitude and ability are there, they just can't seem to harness it at will. Either way, in retrospect, I think that Villa assumed that Arsenal would remain in the fetal position for the second 45, and in many cases they'd have been right to do so. This time, they weren't manning their posts as the rampaging hordes came through, and they paid for it dearly.

A few minutes after the restart, Arsenal so nearly took the lead - from a corner, of all things. The first half saw the usual cavalcade of crap set pieces, many of which failed to beat the first man (Rosicky had a great game as I'll get to in a bit, but he shouldn't be taking corners). This time, RVP's effort looped deliciously into the path of Mertesacker, who nodded it down to the far corner. Sadly, Ireland was there to toe-poke it off the line.

That was just the opening sortie, though. The main phalanx was coming, embodied by Stiliyan Petrov having to make a saving tackle to take the ball off of Walcott in the area, and neat interplay between Ramsey and Theo leading to the former hesitating too long and failing to test Given.

The walls wouldn't hold forever. Three chances in three minutes went unfulfilled, but the fourth would not.

Here's the thing - Richard Dunne is a wonderful defender. You may remember that in our last meeting with Villa in the league, I had said he was the real Man of the Match. He has enough raw ability to play for any side in the world, and is a major reason for Ireland's rebirth as a serious international threat. However, the reason he plies his trade for Villa instead of Manchester United or Chelsea is his capacity for astonishing mental meltdowns. Case in point, Alex Song's through-ball was a little too heavy for Ramsey to get to. Had Dunne done nothing at all, it would have been scooped up by Given or otherwise cleared away. Instead, Dunne came barreling in and took out Ramsey with a sliding challenge. He can complain all he wants, but that's a stonewall penalty on a play where there was literally zero danger for his side.

More importantly, had Dunne not committed the foul, there is certainly a chance that the missed chances would have led to the belief draining out of the side, and they may have seen out the game from there. It took what may have been a brief momentum change and calcified it into something far more permanent. The truth of the matter was that Robin was never going to miss that penalty - we could tell that even with our morale in the gutter from the first half. The spot-kick was summarily dispatched low and in the corner, Given having guessed wrong.

One small complaint, though it ended up not mattering. Riddle me this, Mr. Jones...if the foul was enough for a penalty, how was it not enough for a booking? Dunne was already on a yellow - I'd love to see the explanation for why he stayed on the pitch. It didn't matter, but it was quite vexing at the time.

Anyway, I think we knew at that point that something special was on. Out of the silence came a spark of life, the songs and chants coming at a furious pace. Villa were all over the shop, and two minutes later the match was level.

Walcott, the ultimate Jekyll-and-Hyde footballer, showed both sides of his game today. He was perhaps the worst of a bad lot in the first half, as penetrative and effective as a marshmallow spear. After the interval, he charged at the Villa defense with ferocity. He left Stephen Warnock for dead, and came in on Given. The Irish No. 1 blocked his initial effort, but in the confusion of the rebound pinballing around, that hyperactive mutant Alan Hutton could only slice his clearance into the face of Walcott.

The way this season has gone, you'd have expected it to go out to safety or into the path of another Villa player to start a counter-attack. Yeah, well, not today. Instead, it looped off of Walcott's bonce and past a stunned Given. Cue absolute bedlam amongst the Arsenal support, as there was only ever going to be one result in the match from then on.

Sure enough, it only took four more minutes for Arsenal to take the lead. The red-and-white were submerged in the grave in the 53rd minute, resurrected and routing their opponents in the 60th. Beats the hell out of Lazarus, I'll tell you that.

This time, it was Koscielny at the vanguard, haring into the penalty area with the men in white shirts scrambling to cover. Bent mistimed his challenge and could not rightly complain as Jones once again pointed to the spot. RVP once again sent Given the wrong way on the penalty kick, and Villa's implosion was complete.

Arsenal, to their credit, did not attempt to sit on the lead. Walcott so nearly made it four, his long-range drive parried away by Given. There was a momentary wobble where Koscielny lost Petrov in the area, but Mertesacker covered brilliantly. From that point on, they never threatened again.

The already-buoyant mood was further improved when Rosicky was withdrawn for the returning Arteta. We have unquestionably missed his calm assurance in the center of the park, although the Czech man was brilliant in the second half. He not only kept the offense ticking over with some truly exceptional passing, but he tirelessly chased down the ball and gave their central midfield precious little time and space to operate. Despite only playing 70, he was the Man of the Match in my eyes.

At this point, Arsenal called off the dogs a bit and were content to let time tick by. Villa did have one half-chance on a corner, but Ciaran Clark's header was right at Fabianski. In fairness to our man, he did do well to hang onto it, though.

The 88th minute saw our final two subs come on, and thankfully Andrei Arshavin was not among them. Instead, Thierry Henry came on for a cameo in place of Oxlade-Chamberlain, and more importantly Sagna came on in place of Walcott. He looked a bit rusty and made a hash of one clearance, but it mattered little in the end...and the game practice will do him well on his path back to first-team action.

The four minutes of injury time were navigated with little in the way of threat from a hangdog Villa side resigned to defeat. The final whistle went, and there was much rejoicing way down south in the land of Arsenal.

Before the match, the draw for the 5th round was made. Of course, our main rivals all got lower-league sides, while we travel to the winner of Sunderland v. Middlesbrough. The match finished 1-1 today at the Stadium of Light, so they'll do it again at the Riverside. Whoever wins there though, you have to feel like Arsenal should win that match. It's like I said in my piece from the other day - win this one, see who you get. Win that one, and we're in the quarterfinals. Win that one, and we can seriously start dreaming of silverware once again.

Maybe we can't win the league. Maybe Milan will carve us open in Europe. But, we can win this trophy. We HAVE to win this trophy. Roll on the last 16.

The Modern Gooner Player Ratings:

Fabianski 7, Vermaelen 7, Koscielny 5, Mertesacker 7, Coquelin 5, Oxlade-Chamberlain 7 (Henry N/A), Song 7, Ramsey 7, Rosicky 8 (Arteta 7), Walcott 7 (Sagna N/A), van Persie 7

Man of the Match: As mentioned, Tomas Rosicky was the engine that made us go in the second half until he was withdrawn.

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.