Arsenal play Sunderland tomorrow and under Martin O’Neill they’ve been about 61 times better than they were under Mrs Doubtfire. O’Neill, however, is one of the most annoying people in football with his voice and his face and his hair and his eyes and his limbs and his torso and extremities and his tracksuit pants. Obviously though this game isn’t about how annoying Martin O’Neill is, not for Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal team anyway.

It’s about making sure that we pick up where we left off against Blackburn. The likelihood of another seven goal haul is pretty slim but we have to come away from New Roker Park with three points tomorrow. I fancy United to beat Liverpool, Chelsea are going to lose about 5-0 to Everton while the combined cuntery of Newcastle and Sp*rs will hopefully open up a vortex to another dimension where everything looks normal but food eats you.

So, bearing all that in mind, we’ve got to win the game and keep up the pressure for a top four finish. We know that our margin for error is more or less non-existent, so from that point of view there can’t be any lack of focus on our part. We know what we have to do, we know we’re going to have to play well to beat a Sunderland side who have been much improved, so let’s just get out there and do it.

In terms of team news, there are no new injuries, bar Frimpong’s cruciate but as he was on loan it doesn’t affect us directly, while according to the boss Chamakh and Gibbs are back in the mix:

Both are in contention to be in the squad, there is no reason anymore to keep them out. But I will have to decide that tomorrow. Chamakh is now at normal fitness and Gibbs is getting closer as well.

Yeah, I can think of a reason to keep Chamakh out too, you didn’t get there first, but maybe a return from the African Cup of African Nations in Africa playing for a Cup will somehow have transformed him back into the Chamakh that first arrived at the club. Maybe Dr O’Driscoll has been beavering away in the lab at the new medical centre and has invented a potion of pure confidence that he can inject straight into him to replace that which he has lost (yes, this does sound very similar to cocaine, I know).

But with Thierry Henry unlikely to be around for the Sp*rs game, and no possibility of anyone else coming into the squad until summer, I’d rather see the old Chamakh than the more recent version. We can but hope. Maybe he and Park can spark each other into life, hahahaha, urgh.

Meanwhile, the return of Gibbs means we’ve got a specialist left back for the first time since Olympiacos away. It means that the manager now has three centre-halves to choose from and that can only be a good thing. For most people it’s a case of who partners Thomas from Ireland (hat-tip WST Jr), but I guess, depending on the opposition, the manager can tailor his defence a bit more. Quite what he’ll do remains to be seen but it’s a good problem for him to have.

One man who won’t be involved this weekend, or next if we’re being honest, is Gervinho, who scored the goal to get the Ivory Coast to the final of the Cup of African Nations Cup of Nations of African Nations who drink from a Cup. Arsene Wenger believes it’ll do him good when he does get back to Arsenal via the traditional two week party (Kanu taught them well):

It was a cracking goal against Mali. Sometimes he rushes his decisions a little bit but I was very happy that he kept calm and finished in a very controlled way.

That’s great news for his confidence. He creates those dangerous situations but the coolness he misses a little bit. That can help him to do that.

I haven’t watched it but I just love the idea of Arsene Wenger saying ‘cracking goal’. Obviously an Ivory Coast win in the final means a happy Drogba, which is never good, but maybe we need to just live with that if a happy Gervinho produces more for us. I know he’s frustrating but he has produced a reasonable amount of assists/goals for someone still getting used to English football. He can certainly do better and hopefully he’ll be putting them on a plate for Chamakh and Park during the run-in, hahahaha, urgh.

Right then, that’s about all the news so it’s on with this week’s Arsecast. Joining me to discuss a much more pleasant week than those in recent times is Jim Campbell, comedian and co-presenter of the very excellent Football Ramble podcast. On the agenda, Blackburn, the Ox, Sunderland, Milan and more. Also in the mix Internet Joe while Arshavin takes some time off. Plus a t-shirt competition, what more could you want?

You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes). To download this week’s Arsecast directly – click here (22mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

Right, that’s that. Have a good Friday, the beers aren’t too far away now. Back tomorrow with more regular blogging. We should hear more from Arsene about tomorrow’s game, the team and everything else at his press conference later on, coverage of that to be found on Arseblog News throughout the day.

Bye for now.

But this issue has brought it from the margins of the notepad into bold type. Does anybody report about footballanymore? Or even the finer forensic details that influence it, such as how it’s financed, or even its cultural relevance. A fine example would revolve around the reportage of our FA Cup victory over Aston Villa. Having scored three goals in seven minutes to complete an exciting comeback, the back pages were full of innuendo around a pretty innocuous “elbow” incident. The game itself wasn’t enough. There had to be a scandal.

It’s the same on television, if you were to tune into post match analysis of any given game, without knowing the score, you probably wouldn’t ever find out who had won based on the flapping jaws of Adrian Chiles and chums. The focus is always on controversy or ignominy. The shrill blast of a referee’s whistle is given infinitely more weight than a beautiful through ball or a crisp finish.

As an indirect consequence, we’re left with managers resigning on points of PR principle and the particulars of a pre-match handshake requiring a board meeting and scripted press announcement. Because one lonely nut-job has the phone number for the Mirror sports desk, one of the most decorated managers in the world is reduced to spending a pre-match press conference talking about non-existent bin bag protests.

Of course, when the protest never materialises, the press are never held to account. They simply create the next scandal, and then stand back as if they are separated from it. I read this piece on Football365 this week and immediately related it back to the manager’s cryptic comments about profit in the Belgian press. They begged further exploration, further questions. There was a genuine level of intrigue.

Instead, the comments were just intentionally misreported as the manager saying he needs to make a profit on his transfer business. He didn’t actually say that – though he might have meant that. But of course his transfer business is the biggest, knobbliest stick everyone is beating him with at the moment so let’s try and bleed that delightful little stone again. We’ll probably never know what he truly meant now.

The wearily disavowing reportage of the game is leading to a fractious relationship between clubs and the media. In their hubris and self interest, journalists will posture that poor media relations hit the supporters. But in the age of instant information this is not true. Keep your eye on your Twitter feed the next time Wenger holds a pre match press conference. Arsenal will tweet the details in advance of any journalist. It almost looks like a deliberate and pointed “fuck you Fleet Street” to me.

The first place I read about Capello’s resignation was from the FA’s official twitter feed. No journalists were drip fed the story. The meeja have risen to such a level of arrogance that they don’t report the game. They think they are the game. But with access so open to all, clubs taking an increasingly untrusting stance and the plethora of online media, Fleet Street’s insatiable desire for soap opera could bring it down. Bloggers of the world unite and take over.

Coming back to Arsene’s comments in the Belgian press, they were very curious. He’s an intelligent man and will have known that they would be seized upon and analysed. Since he was discussing the prospect of signing Eden Hazard, it could be that he was reminding us that Arsenal operates as a responsible business whilst competitors for his signature do not. Or it could be that it was a pointed comment to his critics and / or his bosses of the constraints upon him.

Whilst it’s naïve to expect a manager to completely divorce himself from the financial side (he needs to know what he’s working with and, therefore, how to prioritise any targets) it does rather add to the suspicion that he’s too immersed in the books. I had the sense that there was something of a spin war with Kroenke and Usmanov duking it out for control of the club. But really this ought to have settled down by now. It adds to a supposition I made last week that there is still a suggestion of a lack of strong leadership in the current club structure. The AST reports that Red and White Holdings purchased more shares this week, suggesting that they have no intention of selling up and leaving.

In other news, it looks as though Johan Djourou has extended his contract for another two and a half years. I’d say this is an interesting development in how the club is treating contracts. I wrote last week about them looking for a happy medium between over rewarding unproven players (Diaby, Denilson) and protecting themselves against losing players that we’ve improved for free (Flamini, Edu).

Of course I’m not privy to the terms Djourou has agreed, but I’d suggest his progress has been studied and this deal seems to be a more cautious one. Whether that reveals a new strategy or else simply appreciates Djourou’s status as a 25 year old squad player will be borne out as deals are signed by other players. What I do know is that if Djourou does end up becoming a world class performer and mainstay of the team in the next 18 months, the length of the contract put in front of him this week will be greeted with retrospective howls of derision.

In closing I wanted to address some comments Theo Walcott made in the week. Having provided a commendable hat trick of assists in the 7-1 shellacking of Blackburn, young Theo told the official site that “creating assists is my main role.” Married with his persistent assertions that he should be a central striker, I have to say the comments worry me slightly. Walcott appears to have fallen into the trap many armchair pundits fall into of neatly formatting particular duties according to screen graphics.

I don’t see how assists can be weighted against goals. It comes back to a criticism I’ve made of Theo before, about failing to appreciate in game situations and act accordingly. The best teams are always fluid and Arsenal’s front three relies on that fluidity and quick thinking. The excellent form of Chamberlain has shown that a wide front man in our formation has liberty to come inside and either provide assists (think the pass for van Persie against Manchester United) or else to score, (his first against Blackburn).

In short, Theo should be looking to both assist and score, depending on what’s appropriate in the situation. If the pass is on, pass. If the shot is on, shoot. If his movement is intelligent enough, he’ll find plenty of opportunity to do both. He doesn’t need to be a centre forward to score goals and being a wide man doesn’t mean his only job is to supply crosses. His form in supplying van Persie is beyond reproach at the moment, but his finishing is ailing slightly and he needs to work on it.

I rather hope his attitude in training is less to simply point at his assists and more to say, “O.k. I’m supplying plenty, now if I score some more too I’ll be twice as lethal.” Anyway, three big away games on the horizon and a total of 3,280 miles travelling in 7 days. I shall scribble to you all again upon return from Italy. But to end, how about another story about David Bentley … LD.

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I kid, I kid. I’m all out of Bentley stories. I could tell you my epic about Arturo Lupoli, his secret agent dog and his layabout sidekick, but it’s all a bit too similar to an episode of Scooby Doo and I need to give it some work.

So, what’s going on in the world of Arsenal? Not a great deal. A win generally brings about a quiet week and this has been no different. With less to examine in great details that’s no surprise, nor a bad thing, but the Blackburn game was just the first step in what is going to be a very difficult and challenging run in. And the manager says we need not just consistency, but not just your regular, off the shelf, supermarket own brand consistency. Oh no:

We know that with the position we are in we need an exceptional consistency, so that is the challenge we have in front of us at Sunderland.

We had a good week last week. We had a good result against Aston Villa and a good performance against Bolton. We have a good spirit and desire within the group – and we have quality.

Now, I’m not willing to pore over the Bolton game again, nor the manager’s bigging-up of his players (which I understand completely – doing anything other than that at this stage would be like chucking in a massive towel), but he’s absolutely right about the consistency thing. We have 14 games to go, 42 points to play for, and given our season start and that rather nasty run in recent times, we have nothing left in the way of wiggle room.

Tomas Rosicky believes that the Blackburn performance can act as a spur, saying:

We recently had an unsuccessful spell so this is something we can build on,. We can be happy after this game but the most important thing is to carry a performance like that and fight for a Champions League spot.

It was a game when almost everything went in and it’s good for confidence. But it does not matter if it was seven goals or one. The most important thing is the performance and the fact we can repeat it.

I know what he’s saying about the goals but I’d argue that the seven goals were important. When the competition is this tight who knows whether goal difference might be the deciding factor? The +6 we got on Saturday against Blackburn wipes out the -6 we suffered at United, so while the three points is always going to be the priority, racking up some goals along the way will be no bad thing.

Next up is Sunderland, resurgent under Martin O’Neill, and it’s a place we’ve had some difficulties in the past. And we’d better get used to seeing them because their win in the FA Cup means our next run of games is Sunderland (A), Milan (A), Sunderland (A) and Sp*rs (H) (and that’s not even mentioning the next three, Liverpool (A), Milan (H), Newcastle (H).

You could pretty much say it’s a make or break period for this Arsenal side. At the end of it we could still have two cups to play for as well as keeping up the chase for the top four, or we could be licking our wounds and trying to make sense of football (whilst wailing and shrieking). We need to rediscover the form we showed from the Blackburn game until December. It’s not that we played particularly well, certainly not in the grand style that we have been accustomed to when Wenger’s teams are in full flow. It was all a bit more fragile than that but we got results. And that’s what we’ve got to get back to.

If they’re scabby one-nils or scintillating fours or fives it matters not a jot. Confidence is borne from winning games and while it really is a cliché, the old ‘one game a time’ thing has never been more relevant than it is right now. More focus on the Sunderland game tomorrow and Saturday.

Beyond that not much happening. It seems that Kieran Gibbs will be back in the squad for Saturday after having two hernia operations in the last four months. I’ve got nothing much to say about his abdominal cavity but he really needs to prove he can stay fit for a sustained period now. Otherwise the manager will have to think very carefully about him for next season.

And according to reports in the Swiss press, Johan Djourou has signed a two year extension with the club. I’ve got no problem with this, he’s been criticised, and rightly enough, for his performances at full back but he’s not a full back. As a fourth choice centre-half, which is what he is at the moment, he’s a good option and people are quick to forget how well regarded he was for us last season. I know it’s a case of too much hype but it’s worth bearing in mind.

And finally, Capello, eh? Redknapp, eh? England manager, eh? I am baffled, quite seriously, as to why anybody in the world would want to be the manager of England. It is without doubt the worst job in football. And yes, that includes the Chelsea youths who have to take it in turns to clean John Terry’s ring (he’s quite fastidious about keeping his wedding band shiny, I’m told).

Managers do the England job; managers fail; managers are castigated, slagged off, ridiculed, mocked and lampooned – and if you’re a ‘furriner’, like Capello, you’re doomed from the start regardless how well you do. And yet, the common denominator in all this is not the managers. It’s the FA and the English players and, let’s face it, sections of the English press whose expectation levels when a major tournament approaches don’t seem to be tempered in any way by the England team’s record in previous tournaments.

Still, maybe what England were missing was that something special. The Twitch Factor, I think they call it. No doubt a man who has won one FA Cup in his entire career knows more about winning than somebody who has won countless league titles, cups and the Champions League. And if the England players need someone like Redknapp to inject them with the necessary ‘passion and spirit’ to play for their country it says far more about them than Capello.

Right, busy day, back tomorrow with an Arsecast. Till then.

There’s another story about David Bentley. When he scored his first Arsenal goal, a rather delicious but utterly irrelevant 90th minute chip against Middlesbrough in January 2004 people said he was the new DB. Seriously. In fact, it was Arsene Wenger who said it.

“I believe that he has a bit of the characteristics of Bergkamp, who is his idol. If a young boy comes on for five minutes and chips the keeper, you cannot say he lacks confidence.”

Nothing wrong with having Dennis Bergkamp as your idol, no way. Nor indeed with having confidence. There is something wrong with believing you’re the new DB after just one goal though. It’s rumoured that after scoring the goal Bentley hired a limousine to drive him to training, paid a group of out of work actors to be his posse, refused to speak to any of the other youth players unless they called him ‘Sir Better-than-Bergkamp’, had all his teeth replaced with freshly painted ivory choppers that he bought from an black market elephant poacher and had an enormous tattoo of himself on his back (the tattoo was of himself having a tattoo tattooed on his back, trippy).

There’s another story about David Bentley. When Sp*rs came back to draw that game 4-4 he went on TV and said ‘That’s mustard’. Which is stupid. Because mustard is a condiment that goes very well on a hot-dog and I wouldn’t put that 4-4 mustard on any kind of sausage/bread combo.

There’s another story about David Bentley. From being the new DB, and then the other new DB when he scored some goals at Blackburn and people thought he was Beckham’s rightful heir, he’s now playing (or not, because I think he injured himself badly when he tripped over his own ego) for West Ham where he is managed by Sam Allardyce.

It’s hard not to think the two don’t deserve each other. Bentley, wearing his gold bikini and chained up in front of Allardyce as he sits around his palace with Han Solo frozen in carbonite over in the corner. And we all know how that ends up. Yep, Bentley is going to strangle his manager to death with a chain as they float above the Sarlacc and his career in football will be over. Nobody will shed any tears, apart from Bentley who will end up working the toilets in Kings Cross.

‘So why all the David Bentley stories?’ you ask. I tell them merely to illustrate a point. Bentley was clearly a player of talent and potential, but 8 years after that delicious but largely irrelevant chip against Boro, it remains unfulfilled because he believed the hype and was, at the very bottom of it all, an absolute bellend.

What’s that got to do with anything? Well, I was heartened to read the words of Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain who, let’s face it, has done more in terms of performance for Arsenal than Bentley every did, and at a much younger age. There’s no ego going wild, no thinking he’s the best thing since sliced beard which always struck me as a weird thing to be better than because lots of stuff is better than sliced bread but anyway, and, most importantly, no being an absolute bellend. He knows he’s got lots to learn and is happy to do so.

I listen to everybody. People like Thierry and Robin who score goals and are attacking players like myself, you can always learn a lot from them. That’s all I do, I listen and learn.

I have belief in myself and in my own ability. I just know that I have to keep working hard and learn off the boys, and then hopefully the rest will come. At the moment it’s going quite well for me so I’m just going to keep working hard.

It is going quite well, isn’t it? Even that is typically understated. Four goals already this season, in three different competitions, keeping established internationals like Arshavin and Benayoun out of the team, and generally being the most exciting prospect since sliced bread. Erm. Well, you know what I mean.

Obviously there’s a whole career ahead of him and football is unforgiving world. Just ask David Bentley. One day you’re the cock of the walk, the next day just a cock. The early signs for Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain are good. Knowing you’ve got a lot to learn instead of thinking you know it all already is a great start. If he keeps good people around him and his feet on the ground he’s got the talent to become a fantastic player. He just needs to look at the new DB for evidence of that.

In other news Carlos Vela says he doesn’t want to come back to Arsenal and has instructed his agent to get him a permanent move to Real Sociedad. Oh no.

While Ryo Miyaich is impressing people at Bolton with his mad skillz.

Early start here, gotta run, have a good day.

I like him a lot, and for several reasons. His creativity, his ability to unbalance the opposition, his vision and his consummate art of giving the final ball make him a player coveted by many.

Hazard has the right profile to play at a top level club, and Arsenal is a top level club.

To be fair to the manager, he was asked straight out by the reporter if Hazard was a player he liked. I’m not sure what other kind of answer he could have given.

“Nah, all this talk of Hazard makes me laugh. He’s no Amaury Bischoff, is he?”

What he said about Arsenal’s requirement for profit each year was more interesting though. We got a glimpse of the frugal Arsene when he spoke about the manager’s duty to pay what he feels is the right price for a player, but then said this:

You have to know that at every season’s start, Arsenal must imperatively make a profit of between £15m and £20m. I’d add to that that one of the missions of a coach is to always buy at a price he judges to be right.

He doesn’t specifically say that this profit should come from transfers but when you’re talking about ‘season’s start’ as opposed to ‘financial year’ then it seems that this is the inference being made. If that is the case, whether it’s an edict from above, or just a measure of the club’s financial situation, then it would certainly go some way explain the manager’s reluctance/inability to dip into the transfer market this January.

Yet, it’s one line in an interview which really needed the reporter to follow up it. I mean, the obvious questions would be, “Why do Arsenal need to make this profit? Don’t Arsenal have a lot of money in the bank? How does this tally with this need for profit? And what happens if Arsenal don’t make that kind of surplus at the season’s start?”

It’s curious too that Arsene has decided to provide this information to the foreign press with whom he has seemed more open and willing to share information in recent times. For example, there was the recent interview in L’Equipe. Perhaps, if the blokes from Sky and beyond didn’t waste time at press conferences asking him about irrelevances such as bin bags, we might get better copy from him.

I hope it’s something that’s followed up because as it stands we don’t really know the context of the remark, whether it was just something said as a matter of fact or if this is information Arsene wants to get out there to, perhaps, illustrate how his hands are tied by the club’s financial dictates. Was it directed at the owner? It’s something we could really do with him expanding on, and at that point we can analyse it further.

Maybe though, there is an acceptance on the club’s behalf that if this profit must be made then we have to look at other ways of making it. Reports this morning suggest that we’ll be using up plenty of airmiles with Emirates, flying to the far east for pre-season games in Seoul, Beijing and Hong Kong, before traveling to Nigeria to tap into the huge African fan base. With the restrictive (but understandable) commercial deals still in place I guess we have to look at other ways of generating revenue and making up the shortfall that these deals have left us with (although their contribution to the new stadium can’t be overlooked).

Anyway, interesting stuff all round and hopefully these are comments that the manager will return to when talking to the press here. I’d certainly like more detail, I’m sure most fans would. I think everyone realises we’ve got financial commitments but how do we tally these comments from Arsene with the ones we hear from Ivan Gazidis who spoke to Fox Sports recenltly? He said:

All of the money we make is available to us, and to spend.

But does the £15-£20m Arsene refers to count as money made, or is it what’s made above and beyond that requirement? That’s why the lack of follow up on that comment by Arsene is a bit frustrating, but hopefully there’ll be some clarification when the manager meets the press this week ahead of the Sunderland game.

Meanwhile, there was bad news yesterday for Emmanuel Frimpong who will miss the rest of the season, and beyond, have ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament playing for Wolves on Saturday. It’s the second time he’s had a cruciate injury, but if there’s any silver lining to the situation it’s that it was the other knee this time, and doesn’t suggest a recurrence or an ongoing problem. It seems to be just bad luck and shows that these injuries can happen at other training grounds, on other pitches and with other medical teams. All we can do is wish him well in his recovery.

Elsewhere, Ju Young Park’s agent has denied Arsenal prevented the player from leaving on loan in January, saying there was no offer for him, but admitted that unless things change they’d be looking to move at the end of the season. Which is completely understandable. He’s the captain of his country who went from playing regular football in Ligue 1 to occasional benchwarmer at Arsenal.

When you consider that he’s got to return to South Korea for his military service in less than 18 months time he’s pretty much wasting his career with us. If there’s a measure of sympathy for him it has to tempered with the fact we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, how he’s performing in training and so on, but thus far it has to go down as one of the strangest pieces of transfer business we’ve ever done.

Finally for today, some comment box gold from some Sp*rs fans who rather miss the point of the original article. Most amusing.

Right, that’s that. Till tomorrow.

That last one wasn’t a question. It’s true. After a win there’s a lot less to talk about than after a defeat. This, my friends, is not a bad thing at all. Much as I love the chatting and the breaking up of the online discourse to tell people not to suggest such things about their opponent’s mother and the like, a day when there’s little to complain about (although I’m sure some will find a way), is no bad thing at all.

Beating Blackburn on Saturday was just what was needed but was not a panacea to all our woes. Arsene Wenger was keen to make that clear and that there’s still a lot of work to do, but if we are to get ourselves back on track, this was a good way to start. And this morning, despite our best intentions of not over-hyping the young man, there’s much talk of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Sometimes you find spurious comparisons being drawn between players. Abou Diaby, for example, was The New Vieira Mk 3 (because we’d had a couple before that), simply because he was tall, black and French. And when Oxlade-Chamberlain was signed at an early age from Southampton, people suggested he might be the new Theo Walcott. He’s not. In fact, after his two goals and unconstrained performance against Blackburn, Wenger set the bar pretty high.

I feel that is always a brand of top players. They just play. When you saw Rooney start he played like it was natural, the same with Fábregas. They are happy on the football pitch and comfortable.

Now, headline writers will love that. The New Rooney. The New Cesc. That is gold. But what the manager is referencing is more than is footballing ability, which is obvious, but the way he plays. Some young players need time to get used to senior football, to mature, to feel comfortable and confident. Some don’t. Anyone that remembers Rooney spanking that goal past David Seaman will know that he wasn’t one of those. We watched Cesc come into our first team and appear comfortable straight away.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain looks like one of those players. Style-wise and in terms of his physique he is reminiscent of Rooney, he’s got power, pace, obvious skills and an eye for goal. And that might well influence where he ends up. He’s playing wide at the moment but the manager said when he bought him that long-term he’s a central midfielder. Yet when you have a potent threat in the final third, it might be an idea to use that, especially in a team which is prone to misfiring. Wenger says:

I feel he could play central midfield, he could [also] play second striker because he has something that is exceptional – he has a short back-lift and so when he has a shot on goal it’s difficult to block.

Of course playing him as a second striker would mean us changing our system to include a second striker, but at the moment he’s enjoying himself as part of our front three and even Robin van Persie sees something of himself in the young man:

He has everything. He’s good on the ball, he’s quick, has movement, technique. He has a great future. And he’s not someone who thinks about negatives, just positives, and you can enjoy the game like that. I had that as well when I was younger. I wasn’t thinking about ‘oh, big stadium’ or ‘big game’. I was just enjoying myself.

From everything I’ve read about him, and from what I’ve seen of him in interviews etc (which isn’t much), he seems like a very normal, very down to earth young man. Yet one of the big dangers of football is that as a star rises there are those around him whose influence might not be so positive, and potential often goes unfulfilled. The examples are ten a penny (think of Pennant, Bentley, Bendtner and countless more at our club alone), but this is where Oxlade-Chamberlain’s upbringing and intelligence might make the difference.

His dad played the game, knows the pitfalls, and perhaps the big difference is that The Ox’s modesty will prevent him from thinking he’s a much better player than he actually is, which has been the downfall of so many others. And I know we have all kinds of people working at the club, I wonder would it be helpful to have a ‘Keepyourfeetonthegroundoligist’ as part of the backroom team.

The other thing we ought to point out is that as people line up to criticise the manager for signings like Chamakh and Park, whose impact has been negligible, he looks to have unearthed another gem here. The changing face of the modern game means it’s nigh on impossible now to do it the way he did it with Cesc, essentially getting a world class player for free. Every club has scouts at youth level, looking for the potential stars of tomorrow. The impact it has on smaller clubs and those players themselves is another interesting debate, but from our point of view the near club record fee we paid for a 17 year old looks like money well spent, even at this early stage.

It ends though, with a word of warning from the manager, who, like us, has seen the damage that can be done by playing a player too often, too early. He says:

That is what happened to us last year with Wilshere, it was exactly the same. At the start of the season you think: ‘I will play him 20 games, maybe 25′, but after they deliver a performance, they play 45 and then they play for the national team and then they get injured.

It is very difficult to manage because people understand very quickly what kind of influence the players have and you want to win the game so you play them.

It is a tough one for the manager, no question, but maybe that’s something we should bear in mind if and when he decides to rest him from time to time. I’d be amazed if he didn’t go to the Euros too, so that’s something else for us to contend with. Still, it’s a better problem than the alternative.

Beyond that, not much going on this morning and with a full week before play again, away at Sunderland, it could be a pretty quiet one. Perhaps time to catch up on your Arsenal reading?

The reprint of So Paddy Got Up is available now, and if you’ve already got that I’ve contributed to an ebook which selects Arsenal’s best ever XI (my piece is about Robert Pires, funnily enough). It’s available from Amazon.

And that’s yer lot, have a good one, back tomorrow.

I think we can safely say this morning that’s just what the doctor ordered.

Three points, a good performance, and a day which brought no controversy, animosity, angst or worry. For a moment it looked a bit shaky, when Pedersen equalised with Blackburn’s first attempt on target, but instead of setting us back it sparked us back into life and within a couple of minutes we were two goals to the good.

I guess if we’re looking at the game we should look at the three main players and what they brought to the table.

Robin van Persie

A hat-trick, two with his right foot, one with his left. His finishing is lethal, his movement in and around the area will give those Blackburn defenders nightmares, and for club and country he now has 32 goals this season. I guess what’s most remarkable is that the hat-trick seemed par for the course. I don’t want to say mundane, because that’s the wrong word, but his goal-scoring has become so regular it’s more of a surprise when he doesn’t score.

There is no question that he’s so far into the groove that Madonna herself is looking on in envy.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

When he was thrust in against Man United it was because the manager had exhausted all other options. In the absence of Gervinho we’d struggled to find a replacement. Arshavin wasn’t it, Benayoun neither, Park no existe. Having paid a lot of money for him in the summer Arsene had nothing left to lose. He spoke about him after the game being ready now but while you have to give credit to the manager for finding him, buying him and playing him, I wonder just how ready he would be if Arshavin or somebody else had been in better form.

However, there’s no doubt now that he’s in the team on merit. His performances have been eye-catching, his talent and potential is obvious, and he’s got end product to his game. He scored two fantastic goals yesterday, the first from a brilliant van Persie pass after which he showed he’s got pace to burn over short distance, the second having been set up by Theo Walcott. It was as cute and clever a finish as you’d see from a much more experienced player.

It’s very hard not to get excited by him, because he’s got so much to his game. He works hard, his range of passing is jaw-dropping for a player of his age and relative inexperience (from crossfield passes to feet, to through balls, to crosses like the one for Arteta after a mazy run down the wing), this young man has got the world at his feet. I still maintain we should try and play down the hype as much as possible but after seeing what he did yesterday that’s going to be hard.

He’s now in the team on merit, he should stay there as long as his performances are good, and maybe he’s part of the reason why the manager didn’t buy in January. It’s obvious he adds something to the team that we’ve been missing, and while there’s always a risk of a new player coming in and experiencing the first flush of youth etc, there’s no question we’ve got a real talent on our hands here.

Theo Walcott

Rightly criticised in recent weeks for his lack of contribution and some face-palmtastic moments in front of goal, a hat-trick of assists deserves credit. Two for van Persie and one for The Ox just adds to the confusion I feel about him. I’m aware of his limitations as a player, they frustrate me no end, but when exploited properly his pace is a real weapon.

I do have to qualify it a bit, because he’s being aided and abetted by Robin van Persie. The movement and speed of thought he has makes Theo’s life easier. I don’t think it’s coincidence that most of his assists have come for Robin because I think Robin knows what Theo’s likely to do (read into that what you will). I doubt Theo would have anywhere near as many assists playing with Chamakh, for example, and that’s not just down the relative finishing ability of the two strikers.

Still, we can’t quibble this morning about what he did yesterday, and hopefully the impending return of Gervinho, the form of The Ox and a bit more drive and desire can fuel his contributions.

The Rest

We wanted more from midfield, and we got it. A goal from Arteta and a beautiful pass by Song to set up Theo for a van Persie assist the highlights, while I felt Rosicky, in for Ramsey, had a freshness which was important. Poor old Tomas, still can’t score, but it’s good to have options. And a word too for Francis Coquelin, another solid performance at right back which will, I think, serve him well when he’s moved into midfield eventually.

Another Thierry Henry goal was great to see. In the old days he’d have switched on the afterburners when he robbed that ball in midfield but that was he was able to work the space with van Persie showed his brain still works in top gear. A little lucky with the finish but so what? You could see what the goal meant to him.

Finally, without wishing to end on a negative note, when we’re 6-1 up at home with half an hour to go, with the manager having spoken about his desire to rest Robin van Persie, you might think it would be the perfect time to give Ju Young Park a run out. There’d be no pressure, Arsenal playing against 10 men, it would surely have been productive in one way or another.

Perhaps the boss had other reasons for his changes, you have to suspect that the withdrawals of Song and Koscielny were for medical reasons (preventative, I hope), but all the same, if Park can’t get a few minutes in these circumstances, what hope is there for  him? I’d love to hear somebody ask Arsene about him at one of the pre or post game press conferences, because I’m genuinely curious about what’s going on. It is one of the most head-scratching signings we’ve ever made under the boss.

Anyway, as I said, it’s more curiosity that anything else, and not meant to take away from what was a much-needed, and very enjoyable win yesterday. Clearly it’s just three points, not all our problems are solved or anything like it, but it sets us up for a much happier week before we go to Sunderand next weekend.

Have a good Sunday folks.

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For me, however, the worst game of the season was the one at Blackburn. We lead at half-time through Gervinho and Arteta but found ourselves 4-2 down thanks to some hopeless defending, a couple of ridiculous own goals and poor offside decision. Yeah, that was a bit freaky too, the likelihood of scoring two own goals in a game again is pretty slim, but that day was a much better illustration of our flaws.

We had our new players in situ, they hadn’t had time to bed in yet, but it just showed that Arsenal’s self-destruct button was there to be pressed by whoever was on the pitch. And the fact that Marouane Chamakh scored his only league goal since November 2010 just added to the surreal nature of the game. If a Charlie Chaplin impersonator had been sent on in place of Djourou, run up the wing, recited some beat poetry to the camera before slicing off his own head like a Monty Python animation I don’t think I’d have have batted an eyelid.

It was infinitely more annoying than Old Trafford, for me at least, and Robin van Persie also seems affected by it, saying:

There’s something we have to put right – our defeat up there in September was something that shouldn’t have happened in a million years.  I still speak about it with the boys and in fact was talking with Mikel about it only a couple of weeks ago, because it was one of our most painful losses of the season and it still hurts to think about it.

Blackburn are a good side, but we took the lead twice and missed clear chances before scoring two own goals and losing the game. It should never have come to that, and we don’t want to make any such mistakes this time.

Which I’m glad to hear. I’m a fan of revenge on general. It doesn’t always come off, like the fact we didn’t get any for the 8-2 just a couple of a weeks ago, but that does not mean I don’t not want any now. Or something. Revenge is good. Just last week I was waiting for my Tuesday Astro game to kick off and a team that had beaten us earlier in the season were losing, the ball went over the fence to where I was standing and led to one of their players shouting at me to get them the ball back.

The fact that he had been a spectacularly annoying bastard during the defeat meant that I quite happily ignored him which meant one of their players had to come out and go get the ball, wasting their precious time. Petty? Yes. Spiteful? Absolutely. But revengey? Oh yeah. And I hope there’s a measure of that today with Arsenal. You might suggest that this team isn’t spiteful enough but today would be a good time to start.

In terms of the news there’s a ‘little worry’ about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who has started the last three games, and Arsene says he’s tempted to rest Robin van Persie, saying:

I will rotate a little bit because many players have given a lot. With Van Persie the temptation is there.

We are in a situation at the moment where he is the main goalscorer, so I will maybe have to build a team that works around him.

I really don’t quite know how to tally those two sentences, to be honest, but he’s talking about Henry, Walcott or even Park to take Robin’s place. I’m guessing there’s a bit of red zone madness going on with the skipper because regardless of the opposition, resting him is like going into a room full of grumpy hooligans and saying ‘You know, I think I’ll leave my tazer outside’. Sure, you want to have faith that your other weapons might work but when your other weapons are a feather duster, an old tazer with its batteries flat, and a butter knife that thinks it’s an enchanted cutlass you might find life a bit tough.

All the same we have to be able to cope without one player. We’re at home, against a team we would probably expect to beat (perhaps misguidedly, but there you go), and if we can’t do it without Robin in these circumstances then it’d just add to the worries we already have. Three points today are absolutely vital. We just cannot afford to drop any more points and I hope that’s the attitude the team goes out with today.

I don’t know why but I quite fancy Arshavin to make a contribution today, maybe it’s sympathy, maybe it’s still last night’s hooch swilling around, but there you go. Anyway, let’s keep fingers crossed that things start to improve and start to improve today. And when the ball goes out for a Blackburn throw nobody gives it back to them. Then tazes them in the testicles. Come on you reds.

Right, that’s about that. All going well there’ll be live blog coverage of the game, check back later for details on that.

Till then.

Three words used often by football fans to describe aspects of the club they support. They’re used in relation to certain players, performances, the manager, the board, the price of a pint and a pie, how their club handles various communications, pretty much anything they’ve got the hump with for one reason or another.

It’s rare enough that you hear from a manager or a player though. Yesterday Mikel Arteta said just that about this Arsenal team’s performance against Bolton. Speaking after the game, he said:

This result is not good enough. We have got the players and the quality to have a better result. It is going to be tough to finish in the top four but it depends on us.

And he was particularly scathing about the finishing:

You are not going to get 15 chances to win a football game and nowadays when you get it, especially away from home, you have to take it.

Therein lies the frustration for many. If we weren’t creating chances that’s one thing, but making them and missing them is another thing entirely. Per Mertesacker said much the same, but in a slightly more diplomatic fashion:

I think there is a lot of room for improvement. We have a very good side and good potential but we have to be good on the pitch. At the moment we don’t use all our opportunities.

The lack of efficiency must be driving him mad. But going back to Arteta, he’s right. ‘Not good enough’ sums things up right now. One win in our last six league games really can’t be considered anything other than abysmal for a team trying to get into the top four. And let’s be realistic about this – we know the gap to Chelsea is only four points right now, but it’s what we’ll need overall that needs to be looked at.

The points total of the team that finished 4th in the last four seasons were: 10-11: 68pts – 09-10: 70pts – 08-09: 72pts – 07-08: 76pts. Arsenal have 37 points with 15 games to go. Assuming it ends up around the 70 point mark again that means we’ve got to win a lot of games, and go on one hell of a run, between now and the end of the season.

It means that we can’t afford to spurn chances like we did against Bolton, it means we can’t concede silly goals like we did against Fulham or Swansea, it means that our margin for error, slim as it was to begin with because of our start to the season, is miniscule because of the way we channeled a traditional November into the month of January. Between now and the end of the season we’ve got Sp*rs, Newcastle, Man City and Chelsea all at home, plus Liverpool away.

We’ve played 12 league games away this season and lost 50% of them. Of our 15 remaining league games 7 are away from home. Which is to say that we need to see a huge improvement on what’s been served up thus far. And it’s not impossible by any means. We’ve seen Arsenal teams go on winning streaks and long unbeaten runs before, but we shouldn’t be blind to size of the task ahead of us this season. It is a firefight the likes of which we haven’t experienced for a long, long time. Even the lasagne season it just felt like we were destined for the top four despite it going to the final day, this time, not so much.

This is the team that Arsene built and sadly it’s been found wanting. Yet amidst talk of protests of sackcloth and ashes, I wanted to touch on one thing. For me, Arsene Wenger is absolutely and 100% open to criticism for the state of the team and the decisions he’s made. I doubt that anybody, whether they’re a fervent supporter of the manager or not, can be happy with the way things are going.

What he does not deserve is some of the abuse that’s leveled at him. I know things are amplified online and some people say things via a keyboard they’d never let pass their lips, but I personally find it a bit disheartening to hear Arsenal fans refer to the manager in a manner that ought to be reserved for those in N17, for not racist at all, oh no, England captains, for duplicitous former players who shack up with Ruble spunking enemies, helium voiced ‘pundits’, Tony Pubis, Lennie and his Legbreakers, the sunburnt, withered, jaundiced testicle at Villa, Joey Barton’s thesaurus powered online acumen and the countless others in the world of football and beyond who really deserve it.

There’s plenty to criticise him for: player sales, player purchases, the teams defensive weaknesses, his stubborn intransigence which seems to be fueled by his desire to do the opposite of what people want him to do, his substitutions, his patience with certain players, his unwillingness to give others a chance, his tactical inflexibility, and more than anything else, the results we’ve seen this season and in recent seasons.

Pick and choose any one of them, pick all of them if you want, and go to town, because they are decisions and actions that deserve analysis, criticism and for which Arsene should be accountable. And yes, all of these things add to the sense that a lot of people have that all is not right at the club at the moment. From top to bottom it feels like something’s missing. As the man in charge of the football, Arsene is on the front line.

Yet once you let anger and frustration spill over into abuse you lose something from your argument. “Arsene’s recent purchases have been poor” would surely spark reasonable debate between fans, even if they were coming at it from different sides. “Arsene’s recent purchases have been poor, the fucking cunt” will ensure that the debate isn’t about the recent purchases, it’s about whether or not the manager is a cunt, and ultimately it gets us nowhere. There’s nothing constructive about it and it only ends up causing more anger and argument.

I’ve long said that I can’t stand the polarisation of our fan base. There is no ‘You’re either with us or against us’. We are the us. The vast majority of people are quite aware this is a team with problems, it’s how they choose to express their concern that pushes people to one end or the other. Criticism and disapproval are necessary if we want to make things better. It can be helpful and productive. Abuse, on the other hand, rarely provokes a positive reaction and if people really want things to get better for this football club then I hope they bear that in mind.

Rant over. Now, onto this week’s Arsecast in which I’m joined by Goonerholic and Hayley Wright to discuss the week that was. On the agenda the transfer window, Villa, Bolton and more. Also in there the t-shirt competition, an old friend returns and we have a confused PI.

You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes). To download this week’s Arsecast directly – click here (24mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

And that’s about that. We’ll have news throughout the day, and from Arsene’s press conference, over on Arseblog News.

Back with a full preview of the Blackburn game tomorrow.

But something really struck me at the Reebok on Wednesday night. With about 25 minutes remaining, with the score 0-0 and Arsenal needing to win, ordinarily I would be hunched with nerves. My fingernails (though heavily gloved in the Lancashire cold) would have been drawn pensively to my teeth, shuffling from foot to foot, excitedly imploring into the ether for a winner. But I wasn’t.

Like most others, I think I’m settled on the impression in nearly every game that, unless van Persie produces something, we will toil. I guess my lack of gusto in the second half was evidence of resignation with regards our chances of a top four finish. I had subconsciously accepted that we won’t and therefore, it just didn’t feel much like the result was in aid of anything. Even as Bolton went close in the dying minutes, neither my heart nor stomach convulsed as it usually would in such circumstances.

And that’s why I have struggled to forge any kind of snappy introduction to this article. The whole club just permeates a massive lack of urgency. Goonerholic’s latest piece really struck a chord with me with regard our January business – or lack thereof. I realise the winter market is difficult, but we handled the thriving summer one so badly, that another goalscorer was a necessity.

The manager is not totally blind to his lack of attacking options either. 34 year old Thierry Henry – who is only with us a further fortnight – is persistently seen as a superior option from the bench over Benayoun, Arshavin and Park. It’s an admission clear as day that the manager is not taken with the more permanent resources at his disposal. Why then was it impossible to rectify this in January?

I get the line about it being difficult to find “super, super quality”. Really I do. But when you’ve got the best part of four offensive players in your squad kicking their heels behind an ageing temp; you’ve constructed your squad badly. I think the majority of people realise that we can’t compete with Chelsea or Manchester City in the market, but we appear to be wilfully handicapping ourselves by not utilising the resources we do have.

That’s the crux of the issue. We built the stadium and pursued the quite correct self sustaining policy in order to organically grow our resources. We have done that now and our resources are growing year on year. Whilst not as flush as other steroid injected clubs, we do have money. Yet having been so well run to put ourselves in a position of material wealth, we have struggled to escape the frugal mentality that we were trying to outgrow in the first place.

That lack of urgency seeps from every corner of the club. We are still in a period of transition from Kroenke’s takeover. So the gentlemen behind me at The Reebok that sang “back the players, sack the board” are wide of the mark I think. The board are locked down until April – after which Kroenke will surely get his own men in. In essence, we have something of a lame duck board anyway, so sacking it won’t make one iota of difference. In fact, that possibly informs the air of ‘drifting along’ behind the scenes. There’s just no way I think that the Directors are handcuffing the manager with regards to resources, but I don’t get the impression there’s much constructive discussion either.

Not being privy to what goes on behind the scenes, it’s pure conjecture of course, but it’s just a feeling I get. I don’t hold that we’re going to hell in a handcart as some clearly do, more the sense that we’re trying to drift along. To make do and mend and cross our fingers and hope it works out. Hope that our injured players come back and have faith that no others will be crocked. Of course, due to his gift for self promotion, many champion David Dein as the gaping hole in the jigsaw.

Yet the current set up is chided for over rewarding players too early with big contracts. This is because under Dein’s stewardship, expensive contracts belonging to the likes of Wiltord, Edu and Kanu were allowed to run down. Flamini played that game too, Hleb was able to threaten to invoke the Webster clause to force his move. The mishandling of Cashley’s contract was rather camouflaged by the player’s endless bellendery. Our current contract policy is borne rather out of caution given mistakes made under Dein’s stewardship (Lest we forget that those prohibitive commercial deals everyone complains about were made when he was vice-Chairman too).

It’s fair to say we’re still searching for a middle ground. But ultimately, you have to reward players early or lose them. That’s where the manager comes in. It’s down to him to assess whether the benefits realised of giving a young player a good deal is going to reap rewards. It’s a tight rope. On one hand we’re criticised for losing Flamini on a free, just as he was blossoming at the age of 24. On the other, handing Diaby an expensive, long term deal at 22 is derided. This might also go some way to explaining Wenger’s loyalty to players, much is invested in them financially as well as emotionally.

The same principle applies with young players. With Jack Wilshere suffering another setback on his road to recovery, fingers are pointed at the manager for overplaying him last season. Presumably by the same people that continually boo his decision to substitute 18 year old Oxlade Chamberlain. His substitution was again jeered on Wednesday, despite clear evidence that he was fading. They’re fine lines that exist at the top level and no manager gets them all correct. But you just get the feeling Arsenal don’t have the urgency to make contingency plans to offset any fallout from borderline calls.

To close, I wanted to address the rumours around Arshavin departing for Russia. Understandably, the pocket sized Russian has attracted criticism for more than a year of indifferent form. I’ve read many theories as to why this undeniably talented individual has sunk into such a slump. Chief amongst them appears to be that he has been too often utilised out of position on the flank. It’s an argument I don’t buy. Arshavin has nearly always played in the same position for Arsenal.

When he arrived and he was considered the darling of Goonerdom, he was starting games from the left. He had and still has license to roam inside and affect the game. Pires and Ljungberg played in a system with only two central midfielders, yet neither left the field with much chalk on their boots come full time. He hasn’t suddenly become lazy and disinterested either.

He was always mercurial even when playing well. Sadly, I think he just came and tested himself in a competitive league too late in life to adapt. Back in September, he and Chamberlain were rather similar in their lack of attention to defensive detail. But The Ox has improved in that respect because it’s easier to teach an 18 year old than it is a 29 year old who has had the liberty of being a talented stroller his whole career.

I think that’s as much maudlin discourse as I can manage for this week. Till next time. LD.

Follow me on Twitter @LittleDutchVA

I know for many people the word they might use to sum up this Arsenal season would be stronger, much stronger, than ‘frustrating’, but that’s what seems to fit for me this morning.

On Tuesday night Chelsea, our main rivals for 4th spot, dropped two points against Swansea. Just as they did last weekend against Norwich. Twice Arsenal have had a chance to make up some of the deficit, twice we’ve failed. We all know what happened against Man United and that’s ground I’m unwilling to cover again but last night the frustration of not clawing back some ground is compounded entirely by our failings in the very area of the pitch I would have liked to see the manager strengthen in January.

A clean sheet, only our sixth in the league, came about from a reasonably ok defence but one which got lucky a couple of times. Late on when Mark Divies was clean through with a gigantic German hanging out of him, and once in the first half when David Ngog skewed a shot wide from about 6 yards out. My first thought when he did that wasn’t ‘Phew’, it was ‘He could play for us’.

In the second half Robin van Persie hit the post and the bar and on those occasions the Dutchman was unlucky. For the former his near post flick from Sagna’s cross had the keeper beaten, while a Bergkampesque manoeuvre on the edge of the Bolton area saw his sumptuous right footed chip drop onto the top of the bar. Twice he’s done that this season, and twice he’s been denied by the woodwork.

It was the first half that cost us though. We had three great chances to score and missed them all. Firstly, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain played a fantastic ball behind the Bolton defence, Aaron Ramsey beat the offside trap and from just inside the box tried to finish first time on the stretch, which made it easy for Bogdan to save. He had time to take a touch and compose himself.

Later, The Ox was set up by van Persie in the Bolton area, but from around the penalty spot his shot went high and wide. His body shape was wrong but then we can’t be too critical of him because he was, in general, one of the positives on the night. The best chance fell to Theo Walcott, again it was Oxlade-Chamberlain whose cute pass dissected the Bolton defence, Theo was one on one with Bogdan and bottled it. The keeper saved but you cannot miss chances like that at this level.

As the half wore on Arsenal tired, Bolton ended the game with more pressure and could have had a penalty for Mertesacker’s fondling of Divies, but perhaps some justice was done after the Bolton player’s terrible dive in the first half which got an incredulous Vermaelen booked. An off-target Ramsey shot and Walcott blasting hopelessly wide, after van Persie’s chip which hit the bar came back to him, was the best we could muster.

Afterwards Arsene spoke about finishing the game with four strikers, which surprised me, because this is something we used to do quite regularly. We’d throw on striker after striker to try and get the goal to win the game. Yet this Arsenal squad does not have the personnel to do that. Henry for the Ox seemed a safe move when Henry for Walcott was the most obvious. A team is sitting deep with men behind the ball renders Walcott nigh on useless because his greatest asset is pace and exploiting space. If there’s no space then he doesn’t have the technical ability or awareness to make things happen in the final third.

Thierry, much as I love him, had little or no impact when he came on, I don’t consider Walcott a striker per se, and Rosicky for Ramsey was a midfield change. When it comes right down to it we finished the game not with four strikers, but one and a half. We left Arshavin on the bench (I know, but when you need a goal why not try?), the Villa away matchwinner Benayoun stayed on the bench, while Park is obviously just in the squad to make up numbers. We have to remember that Arsene was the manager who would throw on a Chris Wreh or a Kaba Diawara when we had strikers of real quality at the club.

That he will not use the South Korean, even when we’re desperate for a goal, says so much about the dearth of options we have available to us. We didn’t finish the game with four strikers because we simply don’t have four strikers.

And that is why people wanted us to buy in January. Walcott has one goal (that he scored himself) in 16 games, Gervinho’s gone, the Ox is great but raw, Arshavin, Park, Chamakh, where are the goals going to come from if Robin doesn’t get them? Not from midfield, Ramsey is overplayed and while I can’t criticise a player for trying too hard just needs to simplify his game. Arteta is just back from injury, Song struggled last night and looks jaded, his game littered with errors. Yet it’s too easy to blame the players, they don’t pick themselves.

Despite the frustration of dropping points last night I didn’t think we played that badly. We’ve certainly seen worse this season but the inability to take the chances we’ve created is what cost us most. We can take a clean sheet and the return of Sagna as positives, and despite missing his own chance The Ox set up two gilt-edged opportunities for others, but those things aside it’s hard not to be disheartened.

You know, people go on about how long it’s been since we’ve won a trophy but I can live without trophies if I feel like the club is doing everything it can to achieve them. If we give it everything and fall short then I don’t think too many people would complain. Seriously. But it doesn’t feel like that at the moment. Perhaps the transfer funds available to Arsene Wenger aren’t as high as some would suggest, but as Goonerholic rightly points out and as I said the other day, in a depressed market surely we’ve got a strong hand with which to exploit the financial difficulties of others.

Arsene decided that he wouldn’t buy in January, for whatever reason, and quite firmly put his faith in what he’d got to get him results. What we needed last night was for those players to prove that his faith was well placed and that they were capable of going out and taking three points. The missed chances will be soon forgotten, the only thing that matter is the scoreline and that tells us that Arsenal blew another chance of closing the gap on the top four.

Our league form this season is: W11, D4, L8. That’s mid-table form and Arsenal sit this morning in 7th position. Behind Liverpool. Behind Newcastle. In all competitions this season we have lost 11 times. Each one of those defeats came before the January window closed, and if that’s not evidence that this was a squad that needed something adding to it beyond the emotional but mostly ineffective return of a former legend, I don’t know what is.

We can listen to Ivan Gazidis talk all day about our business model and how successful it is. Which is great. Except for the fact that our footballing model is failing, nobody seems to be doing anything about it and nobody seems to be accountable for it. And I think what frustrates me most is that for most of these trophy-less years there’s been a sense that if we could just add a couple of quality players to the mix we’d have a side capable of competing for the league each season.

Now it looks as if it’d take a lot more than one or two and that’s a measure of how difficult our task is going to be for the reason of the season. We’ve taken just 8 points from our last 8 league games. We have yet to win a league game in 2012. We’ve been overtaken in the league by Newcastle and Liverpool, teams who I think we can objectively look at as average, at best. Which, if we remain objective, tell us a lot about ourselves.

I said yesterday that not strengthening in January and results being affected by that would provide people with a stick with which to beat Arsene, Ivan and our silent owner with.

I suspect for many, whacking day is upon us.

—

In other news, those of you who use the iPhone app will be delighted to hear there’s been an update. The app now includes the blog, Arseblog News, the Arseblog Twitter feed, the Arsecasts and the liveblog. It’s also iPad native now too, so go to the App Store on your phone to update or simply click here to download it.

The app was put together by Milk Bar Studios, and you can get more info about our mobile apps, including the fantastic Android app by line ten, on the apps page.

Finally, you might notice things look a little different. There’ll be tinkering going on under the hood all day but if you see anything odd, just leave a message in the arses and I’ll take a look.

Right, have a good one. Till tomorrow.

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And Lee still says ‘Arseblog’ like a slightly rude word. Enjoy.

Sadly he didn’t get asked my favourite question asked by @Zapp83 – “Would he rather be attacked by 12 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck, wearing an Arsenal shirt?”

I for one am eagerly awaiting the next episode when perhaps there might be more time to addressing this pressing issue.

Young Germanian Thomas Eisfeld (wonderfully captured here by @gooner_nate) put pen to paper on a four year deal. Arsene Wenger explained what was going on:

Basically we planned to get him at the end of the season but we got him a bit earlier because he was at the end of his contract. We will use this period for adaptation.

He is a young prospect with good footballing talent. He has the good ingredients that could allow him to integrate into the quality of our team – the basics are technique, good movement and skill. We believe that he has a chance to develop well here.

Beyond that I can’t say much about him because I’d never heard of him until the day before yesterday. In one way I kind of feel sorry for him. If you’d told fans we’d be signing a 19 year old from Dortmund on deadline day they’d have been ‘OhmigodOhmigodOhmigodGoatse!”, but instead we get a lad who has little or no first team experience and is unlikely to feature between now and the end of the season.

And there is the very essence of Arsene Wenger summed up in one transfer deal. With so much clamour for a player, just one measly player, to make a difference to us now, he signs a guy who is young (check), has potential (check), has had a serious injury (check), and who nobody has ever heard of (check). Now, that’s not to cast aspersions on Eisfeld at all. He could very well turn out to be a good acquisition and I hope that’s the case. I hope his adaptation period is more adapty than, ooooh, Park, for example, and that he turns out to be a fine player.

It’s just that in May, should Arsenal not finish in the top four, then people might well point at January and say, ‘You know, if you’d just bought a player or two who could have made an impact in the final part of the season we might well be playing Champions League football next season, Arsene, old chap. Hard to think you didn’t make a bit of a Carlos Tevez’s neck of it all, eh?”

I’m sure they’ll be that polite about it too. And look, I know there are difficulties in January, especially ahead of a major tournament in the summer. And I know that nobody else worth talking about did any business of note. And I know football is in financial meltdown along with the rest of the world. But Arsenal aren’t. Just the other day Ivan Gazidis spoke to Fox Sports about how well run we are. And while nobody expects us to go out and blow £50m on a player you can’t help wondering if we haven’t made the most of the resources available to us, and that’s all that most people really want.

Still, I’m pretty sure that Arsene Wenger knows that, as does Ivan, and they’ve made the decision not to buy in January knowing full well the risk and also the fact that this decision is one that won’t be forgotten come May. I genuinely hope that it’s one they won’t have to try and justify should we find ourselves freer than we would like on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. They have handed those who would wish to beat them a great bit stick to do it with, and the stick is all sticky and with pointy, knobbly bits on it.

That said, at least we now have some clarity as to our situation and where we are. The players we’ve got (bar Thierry Henry) are the ones who have got to get us through this bad run of form and to keep up the chase for the cup and the top four. Arsene’s decision not to buy anyone is a sign of his faith in them and I honestly hope they can repay that. Fingers crossed this faith is not misplaced. Yes, they are capable of good stuff, as we saw when we climbed from 17th to 4th (briefly), but equally we know it doesn’t take much to knock them off course, as recent games have shown.

There’s no guarantee buying a player or even two would bring about fourth place or an FA Cup win, but at least nobody could accuse you of not trying. I also think people would much more inclined to have some patience in January if they thought the decision not to buy was part of a greater plan for the summer, but last summer did little to suggest we were working to a well thought-out strategic plan, and not much has changed since then.

Anyway, we have little choice but to forget January – and it’s hardly a month many of us will want to remember – and get behind what we’ve got. Starting tonight at Bolton, of course. The team news is that Arteta and Henry are back and fully fit, Sagna might well start because, well, we don’t really have anyone else to do the job, and nobody else is carrying a knock since the Villa game.

Chelsea dropped points last night, it might have been more but for an injury time own goal equaliser, but they have left the door open for us a bit. It is absolutely crucial we take advantage of this. The last time we won in the league was over a month ago, that 1-0 against QPR, and that’s something we’ve got to put right. It does look as if Chelsea are the team we’re going to have to get ahead of to finish in the top four and we have to make sure when they drop points we pick them up.

Bolton are a tough side, we know that, but as I said earlier on, Arsene Wenger has decided that these players are the ones who can drive Arsenal into the top four. They have to prove it, starting at the Reebok this evening.

—

In other news, Ryo Miyaichi will spend the rest of the season at Bolton which seems like a decent move. It’ll be a test of character, as well as his footballing ability. From the cossetted luxury of London and Arsenal to a team scrapping for relegation, it’ll be an eye-opener but also a necessary part of his development. Not quite sink or swim but it’d be great to see him make an impact there.

Finally, time to announce the winners of the Blackburn tickets competition with thanks to Thomas Cook Sports. The RNG has done its thing and congratulations to Jonathan Watson and Timo Long. Tix will be on their way to you asap.

If you can’t see Bolton v Arsenal, we’ll have live blog coverage of the game later on. Check back later for the live blog post or bookmark the default live blog page. Betting is with Paddy Power who will give you up to £50 in a free bet – register now.

Right, that’s that. Until later, Eisfeld fans.

Sorry, I mean Transfer Deadline Day. The day when all kinds of deals go down. Players are traded like cattle, Premier League slave ships buffet about in the choppy waters scouring for a bargain here or cast-off there, oh, the fun we’ll have.

Or, to put it another way, it’ll be like the B&I ferry journey from Dublin to Liverpool – boring, vomit inducing, overly long and you end up in a place you’d rather not be. Very little is likely to happen from an Arsenal point of view anyway. We might see Ryo Miyaichi go out on loan, a few youngsters might do likewise, but it seems highly unlikely at this stage that any major deals will be done. Nobody going out, nobody coming in. Those who suggest that Arsene is up to his old tricks, leaving it right until the last minute to get the best price possible, are wide of the mark, I think.

We’ve had the whole of January to do a deal or two, to boost the squad in the areas I think most would agree needed a bit of boosting, and if its brinksmanship that’s stopped us doing that, having lost three league games along the way, that’d be very bad indeed. Which is why I don’t think it’s that. I just don’t believe Arsene wants to buy anyone, putting his faith in the players he has, the players who might come back one day and another 16 days of Thierry Henry to see us through.

You might not agree with that strategy and I the last thing I want to do is talk about how difficult it is to do deals in January. Of course there are issues which make it more complicated than the summer but it’s not impossible. I mean, yesterday there was all kinds of news about us signing an U19 from Dortmund. No, not Götze but a chap called Thomas Eisfeld. He’s an attacking midfielder yet to play for the Dortmund first team, whose contract is running out, and therefore it seems Arsenal have got him on the cheap. Which puts  one in mind of a certain Amaury Bischoff but I don’t want to heap too much pressure on the lad, he’s got a lot to live up to there.

And in and of itself there’s no problem at all with a deal like that, if it goes through. An inexpensive punt on a young talent is absolutely fine, it’s just that it would tend to make people a bit crotchety if they’ve been waiting all month for a player or two to make a difference to the first team and then this is what we appear to be spending our time on. Maybe he’s coming over to be Mertesacker’s house boy.

I have little or no expectation of a ‘real deal’ today so I’m not going to be hugely disappointed when nothing happens. That’s not to say I wouldn’t like to see it. I’ve said all month long I feel the squad needs something more than rigorous team-talks, team-meetings, heart to heart chats and interventions. The battle for a top four spot has never been more challenging and we’ve got players who just aren’t performing/contributing on a regular basis, so a new face or two would have been welcome.

We can speculate all day long as to why nothing has been done, but ultimately there’s nothing we can do about it. Other than hope that what we’ve got is good enough for the rest of the season. Anyway, just in case anything happens there’s a live blog over on Arseblog News, which will detail any comings and goings. Please now insert the image of a tumbleweed into your brain and an old door creaking and slamming in the whistling wind.

In other news, Robin van Persie will face no punishment after Alex McLeish tried to get him banned. Good news for us, not that I was ever really that worried, but it really does illustrate how managers use an all too willing media to try and deflect from their team’s shortcomings. It’s not just McLeish, they all do it, Arsene does it too, but after such a captivating cup tie that the back pages were full of stuff about van Persie just shows you how the actual football is secondary to whatever controversy and sensationalism can be mined out of a game.

And clearly the withered, sunburnt, jaundiced, shrunken testicle has a problem with Robin van Persie in general. After we beat Villa in the league just before Christmas, he tried to blame Robin for the fact that Alan Hutton got sent off. Which totally ignores the fact that Hutton is a thuggish half-wit who blunderbussed his way around the pitch for a couple of minutes because, like a five year old, he couldn’t control his temper. We’ve got Villa again at the end of March, I hope we give them such a pasting that McLeish accuses Thomas Vermaelen of the kidnap and murder of Lord Lucan while suggesting that Theo Walcott is an arch-terrorist who is planning to explode the entire world.

Speaking of Theo there’s a load of stuff on the official site about how we need trophies, and a cup, and how the FA Cup win was for the fans which I understand but all the games are for the fans if you stop and think about it for a second and he’s good at that talking stuff is Theo but hopefully that jammy goal he scored won’t be last he gets this season (I mean the last goal, not the last jammy goal) and he can do a bit more, perhaps concerned that Gervinho’s re-arrival and the emergence of the Ox might put his place is jeopardy and that if this goes on much longer it could be the world’s longest sentence.

Two final things now: 1 – If you want to win yourself a pair of tickets to Arsenal v Blackburn this weekend, simply enter the competition here with thanks to Thomas Cook Sport. Entries close tonight at midnight and the question should pose little or no problem.

And 2- So Paddy Got Up is back on sale finally, the reprint is available to purchase via the Arseblog Store. If you have any problems  just drop me an email.

Right, that’s yer lot, back tomorrow to announce the all the new signings. Hahaha, urgh. Until then!

Arseblog has teamed up with Thomas Cook Sport, official travel partner of Arsenal, to offer two lucky fans the chance to win a pair of tickets to their Barclays Premier League clash with Blackburn Rovers on Saturday 4th February.

The Gunners will be in search of three valuable points against and some revenge against a Blackburn side for whom we scored two goals back in September.

To be in with a chance of winning one of two pairs of tickets, simply answer the following question:

Which benchwarming former Arsenal player did Sp*rs pay Blackburn a whopping £15.5m for, giving Arsenal a lovely sell on chunk of £7.5m?

1. Steve Chevrolet
2. David Bentley
3. Cuthbert Jaguar

To enter simply send your answer to competition@arseblog.com by midnight tomorrow night – winners announced Weds morning.

Thomas Cook Sport, the UK’s leading sports tour operator and official travel partner of Arsenal has unwrapped an offering of Match Breaks. Instead of Christmas lights, you could be sitting under the floodlights at the Emirates Stadium and see Arsenal light up your Christmas. With festive packages available from just £129, secure your seat at www.thomascooksport.com or call the sales team on 0870 752 0924.

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Match report – Video

At half-time yesterday Arsenal left the pitch to a chorus of boos. 2-0 down against Aston Villa, it looked as if we were heading for a fourth January defeat. We hadn’t played particularly badly, to be fair, but got caught out twice in ways we really shouldn’t have.

The first goal especially was rank amateur defending. We saw this happen earlier in the season, a short corner was taken and only one of our players reacted. Aaron Ramsey was left two on one and when Mallet-headed Rodeo Drive dwelling Liverpool failure of an ex-Sp*rs cunny lobbed in a cross, Richard Dunne rose above Koscielny to plant the header home.

It happened pretty much against the run of play but then that’s hardly unfamiliar territory for us. In first half injury time Villa broke, Bent shot, Fabianski parried, Bent squeezed home the rebound and it was 2-0. Not long afterwards the half-time whistle went, cries of ‘booo’ or ‘boo-urns’ went up and it all looked a little bit difficult. Could we respond? Did we have the gumption? More importantly, did we have the ability?

Clearly something was said in the Arsenal dressing room during that break. I’m sure Arsene Wenger had something to say but I’d like to think some of the senior players like van Persie and Vermaelen did too. If some home truths needed saying then I hope they were said. Whatever happened, it worked. Arsenal came out and immediately looked more dangerous. The possession was much the same as the first half but there was end product. We faffed about less and made things happen.

Mertesacker had a header cleared off the line from a corner, Theo Walcott was put through by a great Ramsey back-heel but stayed on his feet under a challenge which could have brought about a penalty. Ramsey himself had a shot from inside the box which he should have done better with and which made Thierry Henry fall over in dismay as he was warming up, and Thomas Vermaelen cracked one from distance which went not far wide. It was altogether much more positive.

And then came a seven minute spell which won the game for Arsenal. Richard Dunne, already on a yellow card for scything through the back of Rosicky in the first half, scythed through the side of Aaron Ramsey as he headed towards goal. Amazingly the referee gave a penalty. To Arsenal. I know! Quite how Dunne escaped without a 2nd yellow is anybody’s guess but no matter. Robin van Persie stepped up, placed the penalty to Given’s right and Arsenal were back in it.

Just two minutes later and we were level. When Theo Walcott scored against Chelsea, the comedy stylings of the goal were overlooked by the cracking finish. This time, he scuttered his way into the box, right along the byline and tried to flick it past Given at the near post. It was blocked, the ball bounced about, a Villa player tried to clear it but instead it whacked off Theo’s shoulder and went in. It would be fair to say that it was a jammy fluke of a lucky bit of fortuitous serendipity but hey, who’s complaining? Sometimes you need a bit of luck and it’d also be fair to say that we haven’t had much in recent weeks.

Just five minutes after that it was 3-2. Laurent Koscielny’s fantastic driving run from the back saw him upended in the box by Darren Bent. Robin took the penalty, went the other way this time and we were ahead. Three goals in seven minutes, two penalties in seven minutes having been denied about 5 in our last 6 games, it was nice to see things go our way.

The rest of the game played out without too much incident. A couple of vaguely scary moments at each end but nothing further in the goals department. We saw the long-awaited return of Bacary Sagna which was fantastic and it’ll build a little bit of confidence and belief ahead of the trip to Bolton on Wednesday. Afterwards Arsene spoke of the second half comeback:

I was very impressed because I felt that when you come out of a bad period like we are, and you are 2-0 down, you can feel sorry for yourself or you can show you have the mental qualities to play for this club. I was very proud that the team came out and showed they are not ready to lie down.

And look, while the first half might have been something of a showcase of our brittleness, it was only the first half. We know all too well that games are played and decided over 90 minutes. If there have been justified criticisms of the team over the last few weeks then it’s only fair to give them credit for the response they showed yesterday. Obviously there’s still a long way to go and they still have much to prove, but anyone who didn’t enjoy that second half yesterday ought to think of a better way to spend their free time.

One swallow does not a summer make and all that but we were 2-0 down and we came back to win. Leaving aside everything else that’s a fun thing to be on the right end of. It might well be too soon to talk of turning points in seasons, the next few games will tell us that, but sometimes you need something like a crazy seven minutes to get things going again. We’ll have to wait and see if it’s the thing that sparks us back into life, or if it was just a mad game, but fingers crossed it’s the former. We go into the 5th round (Boro or Sunderland away) and that’s exactly where we wanted to be this morning.

—

In other news, Alex McLeish is calling for Robin van Persie to be investigated for an alleged elbow on Carlos Cuellar. You might suggest that’s a bit rich when you consider Richard Dunne managed to get away with an awful challenge on Rosicky and then escape a 2nd yellow when flooring Ramsey for the penalty. Again this is one of those agendas driven by the media and a manager who wants to deflect attention away from the fact his team threw away a two goal lead.

We saw a fantastic game of football yesterday and that the papers this morning are focusing on this issue tells you so much about how the media operates. Sensationalism rules and it’s sad that a comeback from 2-0 down isn’t sensational enough for them. To me it looked fairly innoccuous, and if van Persie is punished after Commander Worf got away with this last week then I think we can feel very hard done by indeed. Also, it ought not to be overlooked that McLeish looks like a withered, sunburnt testicle.

Meanwhile, the boss has spoken about the futures of both Ryo Miyaici and Abou Diaby. The former is likely to go out on loan for the rest of the season, which makes perfect sense, while the latter is due back at the end of February having spent time in a rehab facility (his ankle has a terrible addiction to being utterly fucked). It’d be a brave man who put any money on Diaby being back within that schedule but there you go.

And that’s your lot. How much nicer it is to start a week having won a game. It doesn’t mean everything in garden is rosy again but it’s certainly a bit brighter.

The book will be on sale around 3pm, there’ll be a blog post directing you to the new store through which you can buy it.

Until then.

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Click to launch Arsenal v Aston Villa live blog

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The subscription allows us to provide a decent place for Arsenal fans to chat during the games, without the craziness you find elsewhere. There’s already a nice community building so come on in! The season ticket will also give you upgraded access to the arses, and other features that we’ll be rolling out over the season.

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