Last night was somewhat surreal as the football on offer left my emotions and thoughts split three ways.

Firstly, there was the reality check being dished out in its coldest and most ruthless form at the Santiago Bernabeu. Secondly there was the shift into the overdrive of media sycophancy about Manchester United’s supposed ’World domination’ and the collective kissing of Alex Ferguson’s and Wayne Rooney’s rectal passages.

The media establishment were so far up the said asses, it was hard to see how the fumes and operating conditions would have allowed them to offer some objectivity.

It was only yesterday that all and sundry tried to portray Arsenal’s annihilation of Porto as not worthy of the Gunners, citing a supposedly tame dragon that was Porto. This third aspect really pissed me off.

Well, I thought I was pissed off until my wife, an ardent Chelsea supporter, came downstairs remonstrating about how she had been let down by AC Milan. I tried to convince her that Milan weren’t the team they used to be and that their contingent of senior citizens has passed their sell by date.

She was having none of that as clearly, her issue was that in the next week or so, she’d have to cope with the media barrage of ”Rooney this, Man United that, Ferguson this, Man United that”. The thought of Rooney, Ferguson and Man United being shoved down her throat by the media felt like it was going to make her physically sick.

I’ve got to tell you, that when even Chelsea fans complain about the media sycophancy towards Sir Red Nose and his charges, then something is clearly amiss.

Perhaps it’s just naive to expect that the establishment’s darling won’t get its customary treatment – and what, with just around 12 weeks to go to the World Cup – it’s even more naive to think that Wayne Rooney isn’t about to get the media endorsement to become a Knight of the Realm.

Of course, he’ll have to score the winning goal at the World Cup before Aunt Liz and Uncle Phil take the Royal train from Buckingham Palace to Carrington to personally endow the next Knight in waiting with the right to use Sir Wayne on his personal stationery.

I don’t know which is more scary – having to live with Sir Wayne for the next I don’t know how many years, or having to live with the vanity of Lady Coleen.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I was obviously tuned into Sky Sports 1 last night watching the events at the Santiago Bernabeu. Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid president has to be one of the biggest platinum idiots this side of the Mediterranean. I would have had sympathy for him under different circumstances, but Perez has form for breath-taking recklessness in spending an obscene amount of money to try and buy titles.

There can’t be any more spectacular ways to burn 260 million Euros – and what, for the sake of winning the Champions League in your own backyard? He tried it before and it didn’t work, and he should have heeded the famous Chinese saying that suggests that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The truth is that Real Madrid has just become the perfect case study of the fact that there is no place for reckless and brazen cheque book management of football in this day and age.

Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have been constantly derided and ridiculed for supposedly being tight fisted and anal about not spending money they haven’t got. While this is going on, the recklessness of other comparable clubs like Man United and Liverpool have been hailed as the way forward – only to turn out to be basket cases of debt riddled clubs that are running on the fumes of history and reputation.

Chelsea and Manchester City on the other hand are play toys for sugar daddies who let’s face it, have to be candidates for the lifetime stupidity award for business acumen.

I hear the argument that these folks are billionaires so they must have done something right in business. Actually, they haven’t done anything that spectacular like build a software empire from scratch or something dramatic like that.

Abramovich benefitted from the Russian economic revolution in the 90s by being in the right place at the right time to pounce – and the Abu Dhabi Investment Corporation are pretty much sitting on top of an oil mine that allows them to print the money themselves.

Despite this, the reality that you can’t buy titles, history and tradition by throwing money at middle table mediocrity still doesn’t seem to sink in. Abramovich has already lost £700 million (and counting) – and all he has to show for it is 2 league titles and a few FA cups. If that’s a good return for £700 million,, then clearly we all need to fold our tents and move on.

The new trend seems to be that of shifting the obscene amount of debt from the liability column on the balance sheet to the equity column. Manchester City have followed this pathetic route – but it doesn’t mask the fact that it’s bad business. They’ll of course say they have the money – but if ever there was a definition of doping, then this has to be it.

Heads are rolling this week in the Spanish Capital, and heads will continue to role. One disadvantage for Arsenal of course is that Wenger will now become a target sought after like a nonsense as Madrid try to save face and justify burning the money they’ve burnt in the last year.

Football today couldn’t do any worse than take a leaf from the philosophy and approach of Arsenal’s Professor who holds a Masters degree in Economics. He masquerades day to day as the Arsenal manager, but in Wenger, football has a sage who balances the virtues of football with the discipline of business.

Wenger is the reason why Arsenal leads, and others follow. If the footballing world didn’t learn anything from Real Madrid’s exit out of the Champions league yesterday, then I suspect a bigger tragedy in football must and should happen for our game to be in a better place.

There are few nights that would rival the sense of satisfaction and enjoyment that Arsenal supporters around the world experienced last night. Yet it wasn’t for the fact that the Gunners secured a quarter final spot in the Champions League.

In a lot of ways, the display of total football last night, and the panache and arrogance it was delivered with clouds the significance of moving to the next stage of the competition.

It’s because of matches like last night’s that we all stand up and applaud the work of art that is Wengerball. It’s because of last night that we are reminded why we so love this game of football and why we swear by it.

It’s because of last night that we recognize how privileged we are to be able to witness before our very own eyes, the development of a group of players who together, are destined to become the best generation of Arsenal players that this club has ever seen.

Yet all around the Oscar winning performance that was the Samir Nasri show, the wretched voices of hackery and punditry defecated the air waves with pathetic attempts to belittle what was a master class in football.

They spewed their verbal diarrhoea and negativity in the commentary as they shamelessly looked for excuses to find fault with Arsenal’s game. They suffocated the pre and post match commentary with tired clichés and diatribe about Arsenal’s perceived weaknesses.

They jostled and positioned themselves – buttocks firmly planted on the fence hoping to pounce if Arsenal failed, and pretending to laud the Gunners when we went through.

The disappointment in their faces and voices were louder than a thousand words. Through gritted teeth, they tried to garner the courage to set aside their prejudice and contempt of Arsenal and do the right thing of clapping their hands and stamping their feet in recognition of what was without a doubt, one of the best football matches we have ever witnessed.

Yes I’m talking to you Mr. Graham Souness, Mr. Ruud Gullit, most definitely Mr. Tony Adams (legend you are, but you need to get your snout out of the pigs trough and get some fresh air away from the bile that is tabloid punditry; being an Arsenal legend doesn’t give you the licence to unleash your negative diatribe to get a pay cheque from these cretins).

Yes I’m talking to you Mr. Stan Collymore, Mr. Alan Brazil – and you know what – every miserable piece of anti-Arsenal &^&! Who works for Talk Shite radio. Yes I’m talking to you Mr. Alan Green and Mr. Mike Ingam and Mr. Graham Taylor as you try to lace your supposed love for Arsenal football with constant perceived negativity as if as insurance just in case Arsenal fall apart.

Last night was a night to stand up and bow to the privilege of being witnesses to a work of art. It wasn’t a night to pull out the ’Arsenal don’t have it in ‘em, especially without Cesc Fabregas’ nonsense of a script.

And all this without 3 of the best Arsenal players in William Gallas, Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie. Clearly someone didn’t give Samir Nasri the memo that dictated that Arsenal would struggle without our talismanic Captain Fabulous. If you believed everything you read in the papers, you’d think Arsenal were doomed to struggle following Fabregas’s injury over the weekend.

Take nothing away from a collective team performance that oozed class and professionalism. Take nothing away from the individual brilliance and magic from Samir Nasri that suggested Arsene Wenger might have just invested in Bobby Pires, Freddie Ljungberg and Alex Hleb all rolled in one.

The last time I saw a goal like that was when a certain Diego Armando Maradona waltz through the entire England team and scored what in my view is the best individual goal I have ever witnessed – well, maybe until Nasri’s goal last night. Are you watching Maradona? Or was it ’Are you watching Stan Collymore?’

What about our very own B52 bomber. It was only yesterday that I said I was quite content and happy to live with Bendtner’s transgressions for the simple reason that he shamelessly put himself about and got into scoring positions despite his nightmare at the weekend.

For that effort and courage alone, you have to admire the kid. Last night’s hat-trick couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke. If it’s any compliment, the Sun newspaper rarely issues a full hearted apology to anybody, let alone a 21 year old kid from Denmark.

What a way to stick two fingers up to all the critics of the weekend past and ram their criticism down their throats. This is not the first time Bendtner has produced match winning performances for Arsenal, and you really have to be a hater to think Bendy won’t be up there with the best.

And I haven’t even mentioned Arsenal’s ’Goal machine’ – Stand up and be counted Mr. Emmanuel Eboue. I would argue that Eboue is one of the most valuable players in the Premier league. Not in monetary terms per se – for player prices are just stupidly inflated.

Emmanuel Eboue is the most dependable versatile player there is in town. He can play left back, right back, left midfield, right midfield, central midfield and even as a relief striker if he needed to. Hell – if you gave Eboue the gloves, he’d stand between the sticks and do a job.

He’s not flashy and is not a ’champagne’ player – but he is dependable when doing the job asked of him and a manager can never ask for more than that from a player.

It’s a trip to Hull on Saturday evening, but for now, we must and we should get drunk in the enjoyment of the pure entertainment and total football that has reminded us all why we love and support the best football club in the world.

On a week that much has been made about Nicklas Bendtner’s inability to hit a cow’s arse with a banjo, the usual suspects are trying their level best to create a crisis. The suggestion is of course that Arsenal’s profligacy over the weekend will surface again.

This coupled with the over-sensational focus of the absence of Captain Fabulous and his predecessor William Gallas through injury surely makes for a ’crisis’ headline.

My sense is that a lot of talk before tonight’s game fails to give respect to the remaining members of the squad – who on any given day, are formidable opponents for anyone who would dare cross the white line.

In truth, it was two moments of madness that cost Arsenal the first tie at the Estadio do Dragão 3 weeks ago. I would suggest that such a freak occurrence is a once in a blue moon freak show and it’s not likely to happen again.

Arsenal need to give one of them ”over my dead body” performances and put this game even beyond the reach of any referee or match official, let alone the Porto team.

Porto don’t travel well, especially to the British Isles where they’ve suffered 12 out of 14 defeats, with the remaining 2 being draws. A brace each from Van Persie and Adebayor ensured that their last visit to the Emirates was very uncomfortable.

Hopefully, our boys will remind them that this level of discomfort is a common occurrence for any footballing side that cares to venture into North London. The task is straight forward – keep a clean sheet and score, and Plan B if our defences are breached is to score more than Porto – at least 2 goals more.

Tactically, Porto will try the much bandied about blueprint for beating Arsenal. They will hope that we slip up in possession high up the pitch and they can then use their pace to counter attack.

Any chance of them getting a goal at the Emirates will increase the ’squeaky-bum-o-meter’, and they would hope to use this to destabilize the Gunners.

With Song and Campbell back in the team, the options Wenger has are kinder than they would have otherwise been. My first instinct was to hope that if Campbell wasn’t available, then Wenger should move Song back into central defence and play Denilson in the defensive midfield role.

My take is that Wenger might go with a starting line-up of:

Almunia
Sagna, Campbell, Vermaelen, Clichy
Song, Diaby, Nasri
Rosicky, Bendtner, Arshavin

At some point in the game, you would expect to see Eduardo, Walcott, Eboue or Denilson

Despite the loss in the first leg, the Arsenal team showed enough industry and creativity to suggest that they were the better team then and are likely to be the better team tonight.

Interestingly, the much maligned Denilson was statistically the best player in that first game at the Estadio do Dragão. If you take into account factors like pass completion, tackles and interceptions, fouls committed (or not) etc – the young Brazilian had a game of his life, this despite scaring the living daylights out of Sol Campbell in the first few minutes.

With Alex Song now back as the midfield general, and Abou Diaby also available for selection, it is hard to know who Wenger will go for, though Nasri’s man of the match performance on Saturday gives Wenger a very big headache.

I’m quietly confident that Arsenal will see the tie through but if ever there was a case of a need to show zero complacency, then this is one of them. As much as Porto don’t travel well, they’re not mugs and they won’t just turn up to make up the numbers.

Nicklas Bendtner for sure has some redemption to seek at the Emirates for his transgressions over the weekend – but in the same vein, the young Dane has squeezed Arsenal out of some very tight spots and has shown his value.

His goals against CSKA Moscow and Standard Liege in the last two years in the Champions league suggests that Bendtner is a key part of tonight’s equation.

However, Sol Campbell, Andrey Arshavin and Tomas Rosicky will have to stand up and be counted as the senior and most experienced members of this squad. They’re also the three likely to be on the field who are capable of grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck if need be.

Three points were a must and we got them; so far so good.

While Fabregas’s injury is a worry, we aren’t exactly impoverished for creative players who can run the show from midfield, so it’s not worth losing sleep over his injury just yet.

Tomorrow’s game against Porto is crucial, and Fabregas has been a captain by appointment and performance. It isn’t to undermine either fact when I think that between Rosicky, Nasri and, in a pinch, Arshavin, the creative core is in competent hands.

Samir Nasri, evidently the man of the match on Saturday seems to be regaining his vim and that bodes well for the games ahead. What a lovely tango that was between Fabregas and he to open our scoring. Marvellous stuff.

Further up the field we continue to indulge in that familiar vice; profligacy in front of goal. I have previously observed that we need Bendtner, Eduardo, Vela and Walcott to find their feet to better negotiate the games ahead and so far only Walcott has shown signs of dusting away the cobwebs.

Whilst it wasn’t a sterling performance I’m delighted at the goal Theo got and the effort he put in as both his physique and confidence would benefit. Nicklas Bendtner, on the other hand, blows hot and cold. Just one of those days? I hope he doesn’t have many more such through the remainder of the season.

Fingers crossed for Eduardo and Vela of course.

As for the goal we conceded, you have to ask why Bendtner wasn’t challenging for the cleared ball in the center circle. And did the defence simply assume the clearance meant the job was done? Why wasn’t there anyone sticking to Nugent like a burr? We have to address this aspect of our game seriously and urgently.

I have high hopes for Denilson, but he seems to be on a poor run currently. Nothing – Judgement, touch, positioning – seems to be in gear at the moment and it underlines the critical importance of having Song available right down to the wire.

Neither Denilson or Diaby seem, yet, to be acceptable substitutes in a crunch.

I hope we’ll likewise have Campbell, Gallas and Vermaelen on hand going forward as Mikhael Sylvestre only inspires unease in me.

Insurance purchases against ridicule should this Arsenal side win the title have begun.

Expect the queue at the counter for those purchasing the anti-humble pie alternative to lengthen with every three point haul hereon. Equally, one slip up, even a draw, and a chorus of “we told you they don’t have it in them” should fill the air; just symptoms that our wonderful free and fair press is alive and kicking.

Since free speech is still a privilege we plebeians are kindly allowed, perhaps I should point out the fact that a league topper is, quite simply, one who amasses the most points over the 38 games: a straightforward concept if ever there was one.

To those who whinge about “imperfect” methods of league topping, I point to the statistical implausibility of the “Invincibles” phenomenon – just twice in history to date; and even then, presumably, you can moan about the excessive number of draws. You can’t satisfy prejudice.

I throw out that accusation unhesitatingly as nowhere do I see a sober assessment of the balls we’ve juggled over the past 5 seasons. I’ll say it once again: Build a new stadium, consistently draw the paying public in, maintain Champions’ League revenues, report healthy finances year after year, and, to top it all stay in contention for the league title despite a season plagued by injury woes; Why? seems a report card deserving of at least respect if not praise.

I’m not claiming we’ve been perfect; far from it. But any assessment that shies away from the context and pretends that we’ll only top the league as beneficiaries of charity from our “betters” is worthy only of contempt.

On a related matter, we’ve been reading that Gallas is likely to leave for Roma and that Carragher’s contract extension doesn’t seem to be a given, with him making noises about being prepared to move elsewhere.

While fully cognizant of the fact these remain speculations, and are the usual noises associated with negotiations, I’m tempted to ask our readers if they think there’s something to the Carragher story and if he’d be worth making a move for should the opportunity arise.

Porto ahead. Team news and speculations tomorrow.

Arsenal’s half-year results, released last week, make for comforting reading for the simple reason that despite a recessionary environment the club has largely managed to stick to plan as regards property sales and debt management.

The plan was that The debt incurred to build the new stadium would steadily be paid down with proceeds from the sale of property developed at Highbury. Wenger has also had to keep transfer expenses under check and, over most of the duration at least, ensuring Champions’ League revenues to build a healthy cash flow. Increased revenue from the new stadium, would also contribute to maintaining these healthy cash levels.

That Arsenal managed to pull the lot off in the midst of a global recession is praise worthy, especially considering Pompey’s travails, the fan revolt underway at Manchester United, and the debt to equity conversions by the Abramovich’s of the world.

Given that we still are in the title race, this could be the season where the whole project comes to fruition.

Ryan Shawcross, responsible for two broken legs so early in his career, bravely says “I won’t change my style despite Aaron Ramsey’s injury”.

He certainly won’t unless harsh penalties are exacted for mindlessness. Knowing that you’ll miss a lengthy stretch of games, for starters, and that your manager will kick your head in for inviting such a fate on yourself, your certainly going to change your style Mr. Shawcross.

And is “style” the apt word at all for Shawcross’s exploits? Whatever you wish to call it “style” doesn’t ring true

.

We play Burnley today, with Denilson and Arshavin available again. The big question is whether Diaby will be available alongside Cesc in midfield.

Denilson hasn’t been at his best lately and Rosicky or Nasri alongside Cesc isn’t quite a “like for like” substitution. Eboue there perhaps with Nasri and Arshavin on the flanks?

Gallas remains injured, and I find Campbell a far more reassuring option than Sylvestre. Arseblogger suggests Campbell isn’t a certainty leaving me uneasy. We’ll see.

Easy as the run of games ahead seems on paper, we are variously encountering quite a few teams competing for top four finishes or aiming to avoid relegation. Add to this our Champions’ League commitments, couple more rounds of meaningless international friendlies, and our wretched luck with injuries, and an easy run-in isn’t self evident at all.

We need application and luck to successfully negotiate this stretch with every game crucial to sustain our title challenge.

Finally, I’d like to draw readers’ attention to Richard Williams’ verdict on Theo Walcott in the aftermath of the England-Egypt friendly:

Here are pertinent extracts, and I’d appreciate our readers’ views on the analysis and the verdict:

…sort of incisive contribution that Arsenal’s supporters have seen too rarely this season since the return of the young forward from the latest operation to cure his congenital shoulder problems.

Sparingly used by Arsène Wenger, he has made only seven starts this season, three of them since the turn of the year, with just one goal, against Blackburn back in October, to show for his efforts.

One of the problems of playing Walcott on the wing is that, unlike Lennon or any specialist in the role, he has no tricks – and, bizarrely, in three years under Wenger, playing almost invariably on the flank, he does not seem to have picked up any.

On several occasions, facing his marker with the ball at his feet and space waiting to be exploited behind the defence, he was comfortably dispossessed at the first time of asking by Said Moawad or Hossam Ghaly.

His failings would have been more obvious in the context of a better collective performance. Fortunately for him others were doing even worse. Wayne Rooney, spoken of during the week as one of the two or three best players in the world, produced what may have been his worst 45 minutes of football since turning professional, giving the ball away with what should have been straightforward passes on several occasions, while his strike partner, Jermaine Defoe, gave a tepid showing that led to his withdrawal at the interval.

Great credit had to be awarded to Egypt, who looked every inch the champions of Africa. Solid in their ball-winning capacity and athletic in their ability to spring forward against an anxious England defence, they were rewarded for their first-half supremacy by an excellent goal from Mohamed Zidan.

And, in conclusion, “Seconds later Walcott was leaving the field, to be replaced by Wright-Phillips, having been unable to provide a shred of evidence to change the minds of those who believe that the golden display of September 10, 2008 was a bit of a fluke and that he has not trained on.

Let’s see: The young player has endured a season without a sustained run that enables one to find form; on the back of this he goes into a game where the opponents put in a solid performance and quite a few of his own team mates put in off colour performances, and doesn’t acquit himself particularly well.

What are your views on Walcott?

Well then, here’s to three points against Burnley.

What is good football? What makes a great team? Where in all this does Arsenal currently stand?

The increasing discontent surrounding Arsenal’s “trophy drought” has me pondering this question quite a bit lately.

It has proved a vexingly difficult question, and my personal view is that it boils down to why one was attracted to the game in the first place.

In this column, I share the reasons behind my affection for and beliefs regarding the game by documenting my own introduction to and involvement in football.

Are titles and trophies the sole measure of good football?

No. While honours are something we should aspire toward and strive for, football is far too rich to be evaluated on that basis alone. My own introduction to and interest in football (and it was love at first sight) doesn’t have to do with my local, or family favourite club or country winning honours.

It has to do with a set of foreigners provoking an irrepressible grin in an 8 year old, from a cricket obsessed country, watching football virtually for the first time. And no, they didn’t win that edition of the competition, though my affection for them remains an integral part of my love for the game.

Here are the culprits:

Given such an introduction to the game, it’s no surprise that I swear by quick, attacking, possession football. Some of the teams that epitomised this art in my school days were from the then communist Balkans; Red Star Belgrade and Steaua Bucharest being the most prominent.

At their best they combined technique and a free, even wild spirit that made for exhilarating viewing .

Often though, in a manner all too recognizable to Arsenal fans today, these brilliant teams would lose discipline in defence and succumb, frequently to canny Italian sides that parked the bus and then drove the stiletto in to the hilt at the first available opportunity.

One despaired if it were at all possible to create a team that balanced exuberant flair and pragmatism consistently.

Just when you were resigned to teams, perforce, erring one way or another in their approach, along came Arrigo Sacchi. His AC Milan side epitomised a yet to be bettered blend of power, pragmatism, tactical discipline and style.

Few teams before or since, have inspired such awe in me. With Franco Baresi marshalling the defence, and Frank Rijkaard commanding the middle of the park, Ruud Gullit and Marco Van Basten were let loose on the road kill du jour.

Then, in 1994, came the one game that decisively influenced my view of what makes a great team: The champions’ League final featuring Fabio Capello’s AC Milan & Johann Cryuff’s Barcelona.

Milan’s circumstances in the run up were scarcely propitious. Hell, they could justifiably be regarded as awful: Marco Van Basten was injured; their first choice CB pairing, Franco Baresi and Alessandro Costacurta, were both suspended; and Jean-Pierre Papin and Brian Laudrup had to be dropped to fulfil UEFA restrictions on foreign players.

This, added to the fact that they were up against a supposedly more attacking Barcelona side – numbering Romario de Souza, Hristo Stoichkov, Pep Guardiola, & Ron Koeman, among others – in their pomp, compelled many to write AC Milan off.

Fabio Capello and his side then displayed the one trait, over and above the aforementioned attributes, that I have since regarded as the true hallmark of a great side; Resilience.

It boils down to a simple question; Can you tailor your resources and approach to circumstance and then master it?

This makeshift, and supposedly more defence-minded bunch from AC Milan took the game to Barcelona and tore them to shreds, the game finishing 4-0.

Never has the truism about it not being over till the fat lady sings been better illustrated.

Given that background, where in my view, does the current Arsenal squad stand?

They pass the first hurdle with a bias to attacking football.

With a quality goal keeper, and better, younger understudies to Gallas & Vermaelen, we will be well balanced too. (But for injuries that never allow players to find form, we are richly endowed in the attacking department).

Versatility, though, is something we must develop quite a bit of, and quickly. Perhaps it will come with experience, but till we become a side that can consistently adapt to and prevail over circumstances, we may not be a great side.

As for my hopes for this team – I want them to emulate Louis Van Gaal’s Ajax, young and home grown like our own, that, all the while playing champagne football, won the Champions’ League in 1995 (beating Capello’s Milan). They also finished runners-up, on penalties, to Juventas the following year.

Van Gaal’s Ajax team also thrice topped the domestic league.

Not since that Ajax side, boasting a young Patrick Kluivert, Jari Litmanen, Kanu, Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, Edwin Van der Saar, Marc Overmars and the De Boer brothers, have I seen such a fine collection of young exciting talent maturing together at a club as they currently are at The Arsenal.

I truly hope Arsenal go on to emulate, and then supersede, the achievements of that fine young Ajax side.

The following two video clips features highlights of the entire 1995 Champions’ League campaign of this Ajax team. They provide unfamiliar readers with a better taste of the kind of football Van Gaal’s side served up.

Here’s to similar from This Arsenal side.

In yesterday’s article, I laid out the first part of a coherent argument against what I feel ails English football.

Read: Anti-football, Anti-Arsenalism And The Misguided Self Preservation Of English Football – Part I.

In today’s final instalment, I want to address the role played by different parties in perpetuating this insalubrious culture of thuggery disguised as commitment, grit and steel.

3. It’s Not Just a Hill Of Beans, It’s a Very Big Deal

3.1 The Role Of Players

I mentioned yesterday that when it comes to players, there are two key underlying factors that have contributed to this decay:

• The issue of technically inferior players substituting technique with excessive aggression and thinking that this caveman approach to football is acceptable.
• The culture and environment that these players have been brought up in and continue to work in. It’s a culture that promotes the virtues of English football as being that of the physical ”blood and thunder, leg breaking, gut busting, full contact aggression” – that is typical of the ancient ‘Chuck Norris and Van Damme’ one man hero mentality that conquers all.

  When these players cross that white line and get on the pitch, they are wired to unleash the cocktail of systematic violence as a deliberate strategy to slow down the opposing team – whether by physical or psychological means.

  They have been programmed to believe that their physical attributes are a shoe in for the lack of technical prowess, and that it’s acceptable to endanger the careers of other professionals by being reckless and aggressive.

  These players are conditioned to believe that brawn has more equity than common sense, and apply most of their energy implementing the tenets of this stone age approach to football. Aided by the collusion of weak and incompetent referees who let them get away with murder, the players feel justified as the inaction of the referees are an implicit validation of their strategy.

  Such players cannot be absolved from taking responsibility for their actions. It’s inevitable that this systematic rotational fouling coupled with tackles made with excessive force that are supposed to send a ’statement’ to the opposing player will end up with a horror show on the pitch.

  Each and every single player has a duty of care to their professional colleagues. It’s unacceptable to think you can go around doing your Chuck Norris or Van Damme impressions and thinking this makes you a footballing cult hero. It makes you a thug.

  3.2 The Role Of Managers

  In a lot of ways, the managers who deliberately or subtly sanction the use of systematic thuggery by their players are more culpable than the players themselves.

  They are in a position of influence and should be held accountable for their actions or inactions in perpetuating the culture of brute force being accepted as part and parcel of English football.

  They provide sickening excuses that their only way to survive in the Premiership is to use this brute force for it is their only strength. They spend their resources recruiting gladiators who have little or no technical ability and unleash them onto the world to show that they have that good ‘ole fashioned grit and steel to graft their way through the season.

  They pump up their players on and off the pitch with team talks typically including tactics of stopping the opposition by any ‘legal’ means – not caring whether they understand that once their gladiators are on the pitch – there is no controlling what will happen when that brute force is unleashed.

  They use euphemisms like ”Let’s get in their faces and up their noses”, “Let them know you’re there” or “Let him feel you and see if he has the appetite”. They publicly extol the misguided virtues of their insalubrious tactics openly contributing to its validation as the warped principles of English football.

  3.3 Football Administrators and Referees

  The corruption and incompetence within football administrations world over is legendary. The English FA is no exception. Their main concern is to focus on self preservation and to try and sell to the world the only things they have – English football and the FA cup.

  The incompetence of the administration is so breath-taking, they don’t realise the damage that this thuggery disguised as the English brand of football is doing to the game. They deliberately go out of their way to mask the seedy and ugly side of English football as it’s not in their interest to address the issues and make things more public.

  I’d like to use the Carling Cup game between West Ham and Millwall in August 2009 to illustrate my point. There were shameful and ugly scenes reminiscent of the hooliganism that was the scourge of English football in the 80s and early 90s.

  It was the hooliganism that led to English football being suspended for 5 years from European competitions by UEFA. It was the hooliganism that so badly hurt the image of English football around the world and cost it both in reputation and substance.

  What do the FA do for self preservation?

  By their inaction, they collude with the media to white wash the coverage of the hooliganism at that West Ham and millwall game. For an FA bidding to host the World cup in 8 years time, such scenes have no place in a public forum and so they just do what they do best – cover their arses.

  What is interesting is that in that very week (and a couple of weeks that followed), Arsene Wenger and Eduardo became the anti-Christ according to the media. Eduardo’s alleged dive and Wenger’s defence of his player was apparently more serious than hooliganism. You figure that one out.

  In the same way, addressing the ills of English football with regards to the thuggery being branded as part of the game is not in their interests because it’s a direct beeline to a loss of revenue. It’s not in their interest to take action because it forces the issue to be addressed and the world will see this thuggery for what it is.

  It forces them to address the deficiencies in English football and forces them to deal with the fact that for decades, they have let their incompetence stifle the development of English football by their inability to recognize the need to move from the stone age into the 21st century.

  As for referees – my contempt for this group of individuals is perhaps not worth any more real estate on this blog, but I’ll say a few words.

  Referees have the power to stop this nonsense yet they plead insanity when it comes to using that power as a deterrent.

  Just using the game against Stoke at the weekend as an example, if Peter Walton had done is job before that tackle, and in particular cautioned Stoke players for their continuous indiscipline, the Stoke players would be loathed to enter his book for a second time.

  By Walton’s inactions, the Stoke players felt validated and justified. We all know the result – and what’s even shocking is that Walton was not going to give any card until he saw the actual injury and was duty bound (if that means anything at all to them) to send off Shawcross.

  Walton is not the only culprit. Many of the English referees perpetuate the culture of unleashing brute force by their in-action and their ’play on play on’ mentality.

  They use excuses like ‘letting the game flow’ and are clearly influenced by the misguided media talk about Arsenal being ’too soft’.

  All we ask is that referees do the job they are paid to do without fear or favour.

  The Media

  For the avoidance of doubt – I’m referring to the print media and all their Fleet Street cousins; TV and in particular Sky Sports, the BBC and ITV; and radio – in particular talk Sport and BBC sports radio – together with the internet portals for all these entities.

  There’s a culture where pots call kettles black and certain parts of the media refer to other parts of the media as the bad guys. They point fingers at each other as if they were the righteous section of this media cesspit, and attempt to remove themselves from the faecal matter they collectively shovel in.

  My sentiments are to all these factions of the media who are the biggest culpable entity to the scourge of English football. I see the disastrous influence of the media in several ways.

  (i) Self preservation

  Conventional media is dying the death of a thousand paper cuts. Print media isn’t what it used to be. Newspaper sales have dropped to the lowest levels in our generation. TV and radio haven’t been forgiven as the internet and super fast connection speeds have given consumers a very powerful weapon – choice.

  In order to survive, the media has had to adapt, albeit at a snail’s pace. We’ve seen the explosion of 24-hour news media, as well as the move from print as a medium to internet based portals for sending out news to consumers. There is one common thread in the way the media has sought to adapt, and that is to chase the money any which way.

  The different media houses and companies have bills and salaries to pay and they have gone full throttle into survival mode. Their biggest threat is citizen media, a perfect example being this and many other blogs giving individuals the power of choice and expression that they didn’t have before.

  Sensationalism and hyperbole thus becomes the biggest weapon that the media have as they leverage the global reach that they’ve built for decades to shove their shit down our throats.

  And all this simply to sell advertising. Advertising is a game of numbers, and it’s a game of ratings. The more dependent these media houses have become on advertising revenue (and it is very true that conventional advertising is being over-taken by internet advertising), the more outlandish the sensationalism and hyperbole has become.

  The end result is the clamour for ratings and traffic at the cost of journalistic and professional integrity.

  Like I said, they have bills to pay.

  (ii) Incompetence

  The worst thing you can do to the quality of any professional discipline is to take a former footballer, shove a Top Shop suit on them and put them in front of a camera to provide an opinion.

  I believe they call it punditry, but these cretins have taken football through the eyes of the media to a whole new low. Is it too much for the paying public to ask for these media houses to employ competent people who have actually been educated to a level that qualifies them to communicate with a modicum of professionalism to the viewers?

  Perhaps they should implement some sort of City and Guilds or NVQ (anything more is asking too much) qualification on basic communication and presentation skills – and the need for a grasp of subject matter before one becomes a pundit.

  The end result is that the misinformed views and incompetent judgements of a select few platinum idiots who are morally bankrupt are allowed to taint the landscape of football as – wait for this – ‘expert opinion as pundits’.

  It’s unbelievable that out of the entire population that has played and followed football, we’re stuck with this bunch of incompetent and openly biased cretins being prostituted around the world as experts.

  As regular as clockwork, these punks have crawled from the woodwork in the last few days to do what they do best – unleash their diatribe about how Arsenal is soft”, “How Arsenal are too quick and that’s why they get injured”, “How Arsenal need to get with the program and develop a spine for that is the blood thunder and guts way football is played in England”, “how Shawcross or Taylor are nice lads who have no nasty bone in their body and regularly give to charity” – yada, yada yada.

  Some even suggest that if Wenger doesn’t like the ‘physical game’, then he should go and coach in Spain or Italy where they appreciate the ‘beautiful’ football more. They even go ahead and try to justify their xenophobia masked as honest debate. I’ve never heard so much intellectual masturbation in my life.

  (h5> (iii) Bias and Xenophobia

  I’ve covered this extensively in the How ‘English’ Is the English Premier League series – and I’ll just mention a few issues around this here.

  1. The media has continuously sought to find reasons to portray anything they don’t comprehend as not good enough for English football. In the global world we live in – variety is the spice of life – unless of course you develop an ignorant perception that your way of life and your way of football is in imminent danger of extinction.
  2. The media has constantly sought to turn a blind eye when it comes to the ills of English football – and as a counter action, have relentlessly highlighted aspects involving foreign players and managers as a deflective tactic. A good example is the demonization of Arsene Wenger as a whinger and moaner – and the praising of Harry Redknapp as a success story of English managers; despite the fact that 4 of the clubs Harry has managed have either gone into administration or close to administration. Coincidence? I tell you it’s easier to find a 21 year old virgin in Sodom and Gomorrah than for that to be coincidence. Redknapp has a breath-taking ability to leave debris wherever he goes yet no one chooses to raise this as an issue.
  3. The application of selective amnesia when it comes to issues that highlight the ugly side of English football – whether it’s blatant diving by Rooney or Gerrard, or whether it’s the unsavoury tactics of the English golden boys off the pitch.
  4. The constant peddling of the misguided truth and convenient lie that foreigners have significantly hampered the development of the English game. In truth, the EPL wouldn’t be what it is without these foreign players. The millions of fans around the world who pay to watch the EPL and generate the billions for the Premier league coffers will not be paying to watch Bolton play Stoke City week in week out.

  4. Conclusion

  Take any event in isolation, and you could possibly make a respectable argument about it being a freak event. That’s not the case though.

  Take the players’ attitude and conditioning, take the culture engrained in the establishment about the reckless and wild blood and thunder brand of English football, take the collusion by the administration and referees, take the shovelling of all this shit by the media – and mix it all up as part of the same collective problem and ladies and gentlemen, you have a hell of a lot more than a hill of beans.

  Enough is enough and something has to give.

The horrific injury to Aaron Ramsey has left a bitter taste in the mouths of Arsenal fans and football enthusiasts ALIKE. Predictably, an unsavoury side of the English football establishment bore its ugly head for all to see.

Bear with me as I address what I feel are the key issues around the related themes of Anti-football, Anti-Arsenalism, and the misguided defence of the ugly side of English football that has no place in the modern game.

Before I lay my case out in this 2 part article, there is a very relevant sub-context to this topic that I’ve comprehensively covered in another 3 part article series Called ”How ‘English’ is the English Premier league”. If you have the time, check out:

• How ‘English’ Is The English Premier League? – Part I
• How ‘English Is The English Premier League? – Part II
• How ‘English’ Is The English Premier League? – Part III

I’ve covered a lot in the above series relating to the impact and necessity of foreign influence in the EPL – and I believe it’s very relevant as it already answers some of the questions that this two part article on ‘Anti-football’ will pose.

You can also read Part II of this article here.

Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey in action

1. The Systematic Targeting Of Arsenal

1.1 The Context: Technique vs Physicality

It has now become widely acceptable that for some teams, the only way to stop Arsenal is to kick the hell out of them. There are teams that with all due respect, will never be able to match the technical superiority of Arsenal.

It has become urban legend that the only way to play Arsenal is to throw them off their stride with an overly physical game that involves a combination of rotational fouling and a more coherent strategy of ’hard tackles’ to take Arsenal’s creative players out of the picture.

In the Sky Sunday Supplement on 28/02/10 – Patrick Barclay of the Times aptly captures the issue of deliberate Arsenal targeting.

When Barclay is asked whether Arsenal have a case when they say they are deliberately being targeted, he responds:

Some teams simply cannot beat Arsenal at football so they go about it in a different way and it’s down to referees to stop them from things like yesterday.

Tackling in English football is out of control and must be addressed by the authorities before more damage is done to the game. There’s a wildness and a physicality about the English game which I don’t think is healthy.

It’s important to make a distinction here between the teams in the EPL that have resorted to this insalubrious tactic – and the teams that are for most part, able and willing to play respectable football that doesn’t have a seedy element to it.

The teams that usually occupy the top 8 places in the EPL table, as well as other selected teams like Burnley, Wigan, Portsmouth and Fulham are not the issue here.

These teams for most part approach the game with a healthy mindset of playing football. Coupled with a healthy and non-dangerous application of physicality, they are eager to go toe to toe with opposition in not only entertaining, but also in achieving a fair competitive edge.

The argument I have is against Birmingham City, Blackburn, Bolton, Stoke City, Hull City and Sunderland. My issue is also with a cabal of English managers within this group, namely Sam Allardyce, Phil Brown and Tony Pulis.

These 3 managers have anointed themselves as the guardians of the unsavoury brand of English football and excel in promoting the anti-football agenda on and off the pitch.

1.2 The Culture And Mindset of Thuggery Disguised as Good ‘ole fashioned grit and steel

For too long, the inability to play football has been excused by the relentless promotion of physicality and brute force as a virtue.

This ”we’re well ‘ard” culture is typified by constant references to attributes such as grit, graft and steel. They are portrayed as the quintessentially English virtues of the game, and those who choose to approach the game in a different way are ignorantly labelled as weak and spineless.

I see it as a culture that is stuck in a time warp of a Neanderthal approach to football and one that is desperate to retain a dying tenet and brand. It’s a desperate attempt to remain relevant in a constantly changing sporting environment.

It has become common belief that this sort of physicality disguised as the virtue of ‘commitment’ – is one that needs protecting as it is the very representation of a dying breed of what is typically English in football.

It’s a culture that suggest that football is a contact sport and therefore the English brand of physicality is part and parcel. There’s a difference between being physical and being reckless and dangerous.

A common cliché bandied about in the media is that “you need an English spine” to achieve anything in the game. This is coupled with the shameless and unprofessional promotion in the media of teams that are seen as having this so called core and backbone.

In truth – this culture and approach has masked a significant deficiency that fails to address the inadequacies of English football. Furthermore, anything that is seen as different is labelled as ’not worthy of the grit and steel’ that is the joy of the English game.

It is a culture that has heavily contributed to the demonization of the foreign influence in football. Arsenal is acutely affected as they are a visible representation of what is ’Not English enough for the establishment.

It cannot be acceptable for physical aggression to continue to be seen as a valid substitute for the inability to play football. It is also counterproductive to suggest that anyone who chooses a different approach to this ugly side of football has no place in the game.

This approach to football is just thuggery – plain and simple.

2. Defending the Indefensible

2.1 The Apologists and Sympathizers for Ryan Shawcross

Stoke City defender, Ryan Shawcross

Take a look at the news wires over the last 48 hours and you wouldn’t be mistaken to think that Ryan Shawcross was about to be anointed as a Knight of the Realm – and Buckingham Palace had asked the football world for a public reference.

I would re-mortgage my house for the opportunity to see how the media and apologists would react if Shawcross had broken the leg of Wayne Rooney, John Terry, Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard.

The point is simple. Aaron Ramsey is the one in hospital and is the one who’s career has been threatened. This misguided self righteousness that seeks to show plastic support for a professional who needs to take responsibility for his actions is just sickening.

I don’t care if Shawcross was distraught and left the stadium crying to go and lay under his mother’s bosom. The only reason he reacted that way is because he realised the consequences of his actions.

Clearly, maiming Aaron Ramsey wasn’t as he thought it would be like with that “I’ll get in his face and up his nose to see if he can take it” attitude.

Once is a tragedy, twice a coincidence and 3 times in 4 years is just unacceptable. Any attempt by the media apologists to defend the reputation of Ryan Shawcross and the systematic targeting of Arsenal is just bang out of order.

2.2 The Case Against Ryan Shawcross

• Shawcross dangerously tackled Francis Jeffers in 2007 from behind and broke his ankle.
• In 2008, Shawcross deliberately lunged at Emmanuel Adebayor with his studs up when the ball wasn’t even in play. Adebayor was out for 4 weeks because of that rash and malicious challenge.

The media and apologists should stop insulting our intelligence and cease with the sickening wheeling out of Shawcross as the saint of association football. It doesn’t suit him.

The lad has form and if he stood in front of a judge with that form he’d get a custodial sentence that laughs in the face of this “Shawcross is a first time offender and needs a second chance nonsense”.

Instead, he gets rewarded with an England call-up as if in affirmation that his behaviour is the virtue that should be aspired to when seeking to play for the national team.

2.3 Intent Doesn’t Come Into It

Let’s quit this nonsense about whether Shawcross had intent or not in executing the tackle. His apologists can’t get into his head, in the same way they can’t get into the head of any other footballer to selectively determine intent.

The only thing we can go on is the context and environment, as well as the player’s previous form in carrying out malicious tackles.

Whether Shawcross had intent to injure Ramsey is irrelevant. The bottom line is that it was depraved indifference.

When you approach a game against Arsenal with that systematic and strategic rotational fouling and reckless physicality supposedly to put them off their game – there is a viable risk that what happened to Ramsey will happen.

It’s like getting behind the wheel of a car when your drunk and thinking that it’s not possible to injure or even kill someone. No drunk driver goes into their car with the intent to kill or maim someone else.

However, because they constantly drive drunk with impunity, the law of averages suggests that they will kill or maim someone eventually. It’s the depraved indifference of the drunk driver that is the issue and not his intent to kill or maim.

In the same way, we need to stop this talk of ”Shawcross didn’t have any intent”. He was reckless, period.

Join us in the final instalment of this article tomorrow when I address whether the case Arsenal is making is a hill of beans, or whether it’s justifiable. I’ll touch on the role of the players, managers, match officials, administration and the media.
Related Articles:

• Anti-football, Anti-Arsenalism And The Misguided Self Preservation Of English Football – Part II

Arsenal midfielder, Aaron Ramsey

Aaron Ramsey didn’t suffer an accident last evening at the Britannia stadium. He was the victim of the consequences of a dangerous delusion, unrestrained by the deterrent of severe penalty, that’s abroad in English football.

The young Welsh rising star wasn’t the first to suffer, neither will he be the last – unless the authorities stand up to common sense and show that they’re not straw men.

That delusion is the celebration of the “physical nature” of the English game by the media. The portrayal of this physicality is presented as representative of the spirit and endeavour of noble, brave, poorer underdogs against their monetarily and technically richer cousins.

Any complaints by the victims, moreover, is put down to cowardice with the usual lines about “lacking stomach for a scrap” & “being soft” doing their tired lines.

Couple these misguided notions with the lack of severe penalties for transgressions, and thuggery disguised as application is the natural consequence. Several teams have resorted to this license to do anything and everything to salvage games.

The evidence couldn’t be clearer: Three players in 5 seasons having their legs smashed to pulp; and quotations from the revolting Ricardo Fuller:

The Britannia, it’s like a fortress, and if we do play to our strengths I don’t think Arsenal can deal with the aggressive play.

It’s been proved in the past that Chelsea and Bolton have roughed them up and tried to bully them.

We can also be rough and aggressive when we need to, but we have quality too, and so we can mix it up.

When such premeditated intent isn’t restrained by fear of punishment, the victim should consider himself lucky to escape only with a broken leg.

This is the equivalent of handing out clubs to the poorer and allowing them a free for all, under reassurance of light punishment, against the richer to equalize wealth distribution for the underdogs.

it is absolute nonsense; it is dangerous; and it has to stop now.

The English FA isn’t famous for competence, but it is time they show they are at least capable of decency. They have to initiate efforts to invoke punishments that are proportional to the offence in question.

There are “red card” offences, and there are “RED CARD” offences. We all know the difference, and it is time they’re treated differently too.

Coming to the game itself, Arsenal did wonderfully to take three points in the aftermath of such a dispiriting event. It was a clear statement that we’ve evolved from our capitulation after the freakishly similar incident at St. Andrews almost 2 years to the day.

The performance by the Gunners sent a message about our determination to keep this title chase up in the face of anything thrown at us. Wonderful!

We pared away 11 points to Chelsea earlier this season, and we’ve now wiped off 6 out of a deficit of 9 in less than 3 weeks. It says quite a bit about the team’s character, maturity and resolve.

However, each of the remaining 10 games on this home stretch is equally important, and I hope we keep relentlessly to the chase.

Stoke’s first goal was Déjà Vu. If the team had worked on it in training, there certainly wasn’t evidence at crunch time. The fact that few teams have worked out how to deal with Stoke’s ’throwball’ is small comfort.

We are chasing the title, not the other teams, but we’re done with Stoke for this season, and it’s time to look ahead.

Just last week, I made a reference to us lacking a player, such as Wayne Rooney, who single handedly carries United’s fortunes on his shoulders. My reference was to the number of goals he’d scored, apart from his presence and performance, enabling United to get away lightly for their mistakes and bad fortune.

Fabregas yesterday reminded me that we have just such a player in attitude and influence. Young as he is, he’s shaping up to be a fine captain, and I hope we keep this team together for at least a few more years enabling this project to come to fruition.

Special mentions to Eboue and Vermaelen for their endeavour too.

Looking ahead, we need Bendtner – who scored a fine headed goal- Eduardo, Vela and Walcott to find their feet quickly. We need all of them in reasonable form to handle the coming stretch of games better.

Make no mistake about it: The title race is wide open. With a bit of luck, and sustained effort, this could still be the year we end that infamous “title drought”. A season that sees our boys veritably become men.

To add onto Saloner’s thoughts above, it’s time to stop pussy-footing around this issue and call a spade a spade.

Once is a misfortune, twice a coincidence, but 3rd time around for such a horrific injury is just bang out of order.

The FA are a disgrace for not addressing the real issue here – and that is the acceptance by the establishment that the only way to ’deal with Arsenal is to kick them off the field.

The papers and news wires today are littered with supportive reactions by apologists and sympathizers of Ryan Shawcross with the predictable ”He would never go out to harm a fly” or ”he’s just not that sort of bloke”.

The apologists are quick to cite the lack of intent or malice as if they were qualified to get into Shawcross’s head and determine the veracity of any attempt at malice.

Referees have by their inaction encouraged systematic fouling of Arsenal players as if in agreement with the misguided mantra bandied about that Arsenal are ’soft brittle foreigners’ who can’t stand the heat in the EPL.

The Arsenal team and supporters are seen as whingers who just wine and moan rather than get stuck in it.

The media hacks and pundits continue to act like irresponsible and reckless cheer leaders, goading Arsenal for supposedly being too weak – and encouraging other teams to ’kick’ Arsenal off the park.

For too long, this nonsense of physicality and the much publicized ’grit and steel’ has been used as an excuse to justify what less technically gifted players are resorting to for the simple reason that they can’t cope with Arsenal’s technically superior players.

In the real world outside football, the actions and in-actions of the football establishment, the media hacks and pundits, as well as dodgy teams who use physicality to justify their thuggery would qualify as crimes punishable within the criminal justice system.

The fact that opposing team players are allowed to preach in the media of their intent to get aggressive and physical towards Arsenal is a crime of conspiracy to commit actual and grievous bodily harm.

The fact that Arsenal players’ careers are subsequently endangered because of the recklessness of players like Dan Smith, Martin Taylor and Ryan Shawcross – makes it a crime of violence based on depraved indifference.

All these players and teams that they played for systematically adopted a strategy of fouling Arsenal players as a means to stopping the Gunners from playing. For this reason, they are actually culpable through depraved indifference.

Intent doesn’t come into it. There is always going to be the risk that they will cause serious and perhaps career threatening injuries because of their actions – whether the intent was to injure them or not.

And as for those suggesting that the problem is that Arsenal players ala Eduardo, Ramsey and Diaby are too quick for their opponents and that’s why the tackle (referred to as clumsy) happens – they seriously need a good hiding.

It’s like suggesting that it’s OK to rape a girl because she looks beautiful or she was wearing a short skirt.

For the 4th time in 20 years, the Gunners face the drama at the Britannia stadium. It’s the sort of fixture that gets hacks and pundits all mouthy about the other side of football that focuses on physicality and set pieces.

In fairness, it is a clash between two very different schools of football styles. Wengerball on the one hand seeks to use technique, pace and movement as the primary approach to the game. Stoke City on the other hand will do what they do – get physical.

Much has been made about the legend of the Rory Delap throw. However, focussing on this strategy that Stoke employ and forgetting the football that they play is folly.

Stoke will try and mix it – and to their credit, will focus on what strengths they have. The potters have scored 15 of their 26 goals this season from set pieces, 14 of these at home. In this respect, it won’t be at all surprising if they try all manner of tactics in the dead ball situations.

Arsenal must approach the game like it was a cup final. I think a lot of people under-estimate how much the team’s confidence was knocked in recent weeks following the consecutive losses to Chelsea and Manchester United.

The Gunners have since done well to place themselves in a tidy position at the top of the table. Contrary to popular belief that we were out of the title race, the points clawed back in respect to Chelsea and United’s leads simply showed that hacks and pundits are full of hogg wash.

A lot of focus has also been placed on the 2 previous games Arsenal has lost at the Britannia. My sense is that these have no bearing on the game today simply because the personnel and the circumstances are different.

Arsenal has handled Stoke City very well when playing at the Emirates – but playing Stoke away has its own nuances, not least the effect of the home crowd.

Last season’s fixture was a frustrating affair – and the loss was as much a result of Arsenal’s complacency. It was a match that the Gunners finished with 10 men with Robin Van Persie receiving a straight red for his challenge on the Stoke keeper. It was also the game Gael Clichy netted his first goal for Arsenal.

To navigate this game, the team will have to be efficient and not only deal with the set piece attacks – but also be clinical in putting away our chances. 3 points this evening will go a long way in building the momentum.

Arsenal is a confidence team and momentum begets this confidence. We need to set aside the injury situation with Arshavin, Gallas and Diaby still out for different reasons.

Arsenal Winger, Theo Walcott

It’ll be a big game for Theo Walcott who has just started picking up some decent form. It’s as good a chance as any for the young winger to make a contribution to the team’s success – something that he has struggled with this season. Capello and Baldini will be watching and in that respect, Theo will be under pressure to perform before the England team playing Egypt is announced this weekend.

The team have enough in the locker to grind out a result and my sense is that Wenger will go for a starting line-up of:

Almunia
Sagna, Campbell, Vermaelen, Clichy
Song, Denilson, Fabregas
Walcott, Bendtner, Nasri.

Enjoy the game wherever you are.