….well not until todays games have completed anyway…I am a bit of stickler for the Top of The League shouting, like in Tennis where a player gets a break of serve, its not really a break of serve until he holds his next service game, the same goes for being top of the League, we are not really top of the league until everyone has finished their games this weekend…by 4pm today hopefully we are top of the league. Ok Doomer bit over…..and back to yesterday’s game.

This was never going to be an easy task, with the “could go top” match previews hanging over the head of the Arsenal players coupled with the after effects of the midweek Bayern performance, the media were surely sharpening their keyboards to write once again that when put in a position of pressure we failed. Well that may have been what the media wanted, but thankfully the players and manager didn’t give them the ammunition.

We started brightly enough, pressing Everton in their third of the pitch and not allowing Howard, Jagielka or Stones time on the ball to pick out Lukaku and build from there, or play through their midfield, this meant we were winning back possession regularly enough and dominating the game. The team looked up for it, Giroud leading the pressing from the front but also helping to move the ball around the attacking midfielders giving a good platform to build on. In fact Giroud did a very good job of re igniting the Theo v Giroud debate which Theo looked like he had settled in recent weeks.

As the half wore on we were not really creating much in front of goal, and although Giroud was giving us that platform there were times where it appeared that Ozil, Santi and Alexis couldn’t perhaps find the pass they would have had Theo been leading the line.

We created a few opportunities but not really any clear cut chances, that was until Ozil found himself in time and space, Giroud made a good run having initially laid the ball off and pointed to where he wanted it, Ozil didn’t need asking twice and put the ball perfectly into the box, tempting Howard off his line and giving Ollie the simple task of helping it on in to the open net.

Within 16 seconds of the restart (as shown on MotD) Arsenal pressed Everton back in to their own half and after good work from Ollie, Alexis got fouled and we had a free kick in a dangerous area. Santi delivered an even better cross than his one against Bayern on Tuesday night and Koscielny found himself with a simple header into an again empty net because Howard had again vacated his line. I am not sure there are many players like Santi in the English Premier League, on Tuesday he delivered a bending cross from deep with his left foot, and yesterday he provided the same with his right foot. We are very lucky to have him. The fans responded in full voice and the Emirates sounded like a fun place to be.

Unfortunately as is often the Arsenal way we managed to conspire to make the game difficult for ourselves, with a few minutes of the first half remaining Ox found himself with the ball on the edge of Everton’s area, Hector available to his right and players closing, if he had managed to get a shot off first time then we would not have been chasing back towards our own goal five seconds later, instead Ox chose to shoot after a couple of touches in to a mass of Everton bodies when there were better options on, the ball broke to Delofeu who managed remarkably to stay on his feet for twenty or so yards before releasing Barkley, Koscielny had been dragged wide by Lukaku and Ox and Hector were in hot pursuit, they both probably had a chance to take the booking but allowed Barkley to continue, he took a speculative shot which would not have troubled Cech until it took a big deflection off of Gabriel and drifted into the gaping net. Some have drawn comparisons between the two incidents, saying that Barkley’s attempt was the same as Ox’s but because his resulted in a goal he was applauded whilst Ox was criticised, the difference in my opinion was the options, Barkley really had no other options and most of his team mates were safely behind him, therefore he bought a ticket to the lottery and won, Ox had options, plenty of them and at 2-0 up there was no need to try and force a third before half time.

This gave Everton a lift and made the game closer than it needed to be for the second half, Arsenal continued to play their football, as did Everton which made for a really enjoyable game of football, in truth either team could have scored the next goal, and both had opportunities to do so, Grioud denied by the bar, Ozil by the post and Lukaku by the post, Delofeu was was also denied by a good block by Cech with Kozzer and Nacho in close attendance.

The game ended with Arsenal fans cheering every tackle and interception to the rafters and the final whistle was greeted with a mixture of celebration and relief.

Given the recent run of games, the opponent and the energy expended on Tuesday night, this was a very good result, if we are top of the league by the end of today does not impact that, its more fuel to the fire of belief spreading around the Emirates and the Arsenal blogosphere and fandom, lets hope it continues to roll on.

Man of the match is tricky one for me, Coquelin, Ozil, Giroud and Santi all in with a good shout. For me Giroud edged it, by way of explanation i liked his workrate and his distribution and his finishing, in the face of the criticism he has faced since the start of the season I think he deserves recognition.

Gooner in Exile

So today the 2015/16 Premier League season kicks off. The first game of the new season presents a tough one for Gooners to want anyone to win the fixture – Man U vs Spurs, I’ll be hoping for my normal which is 0-0, 22 man brawl, points deduction and suspensions, it would be funny to see ManUre lose on the opening day after spending £80m this summer, but wanting Spuds to start off with a win at OT, no thanks.

Enough talking about bile inducing teams, time to focus on us.

Looking through BBCs pundits forecast of the league placings most still put Chelsea as the team to beat, strangely quite a few think we are finishing second and four brave souls even put us down as winners, I say strangely because for the last four years we have been the pundits pick to drop out of the top 4, have the pundits finally woken up to the fact that Arsene has been steadily building a very good squad of players and are a lot better than many have given us credit for over the last couple of seasons.

Keymen:

Coquelin personally rediscovering his natural position was the turning point of last season, prepared to do a job that no one else in the squad can do, according to Arsene there was a time when Coquelin fancied himself as a bit more of a box to boxer, despite Arsene telling him to focus on being the best at what he could do well rather than being average in a more flamboyant role, the lad can do more than break up play, he is actually a good passer too long and short. But his aggression and will to get in the face of his opponents has been a real catalyst for others in the side. It also hasn’t done any harm that his selection and continued run in the side means no one at the club is guaranteed a place. No matter what the wages or assumed status within the team.

I also think the way Alexis approaches football will have been a wake up call to the squad, here is a player gifted with immense talents on the ball, but who is prepared to work his socks off when not in possession, it feels like he may have had a similar impact to that made by Bergkamp. I’m not saying before Alexis arrived that the team was full of drunks and partying types like Bergkamp found on his arrival, but Alexis shows that talent with ball at feet is only half of the equation, the other half is made up with how you play, with passion, with commitment but most of all intensity. Alexis showed up, every single game, that hust has to rub off on others, especially our younger players.

Squad

Last season as we all know was reasonably successful, a second FA Cup in as many years, and a fantastic run from February onwards apart from that Champions League game with good results against teams we have not always done brilliantly against in recent seasons.

At the end of last season the populist position was we were still a striker, a centre back and a goalkeeper short, we’ve added the goalkeeper and for some that’s enough to put us right in contention, Cech is undoubtedly good, is he really that good? Let’s hope so.

Perhaps we will still see another addition or two to the squad, but it is all ready quite full and would take some juggling, Arsene has already got his work cut out keeping the current squad happy.

Playing style/formation

After the Community Shield Maureen wanted to tell everyone that we left our principles in the dressing room and came to put ten men behind the ball, whilst I’m not really sure that’s true, do we need to sometimes play like that if we are going to win the title, or can we do it playing open attractive football every weekend? Some say that our trip to the Etihad last season was a sign that we are ready to change, whilst we may have sat deeper that day I still think we played the better football when we had the ball, and as soon as we got the ball we were making purposeful movements forward. We have played defensive against teams before, Barca would be one I could think of, but in those games when we got the ball we did nothing with it, so I don’t think parking the bus will be the answer, I think it’s collective defending and having players who can get the ball out of tight situations whilst still moving forward with adventure.

Other than those few games where we will have to worry more about our opponents in the main I expect us to continue with the possession football, and lots of little one twos, the key to this being successful is movement and speed.

4-5-1 or 4-3-3 have been our stock in trade formations for the last few seasons, I think this was altered slightly last season to more like 4-1-2-3, that formation has allowed us to be tighter at the back as full backs are not required to push on constantly, this left us a lot less exposed than in previous seasons.

I wonder whether that’s why Theo is being moved inside to compete with Ollie for the number 9 role, he is not the greatest when it comes to running the touch line with the ball with only an opponent or two for company 9 times out of ten he will end up overrunning the ball or crossing to nothing or stopping waiting for support and being relieved of possession compare that to Alexis, Ozil and even Ox we have better players to play those wide roles who do not require full backs to bomb up the pitch to help them out, they can trick their way past a couple of opponents and change the direction of play without losing momentum of attack.

Is this our year

Arsenes first squad post Emirates contained Cesc and friends and in 2008 we had a good chance of winning the league only for it all to fall apart in February, I think the current squad is at a very similar stage in terms of development and having grown together, the failure of that side to win a trophy plus increasing financial pressure eventually led to the break up of that squad before they had really achieved anything, this current squad whilst picking up a couple of FA Cups is at a similar stage, we need to really challenge this season, it’s ok if we come up short by a point or two, but we really have the squad to push Chelsea and City all the way. Let’s hope we can at least do that starting with West Ham.

Written by Gooner in Exile