Two weeks ago we were entrenched in a skirmish for fourth place with Chelsea, Newcastle and Liverpool. Things were looking rough, and it looked as though it would be a tussle across the finish line. The players would need to dig deep, and show some testicular fortitude and spirit, something that has often deserted us in moment’s gone by. Our back was up against the wall and we responded in a big way. Last week Arsenal all but ended Liverpool’s chances of grabbing that coveted Champion’s League spot, and tonight we have the chance to slam the door on Newcastle’s opportunity, leaving them behind for good.

Countless feel Newcastle have punched above their weight this season, after all they only finished 7 points off of relegation last season. Regardless of what you think of the man, Alan Pardew has assembled a rather impressive squad of fighters. After being relegated and trimming away some troublesome characters (Dyer, Carroll, Barton, Nolan), and with the additions of Cabaye, Ba, Cisse, Tiote, and Santon, Newcastle has really galvanised as a unit, creating a rather formidable squad that can trouble any team. However, they are showing signs of weakening having drawn their last two matches against Sunderland and Wolves, and losing 5-0 to Tottenham.

We have not beaten Newcastle since 2009, which would lead anyone to think they have had the wood over the Mighty Arsenal, but as you all know these results have been largely impacted by the following:

1. An abysmal refereeing job by Phil Dowd – please direct any emails to http://www.phildowdisawanker.com
2. Everybody’s favourite thug Joey Barton – a player who has managed to wrangle the ref into giving Diaby and Gervinho a red card, and get Song suspended because he stepped on Barton while he was underneath him. Unfortunately for us the stamp wasn’t to his groin region, because for the benefit of mankind Joey Barton should not be permitted to breed. Please send any hateful words to (@Joey7Barton) on Twitter. I’m looking at you GM 😉
3. An Andy Carroll header – has he done anything since?

Nevertheless, this is a different Arsenal! Players have returned, careers have been reborn and third spot is ours for the taking! Tonight we look to continue our current winning streak of four Premier League victories (which includes the mauling of Twitchy’s Tottenham).

Arsenal’s Line-up:

Andre Santos has returned to full training but bearing in mind he hasn’t played in four months it is likely he will be coming on with a few minutes left (when we have control of the match). Arteta returns from a heavy concussion and it should see him slot in alongside Song in central midfield. Ramsey is back from an ankle injury but with Rosicky’s scintillating form he won’t make the starting line-up. Benayoun could return from the virus that ruled him out of the squad for the Champion’s League match. Still in the treatment room are the BFG (ankle), Coquelin (hamstring), Diaby (Hamstring), Frimpong (knee), Squillanci (groin), and Wilshere (ankle). For me the starting line-up is as follows:

Newcastle’s Line-up: With a potential Champions League spot on offering they will come to THOF looking for a huge scalp. Therefore they are likely to employ a 4-4-2 formation of:

Krul

Simpson Coloccini Williamson Santon

R.Taylor Tiote Cabaye Gutierrez

Ba Cisse

If they fall behind they are likely to bring on the powerhouse Shola Ameobi, and the dangerous Ben Arfa. It is imperative that we do not give away any free-kicks around the box since Cabaye and Taylor are very dangerous when it comes to set-pieces. Newcastle likes to do a lot of their attacking play down the wings through Gutierrez because of his dribbling skills and knack for creating space. Although he often plays in the Argentine Squad he will not be a problem because his non-existent pace means Sagna will control him rather effortlessly. Coloccini is a dependable defender who will mark RVP very closely trying to nullify our best attacking threat; conversely Williamson is a lower tier defender and should be exploited. Santon, an Italian international likes to bomb forward so look for Walcott to try and slip out the back door. He and Simpson are fast full-backs so if they are disciplined we might have trouble making room for Gervinho and Walcott. Santon and Gutierrez are rather predictable down the left side because they always look to cut in on their favoured right foot, while Simpson likes to send in dreadful cross after dreadful cross. If the game is open and they are attacking we will rip them apart on the counter, let’s see how brave Pardew’s Newcastle really is!

This brings us to the Key-matchup for the game. Newcastle will have to get the better of our Centre Backs for Newcastle to even stand a chance in this match.

 Vermaelen + Koscielny vs Cisse + Ba

The Senegalese striker Ba has been a revelation for Newcastle this season. He scored 7 goals in 11 games for West Ham before he arrived at Newcastle on a free transfer, what a deal that has become. Ba is robust in the air, has a good poacher’s instinct, swift on the turn and has a high work rate that has brought about 16 goals in 23 matches this season. Arriving in the January transfer window, Cisse has shown a keen eye for goal with 2 goals in four matches, and scoring 9 goals in 17 matches while playing in the Bundesliga. Both possess predatory instincts close to goal so it is imperative that we give them no room inside the box or they could make us pay. Their poaching ability can be seen in the picture below which highlights a large portion of their goals coming very close to goal, whereas our goals are spread around the area and further from goal. It also shows Newcastle like to have shots from outside the area, while we do not.

Arsenal goals

Toon goals

Going up against them will be our combative duo Kozza and the Verminator. A lot of debate has gone into who our best centre half pairing is, but in my opinion these two are our best. Similar types you say? Isn’t that a good thing because both have little to no weaknesses, they are both fast, exceptional tacklers, agile, and good in the air. Regrettably they haven’t had a comprehensive run in the team together, thanks largely to the injuries to Vermaelen, followed by the injuries to both Gibbs and Santos. If they play together for a season or two they WILL be the best Centre Back pairing in Europe!

Can Arsène break the Pardew Curse that has seen him win only once in their last six encounters?

Can Arsenal put to rest this recent bad run of games against Newcastle?

The Answer is yes we can, we should despatch a Newcastle team that appears to be running out of puff as the season heads into its final stretch. I see nothing but a strong win by the Mighty Gunners, with a resounding 3-0 victory.

This week’s famous Arsenal fan goes to John Lydon A.K.A Johnny Rotten from the punk rock band The Sex Pistols.

In the mid to late 70’s The Sex Pistols along with The Clash revolutionised music, with politically charged lyrics with a fast paced sound. Bill Wyman (former bass player of the Rolling Stones) said Rotten knew most of The Sex Pistols fans personally, being a loyal Arsenal fan and veteran of a few terrace scraps himself.

Written by ozgunner

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single journalist in possession of an empty page must be in want of a story.

And in the absence of a story, he’ll make one up to suit his agenda.

No pride, but plenty of prejudice.

And when nearly all the journalists are in the same predicament, the wave of spurious content will hit us like a tsunami.

One such tsunami this year has been the supposed shift of power in North London footballing circles.

After our 8-2 drubbing at Gorbals Towers many journalists decided that this was the year when Arsenal faced mid table mediocrity (or even a relegation struggle); and as for Arsenal’s manager – well, he’d lost it, hadn’t he? First in line for the sack race.

Fast forward to the end of 2011 and, improbably, Arsenal had hauled themselves back into the top four and some of our national sports scribes were beginning to get the faint whiff of egg on face.

There was going to be no relegation battle for Arsenal. Arsene Wenger was going nowhere.

But there was one straw for Fleet Street’s finest to clutch at: despite Arsenal’s heroic climb up the table, we were still behind that other North London outfit in the league table.

So… no relegation battle, no “Wenger fired”… what’s a poor journo to do in such circumstances?

Aha!

“Shift of Power in North London.” Read all about it!

As an example of lazy journalism, the SOPINL story is like a tree sloth kicking back in a hammock on a beach in the Bahamas. With a big spliff.

A “shift of power” is something seismic. It happened after the Second World War, when the United States emerged as the global superpower. It’s probably happening now, with an ailing USA reluctantly passing the baton to China.

Shifts of power take years to happen and cannot be judged on temporary blips. As the saying goes, one swallow does not make a porn star.

When we hammered the Lily Livereds at The Emirates a few weeks ago the emphatic nature of the victory struck a chord with me. Perhaps I was more sensitive to the issue precisely because of all that has been written about the SOPINL.

Let’s be honest, we have had some poor results against the enemy recently. But when I started to think back through those games I realised that despite occasionally nicking some points off us, the Tinies have never been able to demonstrate what you might call ‘footballing superiority’.

When we lost in N17 earlier this season we were the better team overall and it took a handball and a ‘wonder strike’ to sink us.

Last season we were the better team in a 3-3 draw at Riot Hart Lane (the home team needed a late penalty to get a point) and, at home, we absolutely outplayed them to take a 2-0 lead at half time before giving away three stupid goals (remember Cesc’s handball in the wall anyone?).  However, our second string killed them 4-1 at their place in the Carling Cup.

In 2009/10 they were second best again at their place but a goal-of-a-lifetime from somebody called Danny Rose brought them all three undeserved points. I’m not sure what’s happened to Danny since – I heard he was destined for Chelsea, but then his fare asked to be dropped off at Victoria instead. That season, at Arsenal, the Spuds were, again, destroyed: three nil to the good guys.

In 2008/9 we had that ridiculous game where we gifted them a 4-4 draw at the Ems. We were all over them and had created enough chances to be 10-2 up going into injury time instead of 4-2. With hindsight that was the game where we first saw the dangerous fragility of the “Fabregas” Arsenal – a team that could dominate the opposition but still collapse like a pack of cards under pressure. The return fixture was a pretty uneventful 0-0.

Before the ‘08/09 season you just have the long, long unbeaten run against the Spudders in the league, with us dishing out humiliation after humiliation to them.

So what’s my point?

It’s that even though the Skinny Cock Brigade have got their noses in front of us this season, there has NEVER been a game in which, on the field of play, they have shown themselves to be better than us. They have only taken points when we have outplayed them and then shot ourselves in the foot. Even on our off days we have more than matched them, despite the result sometimes going against us.

Quite simply, in most people’s living memory they have NEVER been even remotely as good as us and they are not now.

This has been the most difficult season for Arsenal since Arsene Wenger joined us and we are still miles better than them, as the 5-2 demonstrated.

No doubt some sad Spuds will point to their 5-1 win in the Carling Cup in 2007/08 to disprove my point. Well, yes, that is one game where we were properly beaten by them. But it’s the exception that proves the rule. It was in a season when we had much bigger fish to fry. We were gunning for the title and the weakened team we sent to the Theatre of Screams knew how low the CC was on our priority list. We were chasing the title, the ECL, a top four finish, the FA Cup and the CC in that order.

Still, at least it provided the Spudders with a DVD to cherish.

There is still a very good chance we will finish above them in the league this year (although we can’t afford any slip-ups). We are hitting momentum just as they are beginning to stutter and twitch. We are gaining self belief while they are plagued by self doubt.

They have a small stadium, they may be about to lose the one manager who has been able to get them playing competitively and some of their biggest stars will likely be out the door this summer.

We, on the other hand, have an excellent financial set-up, we have a genius for a manager and we have some of the best young players in the world starting to emerge in a team also laced with great experience.

There is no shift of power. Why some journalists choose to treat a brief run of decent form as proof positive of a SOPINL – while ignoring the macro picture of both clubs’ finances, up-and-coming players, history and so on is completely baffling.

The Tinies have had a decent run of form while we have been experiencing a substantial reorganisation. Theirs is a temporary case of flattering to deceive, ours has been a temporary case of being deceptively flat. It’s all about to change and the natural order will reassert itself.

To leave you with another saying: Form is temporary; Class is Arsenal.

RockyLives

* Note: This was written before yesterday’s Everton-Tottenham game which, as we now know, the Tinies contrived to lose. Don’t you just love ‘em?

The year is 1849, and somewhere concealed among the windswept rocks on the The Isle of Lewis, a Chess Set was discovered. People with large foreheads and sticky out hair did some thinking, and worked out that these finely carved pieces were of Norse origin and probably made in Sweden during the twelfth century.

Interestingly, one of the reasons the people with large foreheads and sticky out hair came to this conclusion, was because they reckoned some of the pieces were modelled on some fearsome Scandinavian warrior mercenaries called The Berserkers. These lunatics were known for entering the arena of battle stark bollock naked and ripped to the tits on hallucinogens. Now I am not suggesting our boy’s rock up “tackle out” with “faraway eyes” for the next game, but these Beserkers did set me thinking.

I made a comment following the terrific win at Sunderland that I thought the combination of Mert going off, combined with them scoring actually helped us. The forced substitution of bringing on Ramsey and dropping Song into defence, together with a nothing to lose scenario, seemed to me to liberate us. I am not saying we went beserk, but we appeared to start playing with the handbrake off. We played with more of a “let’s go get ‘em” attitude.

What then followed was games against Spurs and Milan. Two down against the former before the handbrake came off. With Milan, it was a whopping four down at the half way point, at which point we simply took charge.

Unlike the Berserkers, we cannot employ liberating mind altering medicine, but why the difference when all should be lost. It appears that confidence returns. But surely conceding a goal should have the opposite effect, shouldn’t it? Perhaps it is simply by removing the pressure, you are suddenly in the “nothing to lose zone” where our warriors feel less restricted. Not unclothed but loosened up in the mind.

In other words, what we’re after is some Controlled Berserking. As this is a football blog, I suppose I need to add some tactical bollocks to add meat to the way I think we could achieve this. What was the effect against Sunderland of removing Song from the midfield into the back four  and adding Ramsey? The answer is no specialist or appointed DM.  I do have my own reservations about the need for a DM type of player when playing with two deeper midfielders, and I have also stated here before that in the longer term I see Ramsey and Wilshere filling those two berths adding more fluidity to the team. Looking at the second half of the tie against Milan and we did not deploy the usual defensive shield of Song and Arteta with one Creative in front. It was one defensive in Song with the combination of Rosicky and The Ox in front.

Now that we finally have a solid centre of defence, in conjunction with returning specialist full backs, perhaps there is less need for the two defensively minded midfielders. Could it be that by selecting a more attack minded midfield, that Arsene is indirectly liberating the team and effectively saying we have nothing to fear, so let’s attack?

All of this reminds me of the words attributed to Marshal Ferdinand Foch: “My centre is giving way, my right is retreating, situation excellent, I am attacking.”

I think that as we enter the final stretch of the season, the dynamics of many games will change. A point will be of little use to some teams, and for as long as a game remains scoreless, they will sniff an opportunity. We need to find a way of getting teams on the back foot right from the off, not when we go a goal behind.

Chess is a tactical game, and while you need to have the confidence of knowing you are solid defensively, you need to be free from inhibitions, tight clothing and a fuzzy brain in attack. How do we get The Berserker Spirit into our boys?

 Written by MickyDidIt89