How would we react following a two week International break?

Well, the fans certainly got right back into their stride and were clearly showing Grade A Withdrawal Symptoms. The Arsenal came out of the blocks fast enough, as did The Saints. A good game appeared to be on the cards.

Twice in the opening 17 minutes, The Arsenal hit the woodwork. From a delicate chip across the face of goal from Jack, and a wonderful Mesut pass directed back heel from Aaron.

On 22 minutes, we were treated to one of those memorable goalkeeping clangers. Here, our Pole proved why he is THE Pole in Goal, as his opposite number failed miserably to emulate the silky skills of our No 1. Pressure from Ollie, and he fumbled his lines. 1-0.

Then The BFG had his Flak Jacket tugged. Penalty. Ollie 2-0.

Look, you’ve all seen the game, so you know these things. So, my feelings about the overall performance?

Back Five: The Dog’s Swingers these boys, they really are. Every one of them. At least 10 points each.

Defensive Midfield: Not the best of days here, although very much job done. That Wagamama Bloke of Raddy’s sure was a big unit, and I bet I wasn’t alone when looking at him and thinking “Ooooo”.

Next Three: I have to say that I’m not convinced that the moving parts are as interchangeable as Arsene likes to think. Santi started slowly, and although his second half was fresher and crisper, I’m not sure we will ever see the best of him away from the No 10 role, while the movement between Jack, Santi and Mesut did sometimes appear to baffle and confuse themselves as much as the Saints defence.

Right, back to that No 10. Why move Aaron from there, Arsene? Have you gone mad? You’re a defensive midfielder short without Flamini, so you move your form player and top scorer. Quite baffling. I wrote very recently how Jack will only move to the next level when he learns to move the ball faster. Yesterday it appeared he was aiming for as many Saints bodies as possible. Apart from moves breaking down, the most likely outcome is him breaking down. He is still very close to being a seriously top player, and I love his energy and movement.

Up Top: Ollie. Worked exceptionally hard. Scored twice. Great work.

Overall, very pleased. However, it was clear that there was some ring rust. Individuals were performing well, but the usual fluidity lacked lubrication. It would also be unfair not to praise what has been achieved at Southampton.

I’m sure many of you recall some of the whingers’ classic lines “bloody tippy tappy football, no end product. Look at Utd who know how to win ugly”.

Now, some people look great until you remove the make-up. Well, if yesterday was us without the slap on, then gis’ us a snog!

Today, we are even Topper of The League than we were yesterday morning. Very hard not to like that.

Feelings by MickyDidIt

Today, my dear chums, is me at my most generous.

I can’t quite believe I am doing this, but I am giving some of you the opportunity of joining us few in the elite “I told you so” camp. Your chance to grab some of the end of season Bragging Rights.

The last two days have seen great posts by Rocky and Raddy discussing how some of our players have improved. They also gave one or two of you a satisfying “I told you so” moment in the sun.

Okedoke, now for some crystal ball gazing and predictions. Today you set down in print who you feel will be the most improved player between now and the end of the season.

In some ways, this is the inverse of yesterdays. Aaron cannot possibly win this one, and indeed any player that was close yesterday, ie Mert, Kierran or Mozart, are unlikely to top this one either.

These are some of the lines of thinking I shall be following when making my guess:

Who’s likely to be called into action, and given the chance to stake his claim?

The likely candidates here will most likely get their chance where the first team have their weak spots, or injury critical areas. For me, central defence, defensive midfield and striker.

Here may lie my ace card. Verm. Surely he’ll be getting his chance. He may just be the man.

Can Jack learn to move the ball faster, thus avoiding collisions, and ensuring team thrust, as well as grabbing a First XI “must start” berth?

If we sign a striker, will that enable certain players to push on to the next level, like Mesut?

If Ollie gets clobbered, and we sign no-one in January, then might Podolski shine?

Same above, but how about Theo blossoming through the middle?

The Ox. Might get a game and simply become irreplaceable.

If Kos or Mert have a longtermer, will AW push Bac central, giving Jenks the chance to grab the “most improved” trophy?

On the back of Sz’s superb form, we now have the terrible prospect of OPIG receiving a knock. Could Fabianski prove to be the “man of the moment”?

Where do I stand? Well, I’m not going to stick my neck out yet. I’ll read some thoughts in the comments, and then commit. My gut feeling is that it will be between Verm, Jack, Theo or Podolski. However, I might vote Mesut.

Written by MickyDidIt89

So here we are, top of the league, top of our Champions League group and looking pretty damn fine, thank you ma’am

Our success has been, above all, down to a fine collective effort but, nevertheless, some individuals stand out.

One thinks first of The Welsh Messi, Aaron Ramsey.

What a player!

From snapped leg to snapping ‘em in at every opportunity the boy has achieved above and beyond our expectations.

When he was struggling to rediscover his form last year some Arsenal fans (I won’t say supporters) deemed he didn’t have what it took to be a Gooner. I am glad to say I supported him then and I support him now. But he’s still not our best player of the season so far.

Oh no.

It’s not Aaron, so perhaps it’s our fandabbydoozical new signing Mesut Ozil. The German of Turkish extraction is a joy to watch – when he’s on the ball time slows down and magical things happen.

But Mezut is in his first season in the EPL and much more is still to come. He is not our best player this season – not by a long chalk.

If not him, then what about our dashing French cavalier, Olivier Giroud. He is like the Three Mustketeers (plus D’Artagnon) rolled into one. He spends every game marked by at least two opponents, selflessly receiving the ball, holding it up, being stupidly penalized by stupid referees, laying it off, linking up… in short he is an absolute top quality centre forward. But still not our best player in this campaign.

To find the chosen one we must move further back.

In doing so we find Matthieu Flamini – a player scorned by many when his return was announced (though not by this observer) and now someone who is deemed crucial to our chances of success this season.

Flamini is a tireless worker and a good player. But it’s not him.

So we look to the defence. Koscielny and Mertesacker have been outstanding this season – probably the best CB pairing in the EPL.

I love the commitment and intensity of Kozzer, but having given away two penalties already he can’t be considered for our player of the season so far

As for Mertesacker – well, right now, he is my favourite player in an Arsenal shirt. Calm, confident, always in control, always finding the right pass out of defence – he is unquestionably the best defender we have had since Tony Adams. The press and pundits still go on about his (lack of) speed, but anyone who watches Arsenal week in week out knows that the BFG is a class act.

Nonetheless, he’s still not our best player this year.

To find that individual we have to move back even further

And there, between the sticks, we find the man himself: Wojciech Szczesny.

If you can be bothered to trawl back through the Arsenal Arsenal archive you will find several Headline Posts where I have questioned the ability of the Pole in Goal.

He seemed to me to be someone gifted with natural ability but perhaps lacking in the mentality to achieve the highest level. His performance for Poland in the 2012 Euros was a case in point.

But he has knuckled down at Arsenal, endured the indignity of being dropped and returned with a new focus and intensity.

If we are top of the table at this point of the season it is for many reasons, including the scoring form of Ramsey, the creativity of our midfield and the obduracy of our team as a whole. But it is also due to the saves of Szczesny.

I have lost count of the games where his outstanding saves have kept us in the game and allowed us to go on and claim all three points

His decision making seems to have improved 100% and it’s clear that his defenders understand him and have great confidence in having him behind them.

Furthermore, his shot-stopping has been of the highest order.

When I was doubting him, regular AA contributor GiE was pointing out his strengths. As a goalkeeper who has played at a high level himself, it should have been obvious that GiE knew what he was talking about. I am happy to accept now that that is indeed the case.

To me there is no question about it: our player of the season so far is Mr Wojciech Szczensy.

RockyLives

Saturday:

Ahead of Sunday’s game the news about Arsenal was mostly a rehash of The Manager’s Press Conference. The important point was that both Matheiu Flamini and Jack Wilshere trained normally, Wenger was confident that the former would be available while the latter would be assessed before the game. Jack Wilshere later declared himself fit.

Risking Wilshere in a game at Old Toilet seems a bit unwise to me as he would undoubtedly be a target for some brutal treatment of the type previously handed out by the notorious Neville brothers to Jose Antonio Reyes. Thinking about it, it is sometime since we came up a against a team intent upon kicking our players off the park, perhaps they’re just too nippy to be caught.

Sunday:

Prior to the late afternoon kick-off all the news was about the bug that struck down the BFG and Tomas Rosicky. It was rumoured that a mysterious character, speaking with a distinct Glaswegian accent, and sporting a big red nose had been seen lurking about the kitchens of the hotel the Arsenal squad were staying in. Now I’m not making any accusations but…..

Monday:

OK, we lost at Old Toilet. It was probably the closest game between us and them for quite some time, one moment of slackness at a corner was enough.

Reactions were many and varied:- Patrick Barclay in the London Evening Standard “Moyes’s men strained every sinew to beat Arsene Wenger’s, who had more of the ball and worked every bit as hard only to lose because key men — Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and even Mesut Ozil — could not go the extra yard”. I did not see too much of the “I told you so” type of comment, in fact most people seemed to acknowledge that we had closed the gap somewhat on Manure.

Tuesday:

Thomas Vermaelen rubbished reports that he was looking for the Emirates exit, “I’m still confident I can play for this club and every chance I get I will do a job”. That’s what I like to hear, a player willing to stay and fight unlike one of his soon (I hope) to be erstwhile team mates, a striker who seems only intent on getting out as soon as possible.

Many commentators were saying that Wenger needs to sign a striker in the January transfer window, and LB wrote a thoughtful article on the subject for AAers to comment on.

I’ll leave the last word on Sunday’s result to Paul Hayward of The Telegraph. “Wenger will look at the transition difficulties at United, Chelsea and Manchester City and feel he can absorb the odd unsurprising setback”.

“A favourable wind is still blowing the old dark clouds away”.

Wednesday:

It was announced that an agreement was in place for Jack Wilshere to take part in only one of England’s two friendlies as he was undergoing treatment for “a knock”. If he is unfit Hodgson shouldn’t even contemplate using the lad at all.

A question was asked, in the London Evening Standard, is Mesut Ozil being overworked? After a brilliant start to his Arsenal career, four assists and two goals from eight Premier League games, he has been arguably less influential in the last three games against Liverpool, Dortmund and Man U. He is not used to playing so many high intensity games in such a short space of time. In the 12 matches he has started for Arsenal, the 25-year-old has played 90 minutes in nine of them. Contrast this with how he was used at Madrid, where he was no less a pivotal figure before his departure; of the 40 games he began for Real last season, Ozil completed only 19 of them. The season before the midfielder finished just 14 of 44 starts.

Is he being overplayed? Does he need a rest?

Thursday:

Abou Diaby gave an interview to L’Equipe stating he was looking forward to working on getting back to fitness.

“I have come off the crutches. Now I have to start walking again!

“I will start running again in a few weeks.

“I want to take my time with everything to ensure that it all goes smoothly.”

Written by Norfolk Gooner

Sometimes you can’t see the woods for looking at the trees. Over the past few weeks we have all seen MoTD on the BBC or NBC with a veritable smorgasbord of pundits all praising Arsenal’s style of play, yet claiming that there is an inherent fault in our team’s setup which will prevent us from going on to win the league. They have come up with various reasons such as:

1. Arsenal haven’t played any of the big clubs
2. Arsenal have lost against the only title contender they have played
3. Arsenal haven’t played in inclement weather, their foreign players aren’t acclimatised to UK weather and dark nights.
4. Arsenal haven’t got the depth of team.
5. Arsenal only have Giroud up front.
6. Arsenal spent 42M GBP on a midfielder when they needed a defender, a keeper and a striker.
7. Arsenal have don’t have as much talent as Chelsea.

1. It is not the big clubs that make or break a title race. As Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd have already found out in their first eleven games, the Premier League is littered with landmine games. One false step and BOOM! In recent years Arsenal have lost against Blackburn, Fulham, Swansea, West Brom and Sunderland with a concomitant drop in morale. This season Aston Villa, West Brom, Sunderland and Newcastle have all handed out lessons in humility. So it is not just the title rivals that can cause title contenders a problem. At the same time, Arsenal have done the business at home against two “bigger” teams which is the first order of business when seeking to win the title.

2. Yes we lost. But it was a close run thing, it wasn’t a slaughter. We have 27 games left to put things right (win them all?)

3. Most of our players have a lot of experience of Northern European conditions. Either they have played in Germany where even before the winter break it still gets “F” Cold (that’s f for freezing;^) or they have played in the Premier League for at least a year – Arteta, Cazorla. The YBC (Young British Core) of course also helps. So I don’t feel we are going to as adversely affected by the changes as we have been in previous years.

4-7. We do have a shallow team, the squad is probably 18-20 players at most, but the addition of Ozil has changed the dynamics of the team so that teams have more options they have to cover. His addition to the team also means goalscoring is not the preserve of one player. Look at where the 22 league goals have come from – 10 different players.

When teams focus on any one or two of our players then someone else wriggles free to find time and space that generates a scoring opportunity. The addition of Ozil has also freed up the requirement for Ramsey to get forward every time. This combined with the addition of Flamini means that we now have three players if they are playing in the team, who can fit into the holding midfield…yet another of my beloved triangles.

I could wax lyrical but it is only 11 games and I am not someone who would have the temerity to sing about being the top of the league at this time. The only time it counts is when the trophy is passed over in Red and White ribbons.

All of this pondering leads me to wonder “Are we the team in plain sight”?. The team who no-one outside of Arsenal really believes has more than an outside chance? If it comes true it will be just like Arsenal winning in 88/89 and 97/98. where we were an Arsenal who were a stealth team, unfancied, unloved and not factored into the equation, the rogue element if you will.

Written by N5Artillery