John Evans
Well now that the Christmas period of games every other day has been and gone I feel it is not a bad time to take stock of the season so far and to gaze forward through a crystal ball and see what we might have in store between now and May.
We currently sit four points off top spot but have played a game more than the team currently occupying top place United. They are yet to lose a game. Game over? Not by a mile in my book. People seem to rattle on about the Mancs always getting better in the second half of the season, yet this fact is simply not backed up by any proper statistics as points wise they fare no better after Christmas than before in most seasons.
In my opinion they have not been playing well simply because they are not that good rather than underperforming and when you take a closer look at the games played by the top teams they have had the easier of it by a mile. United have not played Chelsea home or away as yet, Spurs away, Liverpool away and are yet to visit the Grove. The only top team they have played away is City who they are yet to play at home. The two teams they have faced twice already are Stoke and Sunderland whereas we have played Chelsea and Man City twice and have already travelled to OT and Anfield.
Chelsea are yet to play United as mentioned above and City have played only us and Spurs away from home out of the top sides. They still have to go to OT, Stamford Bridge and Anfield. People say City’s away form is better than their home form, well considering the game at our place last week was the first time they had played anyone worth mentioning away from home since August that is hardly surprising is it?
I am a pretty confident Gooner as things stand. We have not hit top form and have had to put up without the services of main men such as RVP (again), Cesc and Tommy Vermaelan (does he still exist?). Our two summer signings made to shore up the back line have been pretty average to say the least and we still haven’t signed a worthwhile keeper since Jens came to us on a free all those years ago. All in all when you consider our upcoming league games over the next two months I see no reason whatsoever why we cant see ourselves sitting pretty within a couple of points from top spot come April.
I would go so far as saying if we are not at least in that position come the start of April then something has gone drastically wrong as we do not play anyone over the next two calendar months home or away where you wouldn’t be bitterly disappointed if we didn’t take all three points. If we make it past Ipswich in the League Cup semi, the Spurs away game will be moved back towards the end of the season.
When you compare our squad with that of Chelsea there is no reason whatsoever to feel in any way inferior. We have greater strength in depth, our best players are all under 28 and a fair percentage of those coming through the ranks are British who will hopefully have a greater sense of what it means to wear the shirt. I mentioned this in an article I wrote before the game at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season and I certainly haven’t seen anything since to change my mind.
Put simply if we played a two legged game with any other team from this country I would fear no-one whereas two to three seasons ago I would have given us little chance against United, Chelsea or Liverpool.
To all the people baying at Wenger’s neck after the Leeds game on Saturday I feel you need to get in the real world. Sure our reserve players are not as good as our first choice eleven, but isn’t that the reason why they are reserve players in the first place? We have deadwood at our club but so does every other team on the planet. The players who are not up to scratch have all been mentioned elsewhere so no need to name names all over again, but does anybody who doubted my stance on Mr Rosicky want to apologise after seeing his latest efforts? Anybody that defends a player like that wants locking out of the stadium in my eyes as he clearly has nothing to offer at the top level.
Apart from a few duds though who would normally be no higher up in the pecking order than warming the bench, what problems do we have?
We are within sniffing distance of a day out at Wembley and our first trophy in six years. Who cares if it is only the League Cup, it is better than nothing and we have a great chance to win it. We are still in the FA Cup and after the draw was made it looks like a decent route to the fifth round if we can overcome Leeds away, which I feel confident we will do. Spurs did the same last season so if they can why can’t we?
We play Barcelona in the Champions League and everyone has already written us off in that so anything must be a bonus. I for one don’t see it as such a one-sided affair, with 20 minutes gone in the second leg last season we led the tie 3-2 and managed to get into that position with a defence that included Silvestre! Nasri and Walcott have come on in leaps and bounds since last season’s games, Cesc will hopefully be fit as will RVP (fingers crossed!) and who knows we may even have Tommy back in defence by then. Another major difference in the Arsenal this time round will be Jack Wilshire getting stuck in and hassling their midfield instead of Denilson. I feel we have moved on a lot since Jack became a regular, we need his steel and commitment alongside Song as he can’t do two men’s jobs by himself. I am not saying I expect us to win the tie but I would be surprised if we were not competitive over two legs as things stand.
I feel confident 2011 will see Arsenal end the six year wait for a trophy and I am prepared to stick my neck out and predict like buses two come along at the same time as I have a strong sense that we will go very close in this Premier League and that over the next 24 months or so we will get some way back to what we were in terms of winning trophies on a much more regular basis.
Who knows if this does materialise then the people bemoaning the atmosphere at the stadium might just start getting behind the team a bit more rather than simply shouting out either ‘sit down!’ or ‘your sh*t’.
Why do people tell you to sit down at our stadium even though you only stand up when we look like scoring a goal? I got told to sit down at the Spurs game before the match had even kicked off! It is a football stadium isn’t it or have I got mixed up and found myself at the Royal Opera House instead? The prices are similar! I don’t know where we manage to dig up most of our so-called supporters from but I am sure at least 5000 of them didn’t see any of the three goals we scored against Chelsea as all three were scored within three minutes of the interval. We certainly seem to have more than our fair share of morons at the grove these days.
One final point, I don’t think it is a coincidence that players like Bendtner and co seem to perform better for the Arsenal away from home as whenever he plays at the Grove he knows before he even kicks a ball that as soon as he makes one mistake he will get ridiculed for it for the rest of the game. It must be a pretty cr*p experience for a player when he is supposedly playing in front of his own supporters. Remember the goals he scored at City and Newcastle earlier on in the season? He certainly hasn’t looked like repeating that in home games to me. I am not saying he is up to Henry standards but the people that bemoan all the time can’t be helping matters. If the Leeds keeper didn’t manage to make such a great save in the final minute of the match on Saturday would people still be calling Denilson all the names under the sun or would they have been hailing one of the goals of the season at the Grove? Surely we would all be better off getting behind the players that pull on the shirt for the 90 minutes and being a bit more realistic about the simple fact that all 25 of our squad players are not going to be world beaters on a regular basis.
