Graham Perry
Dear Fellow Gunners
A few points in this Arsenal Circular.
First it was an important and satisfying win against Bournemouth. It was a challenge – what happened to us at the hands of Southampton was uppermost in our minds – the manager, the players, the supporters.
Were we there for the taking? Were we a busted reed? Or were we able to regroup and meet the challenge and come out on top.
It is a phrase I like to use but it was “whites of the eyes” time.
We started cautiously, nervously. Bournemouth made the running and we wondered whether we were able to come through. We persevered, came through the uncertain period, took advantage of the Cherries lapse in defensive marking at a corner and went 1-0 up. It was far from plain sailing and we still had to continue to commit. The players did. There were options as we went forward. Theo and Giroud may have fluffed chances but there was sufficient in the overall team performance to take us through to three points – Ozil assisted with skill you want to see and see again. A beautiful moment.
OK it is history. Now to Newcastle and a supposed “three point banker”. We are the better team – we are at home – we are top of the league but we have it all to do.
And for Koeman read McClaren.
Koeman got it so right. The defeat by THFC was for him the final straw. One point out of the last fifteen. He changed things. He didn’t just enthuse his troops he changed the training content, focused not just on harrying us but on making the breaks with numbers. Yes Southampton were relentless and physical – but not dirty. They disrupted us, broke us up, caused doubts in the minds of our players, maintained the pace. They needed some luck and they got the refereeing breaks but the effort and the focus and the commitment came first.
With that in mind, what is happening at Newcastle today on the training ground? McClaren may not have a great track record as a manager but he is widely regarded as a quality coach. He knows about tactics and like Koeman he is desperate. Southampton were in free fall. A relegation scrap beckoned. Newcastle are already in a relegation scrap. They will come out fighting. They will be in our faces – first to the ball with a trailing leg if necessary to cause some additional damage.
On this topic today’s Guardian – Sport page 5 – carries an interesting article by Andy Hunter on Jurgen Klopp who expects Sunderland to react to their 4-1 defeat by Man City on Boxing Day with a “back to basics approach at the Stadium of Light with physical strength and defensive discipline paramount for a team second from bottom of the table”. Klopp says “Fighting for second balls is a physical fight and we have to do this... you need to have three or four players who fight for this and two or three who think; “we can get this second ball and now we can start playing... we have to change our kind of fighting for these balls”. He concludes “we have no problem with character. The character of the team is great. Maybe you can speak about mentality and that’s what we have to create. You need experience for a game, for a situation to change it and that’s what we try to do every day”
So mentality and second ball fights and reacting to change. It reminds me of the final against Parma when in the first 15 minutes Parma went through our defence like the proverbial knife through butter. Between them George and captain Tony re-grouped, re-organised the defence, stemmed the tide and the rest is history.
But there is more to it than just second balls and mentality and going head to head on the physical challenges. What also damaged us at St Marys was their forwards’ runs at our back four. They worked on the gaps – on pulling us apart and creating space. Here again I hold my hands up – I do not know enough about football to know how best to mess with a quality back four but again Koeman did it. Using Long in particular they challenged us in our defensive third of the pitch. We can expect more of the same from Newcastle. Cliché it may be – but there are no easy games – the lower teams are better because they have money to sign better players – their coaches have their eyes wide open and know where to hammer a weakness.
We came through it against Bournemouth. They are a good side and they have an excellent manager. Well Newcastle beat Liverpool and surprised us all before Christmas. I am confident we will rise to the challenge but it will be a struggle. The English Premier League is different from Spain and Italy and Germany where two/three teams dominate. Anyone can beat anyone on their day here in the UK.
A different topic – the end of the match and a few players go round the perimeter of the whole pitch applauding the supporters. It used to be just Mertesacker and Theo but the numbers of players joining in the walkabout are increasing albeit slowly. It goes down well with those of us that linger at the end. It is part of the performance – part of the event. The interaction between player and supporter. I like it. Some lead – like Per and Theo – some do the walk like Cech and the Ox and others simply (now this is the point) slink off to the dressing room. Maybe “slink” is too harsh a word. But it seems to be individual choice – no apparent rule. If you want to bond with the fans then do the walk – if you want to be first in the showers then shuffle off. Now compare this with the discipline of the centre circle wave immediately after the pre-kick off handshake. Mertesacker waits until everyone is lined up and then leads a wave to all four corners of the Stadium. But not at the end. There must have been discussion in the dressing room.
I don’t want a Klopp hand holding moment but I do like the atmosphere that is generated by the players who do remain on the pitch and engage in a very obvious prolonged hand clapping thank-you to the fans who are still in the stadium. If I am not mistaken the numbers who stay for the walkabout are growing. Any thoughts?
One last point – selling squad players at Christmas. George would not allow it. If the team were in contention in January he would not let anyone go. Flash back to 2008 our championship challenge foundered in the last two months of the season. We lacked the option of challenging squad players to come in and give the regulars a breather – one in particular was Cesc who was over-worked. But his ready made replacement who was purchased at the beginning of the season from Chelsea was sold in January to Portsmouth – Lassana Diarra. How we needed him!
Fast forward to today and Debuchy who needs first team football to recover his place in the France national team. Does Wenger let him go or does he hold on to him just in case something happens to Bellerin between now and May? Answers on a post card to H-O-R-A-C-E B-A-T-C-H-E-L-O-R of KEYNSHAM BRISTOL.
Memory Lane – Arsenal 4 – Man U 5 – the pre-Munich disaster match in February 1958. Many of us were there – a great game. United three up – we pull three back in three minutes but run out losers by one goal and many of the United players were dead within the week. A big impact on all of us. One of the big names to perish was Duncan Edwards. Our left back that day was Denis Evans. He was fouled badly by Edwards. Evans was angry. Minutes later, he recounted, he had the chance to “do” Edwards with a tackle that would have put him in the concrete perimeter surrounds with an injury that would have put him out for weeks. In the event Evans pulled out. The sportsman took over. He never took revenge. Had he done so Edwards would have been hurt, unable to fly to Belgrade for the European match. If Edwards, who wore the number 6 shirt and was already an English international had lived, who would have heard of Bobby Moore outside Upton Park?
* You can follow my tweets @arsenalcircular
