Graham Perry
Big match tonight. Well they are all big matches. Each carries three points and we want as many points as we can gather. We want the title. We need the points and the Southampton game is so important.
Matches are about goals and refereeing decisions and dramatic moments. They are also about memories. What is there in the past that intrudes into the present? Quite simply - Boxing Day - when Southampton gave us a real battering. They were on a bad run with just one point from fifteen. Their confidence was at an all time low. Koeman changed training, changed players and changed tactics. And we were undone. They focused on weaknesses at the heart of our defence. They exploited them relentlessly and we were on the back foot.
How much of that bad experience is in the minds of our manager, our team and our back four? Do we go into the game apprehensive and unsettled and allow the opposition to seize the initiative? Are we beaten before we start or are we made of stronger stuff? Can we rise above the bad memory of the Boxing Day defeat and reverse the contradiction and take the three points?
The win over Burnley had pluses. The combination of Coquelin and Elneny worked well. They beavered and harassed and intercepted and tackled. They made their presence felt and they will do so again if paired together – unlikely as Ramsey still selects himself - but expect Elneny to be a much used substitute. Iwobi, too, is gaining experience and showing his ability to win challenges and make runs. Ozil will be paired with Sanchez and if Giroud is in “determined” mood we will be able to take the game to the opposition and remind all around us that we are serious challengers.
The weakness is the uncertainty at the heart of our defence that undid us at St Mary’s and it was in evidence again against Burnley. Gabriel and Kocielny lost some initial challenges and remained vulnerable throughout the match. Shane Long will have seen the video of the game – Charlie Austin too - and will have noticed that chasing and running down every ball forces our players either into hasty clearances or errors and mistakes as happened against Burnley. Their strikers will have sensed the high ball opportunities that will come to them from free kicks and from both full backs.
A difference between Burnley and Southampton is a four lettered work that begins with C and ends in H. Cech will be between the posts, not Ospina and, sad though it is to express relief when a certain player is not selected, it is the case that Cech inspires confidence whereas Ospina creates worry. So hopefully the presence of Cech will soothe troubled nerves.
The tactics and the strategy is for others. I prefer to focus on mentality, group dynamics and what I often refer to as “the whites of their eyes”. We have skill and ability and bravery but do we have a focused purpose that enables us to grow stronger in battle, win the challenges, stay calm, avoid panic and win? The match against Southampton will tell us much.
A comment about Guardiola. For many years now he has been my preferred choice as successor to Wenger. It is not to be. He will be at City as from next season. If the Board at Arsenal wanted him they would have to have done to Wenger what City have done to Pellegrini – sacked him with the sacking taking effect at the end of the season. Pellegrini has accepted it. He might go out on a high – he might win the Premier title, the Champions League and the FA Cup – but it will still be the sack. In one sense it shows that City are committed to one thing – success - and there are supporters of Arsenal who will envy the single -minded determination of the City owners. They will say that Keswick and the Board at Arsenal are in awe of Wenger and should have taken the opportunity to bring the Wenger era to an end and secured the services of the best coach in the world. No sentiment – just hard headed realism. Go for the best. Pay off anyone who gets in your way. No time for second thoughts.
Not my cup of tea. Not the way I want my Club to treat its employees. Some will say I am soft. Others will say there are principles and if someone has been as loyal to Arsenal and resisted offers from everywhere in Europe how can you toss him aside when an opening becomes available unless he has lost the plot? Well Wenger has not lost the plot. We are in with a real chance of the title and that is what matters. Stay with Arsene. The time for succession talk is when his contract is coming to an end and not now. There will be other coaches about. But it raises one interesting question – what is the business model for the post Wenger period. What is the structure? – Where is the power? – How do the parts integrate into a whole? For sure when Wenger steps down Arsenal will change. Arsene is a one off and the post Arsene phase will be one fraught with difficulty. I am sure that is exercising the mind of Ivan Gazidis. That is for the future. Three points are at stake tonight and that is the priority.
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