The Beautiful Groan

Third please Arsenal. But fifth could be better than fourth.

May 132012

So this is it. Ninety minutes away from finishing third, fourth or fifth. A win at West Brom and third is ours, along with automatic qualification for the group stage of the Champions League, irrespective of results elsewhere in the league, or in this year’s final. It would bring a happy end to an often difficult season, and of course herald the annual celebration of St Totteringham’s Day (and win me the bet I had with a work colleague when we were ten points behind them). The season could be closed down with a sense of relieved satisfaction, and we could plan for the next one knowing exactly where we stood.

I think we’re all in agreement that this is the best option. There are of course a few that believe the board need the wound of not qualifying for the Champions League to reassess, but I don’t buy that – if the powers that be within the club cannot see the issues we have, then nothing will make them. Wenger himself has been talking this week about our overreliance on Van Persie, and he has already made moves to release that burden with the signing of Podolski. Were we to guarantee ourselves the Champions League bonanza for another season, I would expect more to follow.

Where many disagree is what would be the best scenario were we to fail today. Most would plump for fourth, and hope that Bayern do us a favour by stopping Chelsea rendering fourth place meaningless. The logic of that argument is that a chance of Champions League football is better than no chance at all, and it is logic I can see and understand.

But I disagree, strongly, as I’ve spoken about before.

Many consider falling out of the Champions League as a bit of a doomsday scenario, and from a purely financial point of view, it would be a bitter blow – just look at Liverpool to see how far back it can set a club. But I think there is a worse scenario than finishing fifth (or fourth with Chelsea winning this year’s final) and knowing in May that you will be competing in the Europa League.

For me, the worst case is finishing fourth, facing a qualifier and then doing exactly what we did this season – waiting until late August to see whether we qualified or not, and planning to conduct our business in a late flurry based on our newly enhanced budget.

And then losing that qualifier, with only days left to paper over the cracks.

And for those who think this is an extremely unlikely situation, it isn’t. Since the changes Platini made to the Champions League qualification process, we would always be facing a decent team in that preliminary round, not the champions of Luxembourg. The draw is fixed that way these days. Quite what would have happened to our season had we lost to Udinese back in August (and that tie could have gone either way) does not bear thinking about. Would we have had the finances to sign the likes of Arteta, without whom we have yet to win a league game?

Put it this way – if we are to play in the Europa League next season, it would be better to find out in May, when we have three months to plan accordingly before the season starts, than in late August, when the season is already underway and we have mere days left of the transfer window. Not only that, but this season shows that even victory in that qualifying round doesn’t protect you from the hiccup of having to conduct your business so late in the day. A repeat of that risk is unlikely to be tolerated by many.

Fourth is seen as a holy grail by many in the Premiership and the majority of the media. But for me, third is the holy grail and fourth can be something of a poisoned chalice. Consider my perfect scenario for how this plays out – we win and finish third, Spurs finish fourth, Bayern win the Champions League and Spurs lose their qualifying round in August, and are sent into a tailspin by the setback. Chances are, Redknapp will already have spent the money they would get in the group stage. Assuming he is even still there.

That hilarious scenario is based on Spurs finishing fourth, not fifth. If they finish fifth, they will plan for the season ahead with adjusted expectations and budgets, but plenty of time. Perversely, that would be better for them.

One of these days, a club will take the gamble we took this year, waiting until late August before acting, and they will lose that gamble by getting knocked out. I don’t want that to be us.

I hope this is all moot, I really do – a win at West Brom guarantees that. Whatever happens – I want us to know where we stand at 5pm today, not August 28th.

A week of unwarranted angst

Analysis, Arsenal News, Matches 19 Responses »

Apr 232012

Morning all.

Arsenal fans don’t take a lot of riling. Most football fans are a sensitive bunch, but it seems that our club has more than its fair share of the bipolar. One minute we are a signing or two away from seriously challenging for honours next season, the next we’re doomed to abject mediocrity. And often the difference is the width of the post. Literally (not in a Redknappian sense, but actually literally).

This post is going to require a preface, so here we go – one point from a pair of homes games isn’t a great return, and neither performance could be described as inspiring, or will live long in the memory. But I’m still left with the confused view of a man who seems to have seen a different couple of games from the most vociferous of supporters. The team were accused of things I don’t believe to be accurate, and the wrong players continue to be singled out for unnecessary and frankly pathetic abuse. Let’s start with Wigan.

Wigan

The general consensus from the Wigan game is that we were complacent. Lazy. Felt we just ‘needed to turn up to win’ (or whatever that ridiculous phrase is). It has become accepted fact that we breezed through the game without a care in the world, handing a victory to the opposition without putting up a fight.

That’s not what I saw.

I saw a poor performance. I saw players making the wrong decisions in the final third, players not quite connecting with their efforts on goal as they would like, players who occasionally mislaid crucial passes. And of course, I saw a shabby opening fifteen minutes that ultimately cost us the game.

However, I did see effort. I saw a team desperately looking to break down an impressive Wigan team who defending manfully and skilfully. I saw players making passes that were inches away from being perfect. I saw tracking back, and determination going forward. In essence, I saw what I wanted to see – a team who wanted to win and were willing to put in the hard yards to do so.

Sometimes, you don’t win football matches, and it isn’t always because you were complacent. I feel people are too quick in their efforts to find snap explanations for draws and defeats – it always has to be because we were lazy, or that at least three players were a disgrace to the shirt. You never hear anyone say ‘sometimes, shit happens‘. Look at United yesterday – 3-1 and 4-2 up against an Everton side who have struggled for goals, and they blew it, drawing 4-4 and letting City back into the title race. Were they complacent? Were they cocky? Or was it just one of those days?

Hats off to Wigan, by the way. They were brilliant on the night. We all stayed behind to applaud them off, which felt like a nice touch (well, when I say ‘all’, I mean those that remained – around me I reckon only about one in three seats were still occupied at the final whistle, which I hated). I hope they stay up, I really do.

Chelsea

And so to Saturday lunchtime, and a home game against a Chelsea side who made some changes and parked the bus ahead of their second leg with Barcelona on Tuesday night. Last time we watched Chelsea on a Saturday lunchtime, they played out a bore draw with Spurs, and this was no different. Calling it attritional would be paying it a compliment. Yet we still had the best chances – Van Persie would normally bury at least one of his, hitting the post from Walcott’s free kick and firing straight at Cech later on, while Koscielny was also unlucky to see his header crash back off the crossbar. In a week where the woodwork favoured Chelsea enormously, they could and should have lost to us and Barcelona, but escaped on both occasions. That isn’t to say that we were complacent, poor or lazy, or even that Chelsea defended that well, but sometimes you get matches were the narrow margins go against you.

Consider this. For about three years, Chelsea beat us routinely, both home and away. And what’s more – we got used to it. We went into games hoping for a result, but secretly preparing for the inevitable defeat. Now, they come away from the Emirates delighted with a fortunate point that doesn’t even help them that much, while we look on, disappointed. How times change.

Players

Not only did I feel that some of the reporting of the team performances this week was inaccurate, but I felt the assessment of some of the individual players was off kilter too. I think most of us would accept that Arsenal fans have particular targets when things aren’t going well, and while some of that is borne out of a succession of poor displays or poor attitude (read: Eboue), some of it is less warranted. The usual suspects bore the brunt again this week, none more so than Aaron Ramsey, who I will return to in a moment.

Do you know which players I thought were poor this week? Van Persie had two sub-par games, Song was below par too, Sagna was unusually shaky against Wigan, while Walcott did little in either game. Even the Ox was anonymous. Now, reading that list, I’m pretty sure I can gauge many of your reactions, and they will be angry. How dare I criticise those players, you may ask? Well, here’s the thing – you can say a player has had a poor week without abusing them, without saying they are crap or should be sold. There is a middle ground, which is this – each of the players I have listed, to different degrees, have had excellent moments this season, and I value every single one of them as a crucial part of this Arsenal team. But sometimes, players have poor games, and chances are, they are honest enough about it to admit when they do, and don’t seek to blame less culpable members of the team. So why do we?

Ramsey didn’t set the world alight in either game, but he did ok for me, particularly against Chelsea. We praise Rosicky for his endless running, yet conveniently ignore that Ramsey does the same thing. He is frequently compared to Denilson, which is among the worst links I’ve ever known. Denilson’s problems were two-fold – he didn’t try to create much, preferring the safe options, and he didn’t work hard enough to win the ball back when we lost it. Ramsey cannot be accused of either. He loses the ball precisely because he tries things, and he works his bollocks off trying to regain possession, particularly after his own mistakes. On Saturday, he copped abuse when he lost the ball to a man he never saw, and never got a shout about. Surely we should be criticising the lack of communication from his teammates?

I’m not saying Ramsey is on form. He isn’t. But when a player is off colour, all we ask is that he works hard to get himself back to previous heights, something that Arshavin, Denilson, Chamakh and others have failed to do. So why, when a player shows us the desire we’ve been crying out for, do we vilify him anyway?

When I hear the groans from the stands, when I hear the disgusting abuse some of these guys face from a minority of their own supporters, I find myself fearing what we could lose. We have some precocious talents at the club that have everything they need to have tremendous futures. I just hope they want to have that future with us. Sometimes, I wonder why they would.

A victory for team spirit but nothing pantomime about Balotelli’s villainry

Arsenal News, Matches 10 Responses »

Apr 092012

Arsenal 1 (Arteta 87) Man City 0
(Premiership)

Sometimes the scoreline doesn’t even close to telling the full story. It looks like we pinched a tight game in the latter stages, but in reality this was one of the best and most passionate performances we’ve seen from Arsenal in recent years. From the first minute we were first to everything, running City ragged down both flanks with a series of incisive moves, only to be denied by last ditch defending (usually from the excellent Kompany), the occasional poor decision with the final ball, and on a couple of occasions, the frame of the goal.

Before each of those instances, however, we contrived to do our own goalline defending for City – Van Persie’s goalbound header striking the back of Vermaelen before bouncing up on to the crossbar and away. Remarkably enough, it wasn’t to be the closest we got to scoring without actually putting the ball in the net – that was reserved for a second half moment where Walcott’s shot was pushed on to the post by Hart, Vermaelen slipped and sliced his tap in, but the ball still fell to Benayoun two yards out, only for his shot to deflect off Lescott, then the other post, before going behind for a corner. It was a proper jaw drop moment.

Earlier in the second half, Van Persie had already struck the woodwork, heading another delicious Song chipped pass on to the base of the post, and with Kompany snuffing out the rest of our chances, the game was heading for the most unfortunate of nil-nils, until Arteta snapped into yet another tackle in the centre of the park, advanced with more purpose than any of the City defenders coming to meet him, and slammed a fierce drive beyond Hart’s despairing hand with minutes to go. Joy unconfined.

To say that we deserved it would be a massive understatement. City looked flattened by United’s earlier win, and came into the game with body language that betrayed their inner admission that the title had already gone. We were winning the battles all over the park, and in the first half an hour in particular were showing City exactly why we’d let Clichy move to them – Walcott and Sagna were tearing him apart. All that was missing was the goal, but no player could be faulted in their application or quality – we were far superior in every department, and 3-0 or 4-0 would not have been flattering.

In the end, it was a victory for a team that fought for each other, against a team that fought each other. I’ll come to Balotelli in a moment, because there are some important things to touch on there, but City showed a clear division between members of the defence (Hart, Kompany, Lescott) who were desperate to win, and the creative players (Nasri, Balotelli, Aguero) who offered nothing positive to justify their enormous salaries and apparently lofty ambitions.

By contrast, we were fighting for each other, covering the spaces brilliantly, with Koscielny and Song particularly imperious once again. Koscielny will miss two games after picking up his tenth booking of the season, but that really was the only downside of the day.

However, we are enormously lucky that Koscielny’s suspension was the worst moment. Thanks to the sustained idiocy of Mario Balotelli, we could easily have seen a repeat of Diaby/Eduardo/Ramsey, and the permanent damaging of a player’s career. From the word go, the Italian was petulant both in his approach to the game and his attitude to his teammates, who never hid their frustration with him. But the worst aspect was his tackling, if you can even call it that.

Alex Song is lucky that his leg is still in one piece after Balotelli thundered into a studs up challenge at knee height, sending him spinning away in agony. Had Song’s leg been planted, it would have snapped like a twig. Incredibly, the officials missed it, and although Martin Atkinson can claim a poor view, the linesman was unobstructed just ten yards away. It was the clearest of red cards, and he can certainly expect a call from the FA (which would result in five games being added to his ban for the red card he later received, thanks to a series of previous violent conduct suspensions). That Song got up was an enormous relief – on another day we could easily have been analysing another shattered leg and wrecked career.

It makes me angry that we let players get to this stage. Balotelli is set up to be the pantomime villain, but there is nothing remotely funny about him. He is an idiot, plain and simple, an immature child who throws his toys out of the pram when things don’t go his way, and as shown today can put the careers of his fellow professionals at risk without concern. Despite getting away with his shocking challenge on Song, he went into three more awful challenges on Sagna, the second and third of which saw him pick up yellow cards, yet he still had the temerity to show incredulity at the decision to dismiss him in the final moments of the game.

He was a disgrace throughout the match, and his teammates knew it. Joe Hart was shown calling him unspeakable names that I’m sure he followed up in the dressing room, but while the press laud him for being so entertaining, he will continue to relish the spotlight, and will maintain his crazy antics until someone gets seriously hurt. Then, of course, those who have delighted in giving him the headlines he craves will protest their innocence and condemn.

He should never have been allowed to get to this point. He is, put simply, a tool and a liability, and showed today that he has little regard for his fellow professionals, whether they are on his team or not. Today is one of the reasons I don’t believe a ‘ban a player as long as their victim is out‘ rule works – yes, it would mean Shawcross etc would have been suspended for a long time, but equally Balotelli would get away unscathed. Personally, I advocate simply slapping players who commit these atrocious challenges with enormous bans, irrespective of the damage they cause. Why wait for a broken leg first?

And what of the officials? As a team, they put the players at risk today by allowing Balotelli to stay on the field (a charge that can also be levelled at Mancini for not withdrawing him). Had Sagna been hurt by any of Balotelli’s subsequent X-rated lunges, they would have been equally culpable.

I’m just relieved that Song and Sagna got up each time, and we don’t have that situation. I hope Balotelli gets the book thrown at him, but I still don’t believe his inevitable suspension will sufficiently match the crime.

But enough about one of the biggest idiots in our game today – back to us, and a display of unity and team spirit that anyone will find difficult to match. There are now combinations all over the field clicking together – the midfield trio of Arteta, Song and Rosicky (who was again outstanding) are intertwining superbly, while the back five are becoming increasingly difficult to breach. It seems to have gone unnoticed that our form is still excellent despite Van Persie’s mini goal drought, and while there have been moments in the season where we were a little reliant on him, the team as a whole have really stepped up of late.

How crucial today could be. Enjoy your evening. Unless you are Mario Balotelli. Or Samir Nasri. Or….

Get well soon, Fabrice Muamba

Analysis, Arsenal News 10 Responses »

Mar 172012

Football often gets an absolute kicking in the wider world, for the behaviour of players, officials, fans and authorities, and plenty of times the criticism is fully justified. This season has seen a slew of unsavoury incidents, from racism to homophobia, from corrupt officials to rival fans singing despicable songs about misfortunes that have befallen players or their families. Respect and class are often sorely missing.

But on occasion, football as a sport can unite the fiercest of opponents, and bring out the absolute best in everyone. Today was one such day.

Shortly before half time in the FA Cup tie between Spurs and Bolton, Fabrice Muamba collapsed with no-one else near him. Always a worrying sign in itself, the obvious distress on the faces of both sets of players quickly made the situation clear – Muamba was in serious trouble. Both sets of fans stood in respectful and worried silence, punctuated by the odd song of support for the stricken young man now fighting for his life before their eyes. After what seemed an age, he was finally stretchered off the field to heartfelt applause, and with none of the players in any state to continue, the match was rightfully abandoned.

As I write this, the news is tentatively good, and is that Muamba is stable (but still critically ill) in hospital, which is remarkable, frankly. I hope that as the hours roll by, the news continues to be positive, and he can make a full and speedy recovery.

But the point of this post wasn’t to tell you what you undoubtedly already know – even if you weren’t watching the game I have no doubt that you have since been made aware of the situation. The point of the post was to bring attention to the incredible unity that so many believe football incapable of.

On the field, players who had been tearing into each other just minutes before were embracing, supporting each other, no matter the shirt they were wearing or the issues any of them had with each other. At that moment, they were just men scared for the safety of a stricken colleague.

Off the field, the Bolton fans sung his name with gusto, and the Spurs fans ignored the fact that Muamba was not only an opponent, but an Arsenal product, and joined in with equal volume and passion. Every single person that sung his name deserves immense credit for showing the sort of humanity and care that counters the belief that the sport is bereft of it.

But finally, and most importantly, the medical staff who tended to him on the field, who did everything they could to resuscitate him in those immediate and crucial moments, who treated him on the way to, and at the hospital – they are the real heroes. They may have saved the life of a 23 year old who has already been through more strife in his tender years than most of us could even imagine, and who is now a doting father. We look up to some strange people – celebrities, musicians, even footballers – but these people are genuinely deserving.

Thanks to them, Muamba still has a fighting chance, and for that everyone should be enormously grateful and relieved.

Get well soon, Fabrice.

Arsenal 3-0 Milan: Symbiosis of player and fan

Arsenal News, Matches 4 Responses »

Mar 082012

What an incredible match, what an incredible night. Glorious, heroic failure is such a clichéd notion, but sometimes there are few other ways to describe what is going on in front of your eyes.

We wanted fight, we wanted pride, we wanted to at least give Milan a scare. I suspect even those suggesting a remarkable comeback had parts of their tongue in their cheek. But what seemed a dead rubber ended up being a spectacle that reunited players with disillusioned fans, and despite not being enough to progress to the quarter finals demonstrated many of the qualities so valued (and missed) in recent years. Speed, precision, bravery and a refusal to give up were all in evidence, and as the players battled, the crowd roared their approval. For ninety minutes, there was no criticism, no exasperated sighs, just sheer unadulterated support for a set of footballers willing to leave every ounce they had on the lush green grass of the Grove.

Ultimately, it wasn’t enough to overturn the horrors of the first leg, but it may yet prove a pivotal night in the careers of many – players and manager alike. Maybe it will turn into another false dawn, or maybe it could be the night when everyone got back on the same page, put aside their differences and grievances and noted that we are us, they are them, and they will forever be the enemy.

The last ten days have been remarkable. Two goals down to Spurs and a mutiny was on the cards, yet three enormously impressive wins (all for different reasons) have given us all the momentum. We are the ones raising our game as the others slip under pressure. There have been some miraculous individual performances, some from unexpected sources – Rosicky proved last night that his superb display against Spurs was not a one-off, while young Oxlade-Chamberlain is proving too good to ease into the team at the rate Wenger would have undoubtedly wished. As for the main man up front? Four more goals in those three victories, it is also his captaincy that is impressing – under his leadership the team seems more united that any we’ve seen since the middle of last decade. Long may it continue.

What made the victories so impressive is that in each of our last three games, I feel we’ve had comfortably the worst of the officiating. But on all three occasions, we have triumphed, and for those who say that last night was not a success, I would strongly disagree. We just beat the current Serie A leaders and in-form team, and we beat them well.

I’m not going to go into a detailed match report – you all watched it after all. Suffice to say that the very fact we had our hopes raised so high by half time was evidence enough that this Arsenal team is capable of really pushing on. And push on we must – a run of performances like that and third is ours for the taking. With it comes the guarantee of Champions League football without a pesky qualifier in August, and means we can plan for the season ahead knowing exactly where we stand. And of course, it enables us to celebrate the annual St. Totteringham’s Day gigglethon.

Last night made many proud. It made me proud. I envy those that were there, but also tip my hat to everyone who went along and sung at the top of their lungs, helping the players nearly achieve the seemingly impossible. You were awesome.

We’ll be back. In the meantime, Spurs, we’re coming to get you.