Thoughts on the Emirates Cup

Not much else happening at the moment, so I decided to go ahead and give you my thoughts on the Emirates Cup weekend. We’ve won the Cup by grabbing two wins, conceding no goals and producing a smashing performance against Lyon. One which spelled an end to Arsenal fans’ ongoing “buy Lacazette for 35 million” tune, simply because the Frenchman did nothing of note. Our youngsters were much more impressive than Alexandre. First things first, though.

Emi Martinez, what a great goalkeeper

I remember a period in November when both Szczesny and Ospina were injured (good luck to Szczesny during his loan spell with Roma, by the way) and Martinez was thrown into the limelight. The young Argentinian came in, kept three clean sheets in a row and left everyone in quiet awe. He was calm, commanding and professional. Then came the drubbing at Stoke away, which led to Arsene quickly putting Emi out of the firing line, but few fans doubted Martinez was the real deal by that point.

Martinez demonstrated his ability again on Saturday, making a couple of fine saves to keep the score at 0-0. His concentration levels didn’t drop after we effectively dispatched Lyon inside a 9-minute frenetic spell and by the time the final whistle blew I almost wished Emi wasn’t 3rd in our pecking order. He’ll most likely go on loan this season to play regularly and I can’t see where he fits in with Cech, Ospina and possibly reinvigorated Szczesny next year, but I hope Martinez has a future with us.

Aaron Ramsey

Him and Ozil were at the heart of everything good as long as the duo was on the pitch. The Welshman worked tirelessly next to Coquelin and his occasional defensive indiscipline can be forgiven because he contributed so much at the other end.

He directly assisted Iwobi for the 3rd, scored the 4th, was instrumental at starting the attack for the 2nd by relieving the pressure, freeing up space and finding Giroud, who in his turn set up Oxlade and it was Ramsey’s tricky exchange with Giroud and Ozil that led to the German scoring the 5th.

Last week’s performance in Singapore left me firmly believing Cazorla will be preferred to Ramsey when we face Chelsea: this time around I’m not sure at all. Rambo has unbelievable engine, almost telepathic connection with Ozil and is simply unplayable on his day. He’s given the manager a proper selection headache.

Mesut Ozil

I won’t concentrate on his connection with Ramsey, won’t go over Mesut’s ability to slice open defenses with passes. I even won’t mention the fact he got further 2 assists (setting up Giroud and Ramsey). What struck me most was Ozil’s willingness to shoot more, get into the danger areas more and, frankly, adopting a very direct approach at times. There was that instance when Cech booted the ball long following a corner and I was fully expecting Oxlade or even Ramsey to be furthest. Instead, Ozil was closest to the opposition’s goal.

I feel like a proper pre-season put the German in the mood. The prospect of having him in the squad for the entire campaign genuinely excites me.

Santi Cazorla

He had a quieter weekend than I expected him to. However, that didn’t stop the little Spaniard from scoring from a direct free-kick after coming on as a substitute.

Another detail is that Santi was pretty unnoticeable against Wolfsburg alongside Arteta, but immediately sparked into life when Hayden came on for Mikel. Isaac liberated Santi from staying behind and sweeping up; something which enabled Cazorla to really start pulling the strings late on.

I think if we want him to impact games from his deep role, it’s essential to provide Santi with a true sweeper, like Coquelin.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Like Ramsey, Alex is another senior who had a truly exciting weekend. It is my firm belief he should be a regular starter on the right flank.

The Ox had two complete performances. He did everything you could ask of him: he pressed, he harassed defenders, he powered past them with the ball, he provided width by hugging the byline. Finally, he added end product to his game. For me, Oxlade is becoming an Alexis Sanchez and I struggle to come up with a better compliment.

Youngsters: Alex Iwobi, Chuba Akpom, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Isaac Hayden

All four looked spectacular. Iwobi only played for an hour against Lyon, but what a game he had. Alex scored a cracker with his left foot, he scored another after being wrongly flagged offside, he chased down defenders, he took them on with the ball at his feet. He even tracked back and in fact defended more than Gibbs, who had an underwhelming performance in my view. Iwobi was nominated for MoM, though brilliant performances from Ozil and Ramsey ensured he didn’t get it.

Chuba Akpom replaced Iwobi and cracked a shot off the outside of the post, he earned the free-kick that Santi scored from and was a constant threat down the left side. His second cameo was less spectacular and will probably be remembered for that late moment he failed to get the most out of, but he looked sharp and up for it, chomping at the bit.

Jeff Reine-Adelaide was probably the revelation of the weekend. He showed some really slick moves to set up Akpom and Walcott, demonstrated ability to escape his markers and looked very physical, more than you’d come to expect from a 17-year-old. His style eerily reminded me of Diaby, ghosting past opponents.

Hayden cut a less dramatic figure, something that can easily be explained by his role: he subbed Coquelin and Arteta (position-wise). And he looked very good, let me tell you that, snapping into tackles, intercepting the ball and basically doing all the dirty work, thus liberating Cazorla to work his magic. Hope we’ll see more of Hayden in that role, in Capital One Cup maybe.

A bit of tactics

I usually leave it for people better equipped on that front than yours truly, but this time I decided to share my thoughts for whatever they are worth.

The idea is very simple: I noticed how heavily we relied on our pressing game during pre-season and how bleak we looked against Wolfsburg, something which was down to the wrong personnel, in my view.

Which lead me to contemplate a following thought: will some of our established regulars make the squad if they cannot play the pressing game properly? Such an approach is heavily based on energetic players closing down opponents and passing angles all over the pitch, while it also needs to be coupled with a high line of defense to suffocate opposition.

As such, players will be left behind. While Arsene is unlikely to sacrifice his philosophy of one romping full-back and one more conservative (Bellerin & Monreal, please, not Debuchy & Gibbs), adopting a high-energy pressing tac will most likely spell an end for Mertesacker (Gabriel for him), Cazorla (Ramsey or Wilshere) and, alas, Walcott. Yes, Giroud is simply a hard worker, much like Welbeck, Oxlade, Sanchez and Co, so Theo falls down the pecking order. Community Shield should give us a better idea which squad and approach Arsene prefers.

Harmony

“I can understand this question (about whether Arsenal is on the market for a striker) because we are in the transfer period but I can only repeat what I already said. I would not like it to be too detrimental. Just watch the game and enjoy the game that you see.”

Everyone was throwing around the word “cohesion” recently. Here’s another word for you from yours truly: harmony. Squad harmony. It’s very important and here’s why.

Keeping our squad happy is going to be a tough task already this season. We have a big squad, with fierce competition in every position (Cech, Koscielny, Coquelin, Ozil and Sanchez are the only sure starters for Wenger, it seems).

Now imagine we buy a world class striker. Let it be Benzema, just for the sake of the argument. I’m still not sure he’s much of an upgrade on Giroud, but that’s a different story.

Having coughed up a considerable sum for Benzema, Arsene will do so with one intention only: to make Karim a regular. Who’ll suffer as a result? Everyone else in attack. Welbeck’s chances for that central striker role will plummet, leaving poor Danny competing with Alexis or Oxlade, Walcott’s chances will do likewise (and I’d still pick Oxlade over Theo on the right), while Giroud, who is a similar type of forward will find himself benched having done little wrong. Akpom can kiss his hopes for first-team minutes altogether.

This can have a highly detrimental effect on our squad. Morale-wise. Wenger has shown he can be ruthless when he bought Cech, benched Ospina and shipped out Szczesny on loan, but buying Benzema will be a bit overboard. It will be doing a disservice to every other attacker, since it will diminish chances and increase an already fierce competition.

Wrapping it up

Phew, it’s already pretty long, so I’ll leave it here. Will most likely be back with a preview for Community Shield.

Until then

We already have a younger DM in Arteta's mould - there was no need to buy Schneiderlin

Are you scratching your heads after reading the title? Or do you think yours truly has completely gone off the rails and thinks Bielik is ready for the step-up?

In fact the answer is much simpler - and it doesn’t involve a 17-year-old to making a breakthrough anytime soon. Though I’ve heard reports about him being at a more advanced stage than most people tend to think, I doubt he’ll feature much in the next couple of years. By the time he’s ready, not only Arteta’s legs but the Spaniard in his entirety would have left the Emirates.

I’m talking about an internal solution, one which has been staring us in the face for some time now, yet one we never considered. Simply put, it has flown under the radar. The solution’s name is Calum Chambers.

At this point people are probably furiously searching for torches and pitchforks on Amazon with the sole intention of heading to where I reside with the said items. Chambers, you say? The right-back who is not a right-back, whose form dipped, who barely featured in the second half of the season? Who is now 4th-choice centre-back and who, according to the majority, has been a flop, wasted money? Yes, him.

Here’s my unpopular opinion: Calum can and will excel at either centre-back or defensive midfield. At both if we are lucky. I think he is the long-term answer to replacing Mertesacker, yet he could also become a long-term solution to our ongoing DM conundrum.

Calum probably lacks the attributes to be a modern full-back. He is not Bellerin-fast lightning-fast, his crossing ability is not at it’s highest & he has sometimes been found wanting in one-on-one situations against a pacy winger.

At the same time he greatly reminds me of both Arteta and Mertesacker. His game is not about speed: it’s about intelligence; he may not possess the physical attributes to outmuscle his opponents: but he can be effective at shadowing them and intercepting the ball. Finally, he is a good distributor from the back and is cool under pressure. He is good at getting out of tight spots, sometimes he is unnervingly good, almost at Cazorla’s level.

They say the first impression sticks and my first impression of the guy is an overwhelmingly positive one: Community Shield game and the matches that followed in the month of August. During that period Chambers played at centre-back, paired with Koscielny. It was more circumstance than design: Mertesacker still hasn’t returned from his World Cup winning escapades. Vermaelen has left and Debuchy was playing at right-back.

So Calum slotted in at centre-back and became out stand-out performer against City, Palace & Besiktas. At the end of the month he looked less sharp (which I put down to playing alongside Mertesacker, who has a very similar playstyle), before being shortly consigned to the bench in September, until Debuchy did his ankle in.

Nonetheless even Arsenal fans were impressed with Calum so much they voted him as the Player of August. Comparisons with Tony Adams were flying around, people were running out of superlatives for Chambers’ composure and maturity in hard situations. Chambers himself was deputising at right-back, a position he was initially bought for. September, October, November - 12 straight games at right back in all competitions. He was playing alongside an under-par Per Mertesacker and at some point also Monreal, who was standing in for an injured Koscielny.

Chambers’s performances at right-back were less spectacular than his earlier outings at centre-back. Yet he was quietly consistent, doing an insane amount of work at a new team - in short, too much was asked of a 19-year-old. Then came the Swansea game. Poor Calum was repeatedly roasted by Montero, but there was no one we could replaced him with - Debuchy was still injured and Bellerin was yet to emerge as a potent force.

Suddenly Calum was scorched by the Arsenal faithful. Was it just one game, that night at the Liberty Stadium? I think it was. I do not recall him seriously underperforming up to this point. Fortunately, Debuchy recovered soon after and Chambers was taken out of the firing line. Bellerin made his grand entrance on January 11th when the unluckiest man to ever walk this Earth (apart from Diaby), Debuchy, was cynically shoved into the advertising boards by Arnautovic.

Calum took a back seat once again, making a substitute appearance here and there. However when he did come on as a sub, he did grand - just think back how he adapted during the Newcastle  game, or his performance at Old Trafford in the cup when we had to take Bellerin off so that the ref wouldn’t take him off (God bless you, Michael Oliver, by the way).

Calum finished the season quietly, not even making the bench for the FA Cup final. I’m sure that’s what Wenger wanted:

“For a 19-year-old player, he has played too many games. They all hit the wall after 15, 17 games. You have to give them a breather, refresh and get them back again. At the moment, to have that responsibility in every single game is a lot on a player of that age.”

This is what Arsene Wenger said at the end of December, after our 2-2 draw against Liverpool. By that time Chambers was struggling in the earnest, having played the full 90 minutes in 7 games out of 8 (following the Swansea match), one of which was basically a dead rubber game against Galatasaray. He really was found wanting only once: against Stoke, after receiving a harsh second yellow, but then our entire team struggled on that night at Britannia Stadium.

So, what now for Calum Chambers? All we know is that he reported for training early, keen to pin down a regular spot on the team. His path at centre-back looks quite crowded, however: Wenger hinted Gabriel will feature more, Mertesacker is still our captain (though I get the feeling he’ll be slowly integrated out of the team this coming season) and there are rumours flying around we are after another centre-back: Howedes confirmed Arsenal was interested, we apparently bid for Rugani. Calum will have his work cut out to play at centre-back.

But the DM position looks less vied for. Sure, Coquelin will play most games, but a) he won’t play ALL games b) sometimes we need a better passer in the middle of the park. Remember how Arsene took off Coquelin against Monaco away and Swansea at home to enhance our passing ability? Then he started Cazorla in that deep role altogether against Sunderland.

Simply put, we don’t have a Coq-of-all-trades. Sometimes we are better off with an Arteta-esque midfielder - a slick passer, one who contributes to our build-up play. Of course, there’s a small matter of Arteta himself sticking around for at least one more year - but I still feel Chambers will get his chance at DM, maybe in the cups and such. There’s reason to believe Wenger will try Chambers there (as he himself said back in August):

“I believe he can play in defensive midfield and that’s where I see him.”

Unless he changed his mind, of course.

Until later

A shirt for a Gunner in need

(the following story is a real one)

It was the morning of June 15th in Minehead, Somerset. George was standing with his son Dan on the sunlit platform, waiting for the First Great Western to arrive. The train was bound for London. As was always the case in mid-June, George was planning to attend Arsenal’s kit launch. As years went by, the event became overhyped and attracted too much attention for George’s liking, but he couldn’t miss it. He never missed it once in over 20 years. So as soon as the date was announced, he booked two tickets to London.

Finally, the train ground to a halt before them. George and Dan boarded it and were surprised by the lack of fellow passengers. But then of course it was Monday, the first working day of the week. It takes dedication to ask for a day off to attend a kit launch, dedication few people have. George was one of these few.

A kit launch always brings about happy memories. After the subject of Arsenal’s latest success in the cup was exhausted, George moved onto his fondest memory: clinching the league at White Hart Lane in 2004. It was indeed an occasion to behold: winning the league at your rivals ground is a dream come true, doing such a thing twice is mind-blowing.

Dan had a favourite moment of his own: the FA Cup triumph in 2014. It was the first major cup he saw Arsenal lift, one which ended a nine-year trophy drought. That game was tense, nervy, but a bad start only made Arsenal’s comeback that much more enjoyable.

The train was half an hour away from Reading, when George felt sharp pain in his chest. Suddenly breathing became harder. “No” thought George “This could not be happening. It cannot be happening now!”

“Dad, are you alright?” - he heard his son’s voice as if from a distance. With an effort he steadied himself and managed a smile. “I’m okay” - he said. Another bout of sharp pain. This time the pain didn’t go away, rather, it stayed and became a dull ache. There could be no doubt: it was his heart playing up.

George barely remembered how Dan helped him off the train at the next station, Reading. How Dan flagged a taxi and asked the driver to take them to the nearest hospital. All he could think of was the kit launch. He won’t attend it this year.

He spent that night at the hospital, his son by his side. His brother picked them both up the following morning and drove them back to Minehead, where George checked in at another hospital, this time his local one. The doctors said he was going to spend at least two weeks at the hospital, maybe more.

In two weeks time (on July 1st, which was his father's Birthday), Dan came to the hospital in the morning (as he always did) bearing the good news: Arsenal have just announced the signing of Petr Cech. From Chelsea. Against Mourinho’s wishes. For a meagre sum of 10 million pounds. Arsenal have bought a world-class keeper, one they had lacked ever since Jens Lehmann left the Club in 2008.

“This signing can genuinely push us to the title” - George thought “maybe we won’t even need further additions…” Suddenly his face darkened. “You’ll enjoy Cech’s long-term future at the Club, Dan, I won’t”. He thought he saw a tear sparkle in his son’s eye…

As he closed the door behind him. Dan couldn’t even cry. He felt...helpless. Empty. Powerless even, powerless to help his father. But then it occurred to him that Dad didn’t really mean what he said...he just couldn’t know exactly what his condition held in store. Or maybe he misinterpreted what the doctors said. Dad most likely said what he said because he was down. And who can blame him after what happened on that day two weeks ago… A day that seemed far away now, almost as if it never happened.

So the real problem might not be his father’s condition; the problem Dan had to solve was overcoming Dad’s mood. How could he do it? Then it hit him - the kit launch. Heart problems wasn’t the only reason George was feeling low, missing the kit launch also contributed to that. But how does he rectify missing the launch? The only thing Dan could think of was buying a shirt from the The Armoury, yet he himself couldn’t do it, as he had no money right now.

Dan was starting to feel desperate. His plan was destined to succeed, yet it could also fall through at the first hurdle - the financial hurdle. He needed someone to buy the shirt for him, his only option was to tell the story somewhere where a large number of people can hear it and help him by donating the shirt...Twitter was such a place.

Arsenal Twitter is a powerful thing. Though some joke the Twitter Gunners are only good for winning polls, they have actually saved a man’s life not so long ago...Surely raising money for a shirt was not too much to ask?

His story was picked up almost instantaneously, by someone under the name of David, from London. David passed it further and two Gunners responded: Nils and Cameron. Both helped immediately, by doing a simple act of ordering the shirt with a delivery-to-the-doorstep option. A simple act, yet one which nobody so often bothers to carry out.

A further week elapsed. George was checked out of hospital a couple of days ago and was sitting at his desk in his room on the first floor. He was absent-mindedly twirling a pen in his hands while staring at the blank computer screen. He was so deep in thought he heard neither the doorbell ring downstairs, nor his son’s shout “I’ll open it!”. Only when Dan knocked on the door had George finally returned to reality and responded: "Come in, son".

Dan entered the room holding something in his hands. His face was paler than usual. no doubt he was deeply affected by the recent events. Yet he was also smiling.

“I have something for you, dad” - Dan said “As a welcome-home present. Should have arrived a bit earlier…” - his voice trailed off and he rather sheepishly stretched out his hand, inviting George to take the parcel. “What could it be?” - George thought “A book?”. But the parcel was far from being either heavy or rectangular… He tore it open with a deft movement.

First thing that caught his eye was the logo. It was Puma’s logo. Several seconds later the wrapper was lying on the floor and George was holding the brand-new Arsenal’s Puma shirt. It looked exactly like the ones paraded less than a month ago at the Emirates, with one notable exception: there was no name on the back. But how…?

He looked up at his son. “You know, that day, on the 1st July when you said...when the Cech deal was announced” - Dan quickly corrected himself “I decided to buy this shirt for you. I know how you wanted to attend the kit launch, even though you never mentioned it then...So I contacted my friend on Twitter and helped me out. Do you like it?” - Dan asked cautiously, closely watching his father’s face. “I thought this would cheer you up a bit so…” He didn’t finish the sentence as his dad hugged him so tightly he thought he heard his ribs crack. “Thank you, Dan” - he thought he saw a tear roll down his father’s cheek. “Thank you”

Squad balance and stability the only things Arsenal really needs to win the title

"We are not going to challenge unless we buy a DM and that world-class striker. Giroud is not good enough to win us the league, while we are one injury away from using Arteta whose legs have gone". Apparently Arteta's legs have left Colney in Diaby's pockets on his way out, but I'm not here to defend either Mikel or Giroud (because I a) have already done that b) don't think they need defending). I'm also not here to point out United have won the league with Carrick, who's exactly the type of player Arteta is... Oh, wait. Seems I have already pointed it out.

Anyway, Arteta is perfect back-up to Coquelin and I won't dwell on the matter any longer as an abundance of articles have been written on the subject in the immediate aftermath of our lego-haired Spaniard signing a one-year contract extension. In my view Arteta is a great leader, both on and off the pitch, a consummate professional and is perfectly capable of 15-20 games a season to allow Coquelin some rest and/or offer something different to Francis.

Rather, this article will be about squad balance and why I believe we can win the league even without further additions. To prove my point I'll do a very simple thing: set a benchmark.

I think we can all agree Chelsea won the league deservedly this season? Yes, yes, we hate the club, the owner, the manager, a certain racist captain and a lot more about Chelsea, but let's not deny Chelsea finished the season top of the table for a reason: they were the better team over the course of the WHOLE campaign. And so I'll go over what I believe helped them win the league and search for these ingredients in our side.

But first an important note: the team is the microcosm of the manager. It adopts the manager's respective style. Chelsea won the league relying heavily on their rock-solid defense, especially in the second half of the season when they were robbed of Costa and Fabregas suffered the usual dip in form.

That doesn't mean the only way to win the league is to play defense-first. In fact, Chelsea has won the league for the first time in five years and I don't remember them playing boring, boring football under Ancelotti. Before that their last league success happened under Mourinho, in 2006.

In ten years Chelsea won the league three times, the other seven times were shared between City (two titles) and United (five!). Neither team played the kind of football Mourinho preaches. So it's entirely possible to win the league playing beautiful attacking football.

With that in mind, let's go!

Defensive stability

Chelsea went into this campaign with one (!) right-back in Ivanovic, two left-backs in Azpilicueta and Luis and 3 recognised centre-backs (Terry, Cahill, Zouma). You can also count in Kalas and Omeruo, depending on how much you trust them.

Now get this: Terry and Ivanovic played ALL league games. Every single minute. 38 goddamn appearances. Cahill clocked 36 outings.

The left-back duties were shared more evenly: 29 appearances for Azpilicueta and 15 for Luis. Nonetheless, Chelsea had a truly stable back four the entire campaign.

On paper, ours defense that season looked better, dare I say: two right-backs in Debuchy and Bellerin, two left-backs in Monreal and Gibbs and three centre-backs in Mertesacker, Koscielny and Chambers. Our downfall was injuries: by Christmas we have played around 15 different combinations of these 7 players.

This year our defense looks even better. We can truly count on Bellerin, Chambers is chomping at the bit at centre-back, while the addition of Gabriel made us reach the Promised Land: two defenders for each position. In fact, our defense looks so good we had to ship out Jenko on loan once more. We showed how a team can benefit from a stable defense in 2015, if we manage to keep our defenders fit, they no doubt have the requisite quality to win us the title.

DM. D-M. DeeeeeM.

Yes, Chelsea have a romping DM: Matic. However do they have back-up? Yes, Obi Mikel. He made a whopping 15 league appearances.

But, you'd say, that's a lot? True, however, here's another fact: Matic played 36 games. Don't you think Coquelin, you know, incidentally, can also play 36 or even more?

Even if he doesn't wrack up that much, do you honestly think Obi Mikel is a better player than Arteta? More capable? So explain to me, why the hell should we spend ridiculous money on Kondogbia or Schneiderlin to play him 10-15 times a season?

If you want backup at backup prices, Arteta is your guy. If you think Schneiderlin is a better destroyer then Coquelin stop watching football now. If you think Schneiderlin should partner Coquelin in midfield look at our bench. Then at Schneiderlin and at our bench again. If Wilshere can't make the squad and Ramsey was forced out wide to get some minutes, how probable it is that Schneiderlin will play a lot alongside Coq?

Striker

Yes, Costa is a better forward than Giroud. But he also operates differently, facing the goal. Giroud's role is more subtle: he is a springing board for our wingers: as such he plays with his back to the goal.

Nonetheless, Giroud scored 14 goals in 27 league games last season. A goal every two games is a decent return for any striker in any league.

When Costa suffered a series of injuries in the second half of the campaign, Chelsea's goals dried up. In the period from mid-January till the end of May Chelsea almost couldn't rely on Costa. They played 16 league games during that spell, only scoring more than two goals three times - and in two of these three occasions Costa was present. They had to rely on their defense and occasional goals from Loic Remy to wrack up points, narrowly escaping draws and even losses on more occasions than one.

Unsurprisingly, our hardest period (September till beginning of December) coincided with Giroud being out. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's hard to score goals when your main striker is not starting week in, week out.

However, that's not my point. Rather, who did Chelsea have as back-up? That's right, the aforementioned Loic Remy. With all due respect to the man, he's not much better (if at all) than our backup options: Walcott and Welbeck. Walcott on form is just lethal (however he was also out from September till December!), while Welbeck is also far from the flop people make him out to be.

A couple of words on midfield

We have (and had last season since no one was brought in yet) the best midfield in the league. It's not the Arsenal fan speaking in me, I genuinely believe we have a brilliant midfield.

The problem was, you guessed it, injuries to Ozil and Arteta. Coquelin was yet to resurface early in the campaign. How do you think Chelsea would have fared without Cesc, Matic and Obi Mikel? Not nearly as good as they did with them, I'm sure of it.

Wrapping it up

I’ll make a bold statement: we are a better team than Chelsea. I’ll go even further: we were the better team at the outset of the last season. Why didn’t we win the league then?

Simple: stability. We lacked stability all over the pitch, not the least because key players spent a lot of time on the sidelines. As soon as they returned, we started killing it. Our last five league games weren’t nearly as good as we hoped, but I put it down to securing a Champions League place early. The players kind of...burnt out.

Chelsea won because the spine of their team played together for the whole campaign. If we could keep our players fit for the duration of the season, we will challenge, even without additions.

Over and out from me

We are larger than Tottenham: this shouldn't even be a debate

For a couple of years now I’ve tried to grasp the concept of Arsenal and Tottenham hating each other on all levels: from fans to the board. I do realise that emotions are irrational. You hate someone just because you hate someone. Full stop. And yet, and yet…

Surely fans aren’t born with this. It’s a cultivated feeling. If you are born into the Gooner family (and I don’t mean that thing on Twitter, I mean mommy and daddy), chances are they’ll raise you to hate Spurs. Works the other way around too, of course.

It will probably remain a mystery to me, but I genuinely don’t understand how the hate feeling can be cultivated. You can’t be made to hate someone because of the fact of their existence, especially if you didn’t feel any negative emotions towards them in the first place. However, it’s not the point of this article.

The point is rather this: how can there be a debate about which Club is bigger? Hatred aside, I’ve seen grown men having heated arguments that “Arsenal/Spurs is bigger than Spurs/Arsenal because…” In my view, it’s completely nonsensical.

I may not understand the hate concept because I wasn’t born in London, or into the family of one of the respective clubs, but the ongoing debate about which Club is bigger wasn’t at any point something that needed proving or having arguments about. In my view, comparisons and head-to-head battles can only take place when the opponents are worthy matches. Which is not the case here. Simply put, Arsenal are a big club, while Spurs are irrelevant. Here’s why.

History (honours)

Just looking at the list of honours the Clubs have should put the argument to bed. The last time Spurs won a trophy was in 2008 (it was the League Cup). Their last FA Cup was won in 1991 (24 years ago), while their last league triumph came in 1961 (54 years ago!). On overall they have 2 league titles, 8 FA Cups, 4 league cups and 2 UEFA Cups. If we are counting the Community Shield, Spurs have won it 7 times, 3 of which being joint winners.

Arsenal’s last major cup came in, well, 2015. Before that, in 2014. We have won the league 13 times, set the record for most FA Cup wins with 12. We haven’t won any UEFA Cups, but claimed the Community Shield as ours 13 times, sharing it just once.

Spurs have recorded 1 Double, Arsenal have 3 (two of these in recent history). Furthermore, Arsenal went unbeaten in the league in 2004, claiming the only existing Golden Trophy.

Managers

I’ll say just one word: continuity. Over their 129-year history Arsenal has changed a mere 18 managers (!). It means Arsenal managers averaged 7 years at the helm! Our longest-serving manager is our current one: Arsene Wenger, who’s just year short of reaching 20-years-in-charge milestone. He is followed by George Allison (13 years), Bertie Mee (10 years), George Graham, Herbert Chapman and George Whittaker (all 9 years).

What about Spurs? They have changed 41 managers (!) in 133 years. Their longest-serving manager is Bill Nicholson (16 years), followed by Peter McWilliam (15 years) and Keith Burkinshaw (8 years). Everyone else held out 6 years or less. Furthermore, they have changed 25 managers in the last 31 years. For comparison’s sake, we’ve only changed 7 in the same time frame, out of which 4 were caretakers, prior to appointments of George Graham, Bruce Rioch and Arsene Wenger respectively (Stuart Houston and Pat Rice shared duties for a very short period).

Stadiums

Arsenal played at Manor Ground at the very beginning, apart from a three-year stint at the nearby Invicta Ground between 1890 and 1893. After that the Gunners moved to Highbury (in 1913) and it has been the Club’s home for 92 years. Now we play at the Emirates, a state-of-the-art modern stadium opened in 2006.

Tottenham played at different public pitches at the outset, for a period of about 6 years, before moving to their current ground, White Hart Lane. To give you some context, White Hart Lane’s capacity is 36 thousand, while Highbury’s was 38 thousand. Even after countless renovations Tottenham’s stadium remained smaller than Highbury, to say nothing about how Emirates is bigger than White Hart Lane.

Why did I bring the subject up altogether? Simple: Spurs are planning to build a new ground, one which will seat 500+ more people than the Emirates currently does. It’s very obviously a stab at Arsenal, but this transition is irrational at its highest for Spurs.

While we needed a new stadium because Highbury was no longer capable of giving all the fans a chance to attend a game, Spurs don’t have such a problem. Their average attendance last season was a thousand or so below the maximum capacity of White Hart Lane. They won’t fill their new stadium. They simply don’t have that many fans.

The verdict

I could probably go on and on, talking about players and such, but I see no point really. On top of all the facts I mentioned, I will add one more that’ll further rub the salt into Spurs fans’ wounds: they haven’t finished above us for at least twenty years. Frankly, I see no further grounds for comparisons.

I can compare us to United or Liverpool, even to Chelsea and City. I say “even” because the latter two clubs have only become successful quite recently. Comparing Tottenham to us makes no sense. Apart from occasional wins in North London derbies, they don’t have anything to demonstrate their superiority. Especially since said wins usually start a comeback for Arsenal and a downfall for Spurs.

Cheers!

My top ten moments as a Gunner (2005-2015)

In what is essentially a follow-up to Gary’s worst 10 moments, I decided to liven things up with my BEST 10 moments. Keep in mind I can only talk about those I’ve seen with my own eyes, so I’ll only cover the period from 2005 onwards. I’ll list them in chronological order. Hope you’ll enjoy the ride!

FA Cup final: Arsenal 0-0 Manchester United (5-4 on pens)

Two moments still stand out for me: Arsenal had a dire attacking performance due to being injury-stricken (no Gilberto and Henry, while Wiltord left the Gunners a year earlier) and backs-to-the-wall defending with some brilliant Lehmann saves.

We had to rely on Bergkamp leading the line alone (I think it was his last official game for the Club), a young Robin van Persie and Jose Antonio Reyes who failed to adapt. So Arsene did the very unusual thing for him and set out not to concede. In a cup final against Manchester United with the likes of Ronaldo, Keane and Giggs all still on top form.

And it worked. Lehmann bailed us out of trouble time and again, before finally saving a penalty from Scholes in the shoot-out. Viera cooly converted his spot-kick (his last game for the Club too) and won our only trophy for the next 9 years.

2006 Champions League run

Yes, I know we lost it in the end and I still fear we missed our best chance of winning the trophy on that night in Paris, but hear me out. As a fan who has just started supporting the Club witnessing Arsenal overpower European giants time and again by relying on a rock-solid defense and a brilliant keeper was nothing short of awe-inspiring. Lehmann set a record that season, a record which hasn’t been bested still, of stringing together 10 clean sheets. Ha came close to 1000 minutes without conceding a goal before being sent off in the final.

Nonetheless it was a joy to watch. Our Invincible squad was still mostly intact (Viera and Bergkamp) exempting, but we were hit hard by injuries and got to the final playing a back four of Eboue, Senderos, Toure and Flamini, with Henry also swinging in and out the squad. And yet we made it to the final, beating Real Madrid, Juventus and Villarreal (thank you, Jens!) in the process. It was the first time Arsenal reached semi-finals and the final itself.

Arsenal 2-1 Barcelona (2011)

I watched that game while on winter vacation in Thailand. The TV was old, but it worked properly and showed the thing I couldn’t have missed: the last sixteen tie against Barcelona. Our squad was still pretty shambolic at that stage: only Fabregas, Nasri, van Persie and, to a lesser extent, Arshavin and Rosicky were up to scratch against the mighty Catalans. Oh, and let’s not forget about Jack Wilshere. Walcott was injured (I think), Arshavin and Rosicky started the game on the bench.

The first half was all Barca. They pressed, played their tika-taka and went in front through David Villa. However in the second half Arsenal mounted an unlikely comeback. Van Persie struck on the 78th minute from an unbelievably tight angle, while Arshavin (who entered the fray ten minutes prior to our equaliser) took his chance from a swift counter attack. 2-1, and an Arsenal side with Eboue, Senderos and Koscielny (in his debut season) came out on top against the overwhelming favourites.

Arsenal 1-0 Leeds United (2012)

Just a 3rd round FA Cup game on the face of it. But I’m sure you all understand why I brought this game up: it marked the return of the King.

That’s right, Thierry Henry made his grand entrance that night. After Gervinho went to play at the African Cup of Nations, we needed cover in attack. Thierry Henry was training with the team during that period, as he always did ahead of a new season in MLS. The season wasn’t bound to begin for a few more months, so Arsene asked Red Bulls’ permission to loan Thierry. They did not object.

And so Thierry Henry was introduced to the proceedings in the 68th minute, after we couldn’t break Leeds down. It took him only ten minutes to score, something he did in his usual fashion: by cutting in from the left and slotting the ball into the far corner. I will say no more, just leave you with this video:

Bayern Munich 0-2 Arsenal (2013)

We made an utter mess in our home game at the Emirates (sounds familiar?) and went into the game as complete underdogs, needing to either win 3-1 to take the game into extra time or win by three goals. At the Allianz Arena. It was a monumental task for three reasons:

1. Bayern were having a bloody good campaign both domestically and in Europe. They haven’t conceded twice in one game for God knows how long
2. No one in Europe managed to beat Bayern at their turf by two goals
3. Our campaign was on a negative spiral (I believe that’s the phrase, Andre?) We have just lost to Tottenham, 4th was slipping out of our reach. On top of all that, our first-choice keeper (Szczesny) and our captain (Vermaelen) were abysmal. Both were dropped for that game (Szczesny was suspended, truth be told)

Our plan was to score a quick goal and then shut shop. We did just that. Giroud scored from a Walcott pass in the 3rd minute, Fabianski produced a brilliant performance between the sticks and then Koscielny headed home in the 86th minute. Bayern were scared out of their wits at that point and kept the ball at the corner flag for the remainder of the game.

Topping the table in 2013-2014

No one expected us to do that. Yes, we signed Mesut Ozil (Ya Gunners Ya), but still the form we demonstrated was out of this world good. Ramsey was phenomenal, Ozil was phenomenal, our back 5 (Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs and Szczesny) was phenomenal.

We won 17, drew 4 and lost only 3 games (the first loss came in the first game). We deservedly were at the top till early February, at one stage 5 points clear of 2nd-placed City (or was it Chelsea?). Unfortunately, injuries to Ozil, Giroud and Ramsey sent our season to kingdom come, however, a nice surprise was awaiting the fans at the end.

Winning the FA Cup in 2014

We had a very tough run and the toughest games were the ones everyone thought were a bit easier: Wigan and Hull. Before that we had to take down Tottenham, Liverpool (with rampaging Suarez and Sturridge) and Everton in brilliant form.

Then we almost lost it against Wigan (thank you, Per Mertesacker!), before mounting an almighty comeback against Hull in the final. Two goals down inside 8 minutes, Gibbs header off the line and then Cazorla’s free-kick. Koscielny equalised from a corner deep into the second half, before we finally broke down a stubborn Hull side with a little help from Ollie Giroud and man-of-the-season Aaron Ramsey. Watching a happy (and completely soaked in champagne) Arsene lift the cup still brings a smile to my face.

Signing Alexis Sanchez (2014)

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, not Mesut Ozil. Why? The answer is simple: while I knew Ozil was a great player, I haven’t really seen much of him prior to his switch. Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t calm down for a week when we snatched Ozil on deadline day, but Sanchez represented something more.

The Chilean's capture confirmed Ozil was not a lucky bounce. It showed we really are capable of signing world-class players from the biggest clubs in Europe. Furthermore, I was watching Alexis Sanchez play all June for Chile and dreamed of us getting him. What a player, I thought. If only we could sign him…

And then we did sign him. Even before Germany were crowned champions. Sanchez went on to have a massive campaign, almost instantly becoming a favourite among the fans for his sheer passion, hunger and desire to succeed. What a man.

Manchester United 1-2 Arsenal (2015)

That fateful night we lifted the curse of Old Trafford. We lifted it in the best way possible: by dominating a toothless United side throughout. Monreal scored a typical Arsenal goal after Oxlade danced through Red Devils defense. Rooney’s header cancelled our goal goal out, however.

Then Welbeck stepped up. Pouncing on an underhit backpass from Valencia, he rounded off De Gea and slotted the ball into the empty net, before celebrating with gusto. The irony of a player who Van Gaal named “not up to scratch” knocking out your team still makes me sneer.

FA Cup success in 2015

We had once again made it to the final, though our route was easier than last time around. However, I’ll remember that win for the emphatic performance in the final itself.

We dominated the entire game, with Aston Villa failing to record a single shot on target. Meanwhile, we scored four goals, Sanchez screamer standing out among them. One success in the cup can be coincidence, two consecutive trophies are not: Arsenal is back.

Wrapping it up

That’s it, ladies and gentlemen. Hope you enjoyed re-living these moments with me. I know I did. Share your own best moments in the comment section below.

Cheers!