Arsenal 2-2 Manchester City: good, but not good enough

Evening everyone.

So, we drew with City. Was it a point gained or two lost? I'm leaning towards the former option, looking through the prism of the last ten minutes, but the simple fact remains: Arsenal has only taken 6 points out of 4 games. There were both positives and negatives to our performance today, so I'll just break the review down in parts, as I usually do.

The set-up

Rainbow laces campaign aside, I thought our squad was pretty unexpected. Both Gibbs and Arteta started the game on the bench, in favour of Monreal and Flamini respectively, Ozil started on the left once again and Cazorla remained an unused sub throughout. In a positive twist of events, Wilshere played right from the off under our shiny new buy Welbeck.

City's team also held a couple of surprises. Sabaleta, Milner and Lampard all started, while Toure was nowhere in sight. Injury, probably. Aguero spearheaded the attack, with Jovetic out.

The first half

Arsenal started brightly, retaining possession of the ball and should have gone ahead in the 12th minute. Welbeck was sent clean through following a defender's mistake, but his clever chipped effort hit the inside of the post and rebounded into play. I had a bad feeling we would pay for such wastefulness and, unfortunately, I was right.

After some hassle in midfield, Navas picked up the ball on the flank, ran half the field and clipped a low pass towards Aguero. The Argentine, unmarked for some peculiar reason, had the simplest of jobs.

We could have been 2-0 down minutes later, but, luckily, Silva's effort was brilliantly saved by Szczesny. 1-0 down after 45 minutes.

The second half

Arsene made no changes during the break and, much as was wrapping my head around this decision, I couldn't find fault with it. Who should AW have subbed? A lively and threatening Ramsey, even though the Welshman was a bit erratic? Flamini, our only holding midfielder, after the Frenchman was preferred to Arteta? Ozil, who was far from his best, but still produced moments of magic?

Once again we could have conceded on a counter. Silva's pass found Clichy, but his chipped effort went just wide. Thankfully, cause Szczesny was well and truly beaten. At this point I started having my doubts about Arsenal relishing even a point from the game, but then Wilshere made his grand entrance.

After Jack interchanged passes with Ozil and, subsequently, Ramsey, he found space in the box, swept the defender aside and sent the ball into the far corner. 1-1.

We started pouring men forward, sensing City's weakness and Debucht should have put us in front, only for his effort to skid wide.

And then, suddenly, we were 2-1 up. Some scuffle near the box resulted in a headed pass from Wilshere and Sanchez was on hand to smash home a beautiful volley. The Chilean ripped his shirt off in celebration, but our joy was premature, unfortunately.

Just minutes after the goal, Debuchy was stretched off the pitch. The Frenchman landed on his ankle and sprained it, as a result. He left the field to a standing ovation and Chambers came on.

Despite his brilliant form, Calum was unable to prevent an equaliser seven minutes from time. Silva crossed from a corner, Demichelis met the cross with a powerful header and the ball went in. This was the case of Szczesny doing too much, as Flamini was ready to clear his lines, but you cannot blame Wojciech for being too much of a goalkeeper. It's his job to save shots, it's in his blood to react to such efforts.

City could have nicked a win in the dying minutes, twice hitting the post and even scoring from an offside position, but ultimately we've escaped with a point and it's a point well-deserved.

The aftermath

"I think we produced a game of top quality. It was a game of top quality between two very good teams, played at tremendous pace, especially in the first half. We were unlucky to be 1-0 down in the first half and we did something remarkable to come back and be in a leading position. The only frustrating thing for me is that we didn't manage to keep the lead and gave a cheap goal away. That's where we have room for improvement because it was a very encouraging game but the way we conceded the second goal nearly killed our game."

Arsene Wenger's take on our performance and I agree with it completely. We had an outstanding attacking display, the best we had this season, but fell short of winning the game. Our three most damaging trends resurfaced: conceding from a first shot on target, conceding from a counter and conceding from a set-piece. This is really something we have to work on.

on Welbeck’s performance

"He did well. I believe that he needs to develop his link play with our players but that is a bit normal. It’s sad that he couldn’t take his chance but overall every time he had an opportunity to find some space he looked dangerous. There are some things to work on with him to integrate him well into our game but I’m happy with his first game."

I'm in two minds about his performance, actually. He was unlucky not to score, but faded away as we tried to find our rhythm. Reappeared again in the second half, nearly made it to Sanchez's low cross and had some nice touches, but nothing extraordinary. Maybe he was valuable in an other, less pronounced sense. Like we don't always know how well Arteta fared, but can rarely find flaws to his game. He's the cog that makes Arsenal tick. Maybe it's the same with Welbeck.

Finally, on Debuchy's injury

"Debuchy has a badly sprained ankle. How long will he be out? I don't know, but it doesn't look good. People told me they need a bit more time to assess how long he will be out but it's a bad ankle sprain."

It's reported Debuchy will spend 4-6 weeks on the sidelines and it's bad news. Leaving aside the fact that it's our fifth ankle injury this season (Gibbs, Arteta, Ozil, Giroud and now Debuchy), we're down to five senior defenders. One more than we need, right?

That creates a dilemma for me, as to who should play on the right. Playing Chambers is risky, as he's our only CB back-up. However, playing Bellerin can prove riskier still, as he may just not be ready to play on that level on a regular basis. We'll ponder this as the Dortmund game draws nearer.

Phew, that's it for today. Don't beat yourself up because we drew - the Invincibles drew 12 games in 2003-2004. I'm sure 9 draws and 25 wins will do the trick for us.

Until later

Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)

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City preview: on all cylinders

Morning everyone.

Overview

Today we face Manchester City at the Emirates and a win will go a long way towards setting the right mood for the tough fixtures ahead.

We come into this game with only three absentees: Giroud, Walcott and Gnabry. With Olivier the situation is clear: we'll be unable to rely on the Frenchman until New Year. Gnabry's injury is a murky one, but he's not exactly in the first-team picture right now, so, while I wish him speedy recovery, it's not like he'd even be considered for the bench. Walcott is up-and-running, training with the squad and stuff, though he's still a couple of weeks away from being fully fit. Everyone else is available. With that bit in mind, I'll try to guess how we line up for this game, just as I always do.

The back five

Although Ospina is fit and available for selection, Szczesny should start. The Pole have made no blunders during the first five games, saved the team on several occasions and, despite his distribution sometimes bordering on risky (to put it mildly) he's our number 1 at the moment. And rightly so.

In defence, I suspect Gibbs will return at the expense of Monreal (the Spaniard had a good run of games, but may be required as back-up elsewhere). Debuchy, Mert and Kos also have to start. The Frenchman was the only one with a question mark over his head, but he seems to have fully recovered from that nasty concussion and should get the nod. As much as I like Chambers (who, by the way, was voted player of the month), our defense looks much more assured with the usual Mertescielny axis of awesome.

Midfield

Here we have EVERYONE available. I'm not kidding, Arteta and Ozil are both back and I won't be surprised if both are handed starts. Arteta is the captain, so he should play by default, while Ozil is simply one of the best playmakers in the world and definitely the best at Arsenal. Main question is, whether the German will be deployed in his preferred position.

I, for one, think think we should go back to 4-2-3-1, which implies two anchoring midfielders: a sitter and a runner. Arteta and Ramsey at the base (remember how good they were in 2012-2013?), Ozil under the striker. No need to shuffle the German out wide, when we have more capable players to feature there.

However, it'd be interesting to see, whether Arsene wants to experiment a bit and finally give Chambers a run-out in that holding role. I'm leaning towards no for an answer on that one, simply because it's risky to play all your CB's at once. Though we can probably call Hayden for help if needs must (he's had a brilliant U21s game on Thursday) I wouldn't want to go that far down the pecking order.

Also, I want Wilshere to slot in somewhere. Maybe Arteta can be dropped? I've argued his case on numerous occasions, but I always said we may need to come up with something in big games. Maybe Ramsey is not fully fit, despite taking full part in a training session? I hate the idea, but I'd love to see Jack on the pitch. The Englishman was very good, he needs to be playing regularly, so if Arsene can find him a place in the starting 11, that'd be great.

Attack

Danny Welbeck

"Oh Danny boy, the old summer is calling". Can I call him Danny boy from time to time? Yes? No? I will anyway, the temptation is just too hard to resist.

Anyway, all eyes were trained on our shiny new striker during training sessions and most of the questions during the Thursday's press-conference touched on the Englishman. I'll present you the most interesting snippets, however, I strongly advise you to watch the said conference in full, so that you can form your own opinion.

“I'm very pleased [to have signed him] because we lost Olivier Giroud. To find a striker who is a young English international and has the pace to play up front, that is not an easy task.

“He's a team player. I see him more through the middle than on the flanks but what is very good for us is he can play in all three positions - and sometimes behind the striker if needed - so he's very versatile as well."

Arsene's words. Though our manager was pretty coy on the subject of starting Welbeck today, I suspect that's exactly what'll happen.

AW also said he initially wanted to sign Welbeck on loan with a buy-out clause. However, he then stated it was only because the Englishman was AVAILABLE on loan early on deadline day. As soon as Danny was up for grabs permanently, Arsene went ahead and signed the striker.

On the subject of being in Rome, something that displeased most Arsenal fans:

“If I had not travelled that day, Welbeck would not be here. I'll explain that a bit later but the coincidence made that because I was on my way. If I had stayed at home, Welbeck would not be here today. That's the truth.

“We are in 2014 and you can always be in touch with everybody even when you travel. The advantage of that day was I had to get up at six o'clock in the morning and I was available the whole day.”

I'm not into conspiracy theories, so I am not reading too much into it. Arsene got up early, was available all day and thus had the time to pull off the deal. That's it for me. If you want to hear the story in full, listen to the Arsecast Extra.

Flanks

Back to the preview, however. I expect Welbeck to be handed his first start in an Arsenal shirt, but the flanks present a more interesting dilemma. I'm all for Sanchez on the right with the Ox on the left, though Arsene seems reluctant to use the Englishman there. Cazorla should start wide, therefore, but you never know. Santi was great down the middle, so, once again, the manager may not want to tamper with the formation too much.

Bottom line is, we have a lot of options up front. We haven't had that luxury in a long, long time and I don't expect further additions there for at least a couple of years. Sure, Poldi may leave, in which case I'll be all for signing up Reus, but that's about it.

The verdict

We definitely have the strongest squad in years, with almost everyone up-and-running. We've thrashed City at Wembley and I see no reason why we can't do it again. We've become a better team in that month, while they have lost Jovetic and Fernando. Kompany is back, but he's just one guy. On home turf we really should be looking at a win, regardless of who we face.

So c'mon you Gunners.

Finally, a couple of side notes. The rainbow laces campaign is in full swing, with Arsenal players ready to show their support, blah blah blah, something something. Honestly, I'm not much into such things, but you can always read Tim Stillman thoughts on the subject.

Also, some tip Sagna to start against us, despite Sabaleta being fit. I don't know whether the fans will opt to boo Arsenal's former right-back and I'm unable to influence their decision, but I personally don't think it's the welcome the Frenchman deserves. He's given Arsenal his best years and stuck with us through the hard times, so I see no need to jeer him.

That's it for today, back Sunday or Monday with a review.

Until then

Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)

Interlull over, time to get down to business

Good day to you.

The last bout of internationals took place yesterday and we were in for some surprises, as Czech Republic overpowered Holland and Wales was saved by a late free-kick from Bale. I don't much care for the results, but I do care about the well-being of our players.

In this particular case I'm talking about Aaron Ramsey. The Welsh Jesus appeared to have twisted his ankle in the dying seconds of the game and limped off. Although the national manager later said, he thinks Aaron should be ready for Man City clash, I have my doubts.

See, that's why I hate international breaks. Managers only need the players for a couple games once in a while and so they don't much care for their health. And we are left to pick up the pieces.

In a positive turn of events, Gibbs, Arteta and Ozil will all be available for the weekend. There were lingering doubts about the German's ankle, but it seems he's alright, which is definitely good news. Arteta should come in for Flamini (the Frenchman wasn't very convincing against Leicester, as you can recall), but it'll be interesting to see whether Arsene will drop Monreal and what shape our midfield will take. Should Ramsey miss out (God forbid), we don't have a second anchoring midfielder to play alongside Arteta, which makes me think Arsene will once again play three central midfielders. It means Ozil on the flank. With all due respect to AW, I don't think it's a good idea.

On the other hand, it's not like a Flamteta axis is good enough, while Wilshere may just not have enough discipline to track back the way Ramsey does. And that brings us to the simple matter of squad depth. And Cesc Fabregas.

I'm in two minds about the decision not to re-sign our former captain. I've written in the summer how we have Ozil and Cazorla, and didn't give much thought that Cesc could be played in a deeper position. Which is exactly what he's doing at Chelsea and seems to be doing it just fine. Taken into account our net spend amounted to 50 million, we have approximately 50 more left in the bank. Cesc would have cost around 25.

Then again, Cesc has Matic doing the bulk of the defensive work and the Portuguese is much better at it, than, say, Arteta. Another thing to be taken into consideration is the manner in which Fabregas left Arsenal. He was willing to pay part of the transfer sum and that's not not a particularly good way to bade farewell to the Club you've spent 8 years at.

Does that mean the Spaniard has to booed by the away fans when Arsenal visits Stamford Bridge? He most likely will be, that's why Cesc in full damage control mode right now.

The question stands, however. I, for one, think he could have left Arsenal in a nicer way. Also, he should have tried to choose a club outside BPL. I don't for a second envisage a situation in which the Spaniard only had one offer and it was from Chelsea. They have most likely offered him the most. Did Cesc think about how Arsenal fans would treat the move? I think he did and that's another point scored for his opposition. He knew Arsenal fans wouldn't be happy, yet he chose to go to Chelsea anyway. After that Cesc thinks it's enough to say he loves Arsenal and everything will be alright? Though it's not up to me to decide how the Gunners should treat Fabregas, cheering definitely wouldn't top my list.

Anyway, enough for today. Not much else going on (apart from all the Welbeck stuff). I'm already tired to read about Danny, but if you feel like it, there are two good articles on the man I have found. First by Jeremy Wilson for the Telegraph. Second was a guest post over on Arseblog. Both are really worth your time if you, unlike me, haven't had enough.

That's it for now. Arsene will hold a press-conference tomorrow and we'll know more then.

I'll be back here to discuss the conference and anything else of interest on Friday.

Until then

Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)

Contract issues

Evening everyone.

Still not much happening due to a flurry of international games, but at least all our players have come through unscathed for now.

Well, actually, there's one exception: Mesut Ozil. The German hasn't featured for die Mannschaft twice, both in their loss to Argentine and in their narrow win over Scotland. This casts a shadow of doubt over Ozil's potential involvement on Saturday.

Those of you who watched Leicester vs Arsenal should remember how our playmaker hurt his ankle and needed lengthy treatment on the sidelines. Had he sustained that knock a couple of minutes earlier, Mesut would have been substituted, but he didn't and thus we had no chance to take the German off. Instead, he played the remainder of the game and this, I suspect, wasn't the best thing for him to have done.

So now Ozil is a doubt for Man City game. The reigning champions have problems of their own, with Kompany and Jovetic both likely to miss through injury, so that's a bonus, which can make our life easier.

The seriousness of Ozil's injury is yet to be confirmed by the manager, so maybe his absence from the Germany squad was a precaution above all else, but even if it wasn't, we have players to fill the hypothetical void left by Mesut. Not ideal, we all remember how Arsenal struggled to create chances without the German, but not end-of-the-world stuff either.

For starters, there's Tomas Rosicky, who's expressed his displeasure at not being player regularly. Then again, Ozil played on the wing, so we may introduce Oxlade on the left with Sanchez on the right or vice versa. Now that we have Welbeck, Arsene can afford to ease Sanchez into his new position. I'll go over our options in the usual preview, the picture should become clearer by then.

In other news, Arteta and Giroud seem to be on the brink of being offered new contracts. The Frenchman should get a two-year extension, while our captain will get only a one-year deal. His current one expires in less than twelve months. Giroud is under contract until 2016.

I've already talked about how Giroud is important to our current set-up, so I have no problem with him staying. We're yet to see what role Welbeck will fulfil, so Giroud's position is also unclear, but Olivier is definitely a quality back-up striker, if not more. I suspect the Frenchman will be behind Sanchez in the pecking order (after the Chilean adapts, of course), but, as these two have completely different playstyles, it's not saying much. With Welbeck on board things become complicated, but we'll see.

Arteta, meanwhile, is no less important, than Giroud. The Spaniard was made captain for a number of reasons. Firstly, he is a leader and his mere presence is vital. He helps his teammates, supports them, spurs them on when needed be. Arteta is important for the morale of the team.

The other reason is that the Spaniard remains a crucial cog in our machine. Deployed as a deep-lying midfielder he sweeps up and helps the defenders out, while his metronomic passing sets a tempo to our game. There's a criticism aimed at Mikel for not being fast enough on the ball (he may be, but I still cannot recall when was the last time Arteta lost it under pressure). Also, the Spaniard was vilified for his weak display against the top sides, but I tend to look at these results as a collective failure.

However, complications regarding Arteta's role may arise. We all know Arsene is somewhat reluctant to offer big contracts to players over 30 (Arteta turns 33 in March) and it's for a reason: more often than not these players have to accept reduced roles. The reduced roles usually bring about reduced salaries, something that won't make our skipper happy. It's not like he's one of the highest-paid at the Club, so a drop in wages may be tangible.

Finally for today, Jack Wilshere has hit back at Jamie Rednapp for being a two-bit idiot (I kid, I kid. He IS an idiot, but Jack hasn't said so.) Rednapp said there are no more excuses for Wilshere not to perform, to which the Englishman replied:

“To hear people go on TV and say: ‘He’s got to get fitter,’ well, I don’t need that. I listen to people like the boss here, Gary Neville, people who talk a lot of sense and can help me with my game. It doesn’t ‘hurt’ me, hearing criticism from ex-players. It probably disappoints me a little bit more. I heard what Robbie Savage said and that was, if you like, the first ex-player to give me constructive criticism. I respected that. I’ll take criticism. I know that’s part and parcel of football. But when it’s just reckless and aggressive, I don’t listen.”

There's a good boy. Frankly, Wilshere knows he has to deliver, but criticising him after just one game is as absurd as it gets. You can read the rest of the interview here.

That's it for today, back in a couple of days with fresh news

Until then

Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)

Uefa finally talking sense + squad depth

Evening everyone.

Despite the Interlull in full swing we still have new bobs and bits to discuss. I'll start with the elite managers' meeting in Nyon.

Truth be told, I didn't understand the purpose of it up until today. Why yank the best managers out of their respective clubs for two days? Just so that they could shake hands and say some things about one another? For the most part, that's exactly what they did, but there's also an upside to the proceedings.

Thing is, Uefa is willing to listen to the opinions of the most tactically astute managers. It remains to be seen, whether Platini and Co just listen and then dismiss the talk as nonsense or they actually might change something, but rumours are in place about some possible changes. These include a revamp of an away goal rule and the way teams are being seeded into pots.

Why do I think it's more than just rumours? Because it was in the Guardian (just click the link above) and this paper rarely runs a story with nothing to back it up.

I'm sure you are familiar with the away goal rule and so you can get why managers want to try and change it. Honestly, why does such an important thing as progressing in a major European tournament has to depend on geographical whims? Now it's not as hard to beat teams away from home, so why does a 3-1 has more value than a 2-0? Why, if you have conceded at home, does it have to be such a big deal? We all know that a team which plays first leg away from home is more likely to go through. They just have to score once to put the chances of the opposition in serious jeopardy.

How heartbreaking was it to see Arsenal heroically beat Bayern away only to crash out on aggregate due to scoring only two goals away? Both teams have scored three, why is it okay for one of these to qualify and the other bade farewell?

The other change sounds scary, but it also sounds raw and unlikely. Someone came up with idea, that only champions have to be seeded in the first pot. So either Barca or Real Madrid, for instance, will only be seeded in the second? And what does it mean for teams that qualify from third or fourth place? They' ll be seeded in the third or fourth pot respectively and will potentially have to fight three teams, which have done better in their respective leagues? Imagine Arsenal finishing fourth (God forbid) and be seeded with Real, Napoli and, say, Schalke. How's that fair?

Good thing is, it's all talk at this stage and any potential changes are far from being introduced. So not to worry right now, but it'll be interesting to see, whether Uefa really cares about football and will take the managers' view.If they don't, then this meeting was just a PR exercise.

In other news, Podolski revealed he had a talk with Arsene about his prospects:

"I had a very good conversation with the manager. He has stressed he is putting trust in me and my qualities."

However, Poldi's decision to stay can also be the consequence of no offers being on table:

“A move away from Arsenal did not fall through because I had no offers to move. 

“There have been enquiries from other countries, also from Bundesliga clubs, but I am from Cologne and it would have been tough for me to represent any other German club." 

Frankly, I don't much care why Poldi stayed. The fact that he did is the most important, however, it should be noted that he is more or less happy with his position and ready to fight for his place and to contribute in the process.

The German is a kind of player who's unlikely to become our regular starter (esp. given his age), but it doesn't mean he's of no use. On the contrary, I view him as a kind of super-sub (not quite Chicharito, but still), who can make his stamp on the game by coming on and scoring.

Poldi also adds much-needed depth to our side, ensuring the manager has options and various ways to tackle problems, should they arise. Also, Poldi has experience some of our younger players lack, experience, which can be crucial sometimes, which can make the difference in a game.

That's it for today. Sorry it's a bit short, but the hour is late and I'm dead on my feet. More here later, as soon as it appears.

Have a good weekend

Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)