Everton preview: walk the walk

Morning everyone.

We play Everton tomorrow and there are two obvious reasons why we need the three points badly:

1. Teams around us will drop points. Chelsea and Tottenham play one another in the Cup, thus we have a chance to catch up on the former and widen the gap from the latter; City play Liverpool. One of them will drop points (both, hopefully) and thus we'll be presented with yet another chance to cement our place in the top 3. I'm not even excluding Sunderland and West Brom causing problems to United and Southampton respectively. Fingers crossed
2. Psychological reasons. We need to put that debacle of a performance behind us, the only way to do that is winning as many games as possible

All of this brings us to team news update

We'll have to make do without Jack Wilshere for at least another week:

"Jack Wilshere had a little surgery to take his two buttons off his ankle because they were irritating him but it’s a very minor procedure...Next weekend will be a bit quick. I don’t know exactly. It’s days, not weeks."

Very unfortunate and highly exasperating. Jack is one of the few with an actual spine, we could use it (and him). It is what it is, no point moaning about his absence and wondering what might have been.

But we have a positive bit of news on Ramsey and Flamini:

"They come back into normal training today and tomorrow. They are nearly there, not completely there."

"Tomorrow" means "today", as the presser took place yesterday. Both haven't been out for long, so I hope both can be reinstated in the squad. Rambo is our most pressing need, we can't, it seems, carry on with Cazorla in such a deep role.

Alright, I usually try to guess, which squad Arsene will put out, but this time I decided to go about it another way: I'll give you the squad which makes most sense to ME and explain my choices. Starting with

The attack

Funny as it may sound, choosing who will play on the wings depends on whether we decide to actually play through the wings or not. If Arsene will try crowding the middle of the park, then we should pick Welbeck and Alexis once more. However, playing people in not the most natural positions to them will hardly bring about the desired effect. I don't know what position Alexis Sanchez prefers, but Welbeck is definitely not a winger and he shouldn't be used on the flank.

And so, going from the personnel we have, I'd introduce Walcott for Welbeck and Oxlade for Alexis. In case with the Chilean I just think he needs a rest. Sanchez looked absolutely knackered against Monaco. We might also ponder the idea of giving Gnabry a go, though it would be a bit controversial with a fit Walcott. However, it has to be said Theo likes to drift inside. Less so, than Welbeck, but more than Gnabry. And so the German becomes our second most natural winger after Oxlade.

Up top I definitely wouldn't play Welbeck. Bar his pace, he's inferior to Giroud in every single way. It's what Goodplaya said in this piece and I agree with it wholeheartedly. He also argued that subbing Giroud was the wrong decision, because, though the Frenchman was having an off day in terms of finishing, he was getting into the right positions. Something that Welbeck didn't. It leaves us with a question of where exactly Welbeck fits in in this Arsenal side, but that's a subject for another day.

The midfield

I've seen one too many posts recently crying to deploy Alexis in the middle, with people pointing to Sunderland and Burnley performances as the example. And to such people I say: you are insane.

Alexis is simply not the material for a №10. He is too erratic. He loses the ball a lot, fails dribbles, gets dispossessed and, most importantly, he cannot dictate the tempo of our play with his passing. The Chilean is frenetic, he often both holds onto the ball for too long or makes a rash pass. Alexis is brilliant when it comes to creating space for himself, he has an outstanding sense of positioning and his finishing ability is second to no one at Arsenal, but these are not the attributes you are looking for in a CAM.

With that settled, we can move onto the midfield and I don't see how it can be changed from the previous four games. That means another outing for Cazorla in a deeper position, something I don't like. Ideally, I'd play Ramsey alongside Coquelin. Question is, will the Welshman make it in time for the game and if he will, should he be thrown in right away? I think that if he's fit, than yes. In Wilshere's absence he's the best №8 we have.

I don't want to see Oxlade there and I don't think Rosicky in an option either. The Czech is a playmaker, not a defensive midfielder. Cazorla also isn't for that matter and that brings us back to Ramsey.

Supposing he makes it, Ozil and Cazorla will fight it out for the only position left and I don't know, who should play there, if both are fit. Cazorla is on brilliant form, but so is Ozil. Bar the Monaco game (when everyone was bad, mind you), the German had a flying return from injury. Personally, I'd pick him over Cazorla with both fit.

The back five

Monreal on the left please. Why Gibbs was picked over the Spaniard in the Champions League will forever remain a mystery to me. Nacho was (and still is) on top form, Gibbs was plucked out of the cold and asked to perform in the last sixteen. Bollocks.

Most importantly, you just don't play two romping full-backs at the same time, and so a Bellerin-Gibbs duo won't do. You can play Bellerin with a more conservative Monreal, or Chambers with Gibbs, but playing Hector and Kieran simultaneously is suicide. So bring Nacho back and keep Bellerin.

Whether we drop or keep Mertesacker for me hinges entirely on what approach we take. If it's a high pressing line like against Monaco, then Gabriel should get the nod. If we, for whatever reasons, will opt to sit back and absorb the pressure, then the German suits us better. For now, at least, till Gabriel hasn't adapted and we haven't seen what he's capable of.

Finally, the goalie. Szczesny or Ospina? Ospina had two shaky games now, but Chezza had a whole lot of these this season. If we drop Ospina after one bad performance it will send the wrong message to both keepers: that one bad game can be your last. Which is not what we want, do we? So I'd play the Colombian and see how he recovers.

The verdict

It will be tough, but we need to bounce back as quickly as possible. Everton, despite sitting just six points above the relegation zone, have a lot of quality players and they, unlike us, won their midweek game. We, right now, are a Schrodinger's cat. I really hope tomorrow shows that we are alive.

So come on you Gunners.

Back with a review on Monday

Until then

Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)

Arsenal 1-3 Monaco: blown it

"I cannot express how tired I am of seeing Arsenal struggle. Tired of analysing bad results and bad performances. Tired of us making the same mistakes over and over and over again. Tired of fighting for fourth/third every year... I badly want this to change, for Arsenal to become a major force again, but for now I see no light at the end of this long and gloomy tunnel."

This is what I said after we drew with Liverpool two months ago. And yet here I am, once again facing the task of analysing a debacle of a performance.

As you might have noticed, I'm an optimist at heart. I always hope for the best and try to find positives in every performance, however small and insignificant these may be. I do this because the opposite is simply unbearable for me. Being pessimistic (or, as some will put it, realistic) will get you nowhere and won't make your (already hard) life any easier. Such people lose the ability to see the good side of things even if it far outweighs the bad. They are constantly dissatisfied, they have nothing to look forward to and their life becomes the never-ending circle of misery and anticipation of something bad. I'm not even sure being proved right brings such people any kind of happiness. As they never predict good things they don't get the chance to enjoy these. And it takes a special kind of crazy to enjoy the bad ones.

And so I'll start with the teeny tiny positives from yesterday's game. God knows there were very few.

The good

We had moments. That's something, we've at least been able to conjure these up. They were mostly half-chances, but still there were several occasions when we should have scored. Welbeck in the 2nd minute, Cazorla when he opted to pass instead of having a go himself, Sanchez after being set up by Ozil. The crime of the first half was not hitting the target. The story continued in the second half. Our first effort on target happened in the 55th minute when Sanchez's fierce low shot stung the goalkeeper's palms. The second happened after Walcott came on for Giroud, past the 60 minutes mark, that is.

And there were some players who, while far from their best on the night, got much more stick than they deserved. I mostly have Cazorla, Ozil and Oxlade in mind. Cazorla "led all players with 72/77 passes, completed 23/27 passes in the final third, created 1 shot for a teammate, made 6/6 dribbles, 3/3 tackles, and drew 2 fouls. He also almost never turned the ball over, just 1 time, and was only dispossessed twice." The stats courtesy of @7amkickoff.

Ozil, who was once again accused of laziness, ran the most of all Arsenal players and was third in this regard overall, just behind some Monaco blokes. Oxlade, meanwhile, scored the only goal, which he did all by himself, so blaming him for losing the ball some 70 yards from goal is ingratitude at its finest. He at least tried to make something happen and, lest you forgot, it was his first game since some 6-week layoff.

The bad

Everything else was bad. Mertesacker and Giroud were just the tip of the iceberg. Not that I don't think they shouldn't be dropped after THIS, but they aren't the only people responsible.

The biggest problem for me yesterday was how we approached the game. Our mentality. We were abject the entire game, absolutely listless and disinterested. We took Monaco for granted, we thought showing up would do the trick. We did something that no team should do in the Champions League: we underestimated the opposition. And we paid the price for it. Few would argue we didn't get what we deserved yesterday. We got exactly that.

The most terrifying thing about yesterday's defeat is that we had an almost full squad. Debuchy, Arteta, Flamini, Ramsey and Wilshere were the only absentees, but we've played without them the whole January. We've played almost the entire season without the former two, so when we have Ramsey and Wilshere back we can say we have a fit squad.

The problem yesterday wasn't the quality of the players on the pitch (or, to be more exact, it wasn't the biggest problem), it was that nobody took responsibility. No one stepped up and grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck. We have a quality squad, but, paradoxically, few would argue we couldn't do better in every position. We were spineless yesterday and it wasn't the first time this season either. I can name at least two more games where we just didn't care: Borussia away and Swansea.

At times like these I really wish we had Wilshere. He wouldn't have let such a game pass the team by. He has his shortcomings, but lack of guts isn't among these. His best performance this season was against City and that's saying something. He doesn't go missing, he doesn't shy away from doing any work and, in my opinion, he should be captain. He's far better suited to the role than Arteta and Mertesacker combined.

The verdict

So what do we do now? Well, start from scratch, obviously. We play Everton in three days and we better win that game. And then the next after. And the one after that. And then we go to Monaco hoping for a goddamn miracle. Which right now seems just that.

Oh, and one last thing. While pinning all the blame on Wenger is wrong, simply because he cannot kick the ball about for his players, I have to admit that Arsene remains the common denominator in our Champions League failures. One final, one semi-final and a couple of quarter-finals in 18 years is hardly head-turning.

That's it, back on Saturday with a preview.

Until then

Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)

Monaco preview: this is our chance

Evening everyone.

European football for us Arsenal fans returns tomorrow and it's Monaco we'll have to entertain at the Emirates. The game brings back all kinds of memories for both parties. We all know Arsene trained the French outfit for seven years and it's there where he first tried his philosophy out. The diet, the training regimes, the style of football and a lot more.

But tomorrow's game leaves little room for sentiment. It's a competitive fixture (the last sixteen of the Champions League is as competitive as it gets) and should be treated as such. Any team can cause you plenty of trouble at this stage. Right now Monaco are on the way up, 4th in the league and they have one of the best defenses in both the domestic championship and in Europe.

Team news update

Well, not much has changed since our last game. Ramsey remains out, Oxlade is back in full training, though it's yet unclear whether he's fit enough to make the squad. The bad news is that Wilshere will probably sit the game out:

"The only uncertainty I have at the moment is Jack Wilshere but everybody else is available. He was rested [at training], because he trained hard until now. No, it's not a setback but I don't think [he'll play against Monaco]."

Not very encouraging. I was really counting on the Englishman for this one, but it is what it is. At least we should have Flamini back.

The back five

I'm certain Ospina, Mertesacker and Koscielny will keep their respective places. Our situation with full-backs is not this crystal clear, however. Bellerin took part in full training today, so I'd reinstate him at right-back. In the meantime, who should we play at left-back? Monreal looked a bit dodgy against Palace, but dropping him on that account would be stupid. He's been brilliant otherwise, so I suggest we field a more-or-less stable back four, the one that did so well in January.

The midfield

Really don't see something being changed here. Arteta, Ramsey and Wilshere are all out so, unless we want to play a pivot of Flamini and Coquelin, any tweaking is unnecessary. Coquelin, Cazorla and Ozil are all on top form, omitting them is hardly going to do anyone any good. Moving on.

The attack

Here we have some interesting choices to make. Or, rather, AN interesting choice: should Walcott start for Welbeck? Giroud and Alexis are guaranteed starters, both are in bang form (alright, Alexis a bit less so), but might we just adopt a more attacking approach by utilising Theo on the flank?

We needed a hard defensive worker against Palace, thus Welbeck was a better option. However, I expect us to take matters into our hands tomorrow right from the start and Walcott's pace and sense of positioning can come in handy. Welbeck, while a brilliant team player, isn't such a natural finisher as Theo.

The verdict

This is our big chance to progress beyond the last sixteen for the first time in five years. We've been really unlucky with the draw recently. Barcelona in 2012, Milan in 2013, and then Bayern Munich. Twice. We were a whisker away in 2012 by beating the Catalans at the Emirates, only to then lose 3-1 at Camp Nou, suffered a humiliating defeat against Milan, but almost bounced back in the return leg, while we have shown we can beat Bayern at their turf. But all our efforts were in vain, mostly because we've put ourselves in a hard spot in the first tie already and had to fight against the odds in the second.

We mustn't repeat this mistake tomorrow. We must take the game to Monaco, we must press and suffocate them in their half. We must create as many chances as humanly possible and we must make the most of these chances. We must take as big an advantage as we possibly can to France.

So come on you Gunners. Don't screw this up.

Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)

Crystal Palace 1-2 Arsenal: massive three points fire Arsenal to 3rd

I'll start with what I consider to be the right thing to say: Arsenal fully deserved to win yesterday's game. No one can convince me otherwise. In my opinion Crystal Palace didn't even deserve the goal they scored, had they nicked a point it would have been a footballing crime, a robbery in the daylight.

So what if Palace saw more of the ball, had twice as many shots and managed to swing in ten corners to our 1? The most telling stat is shots on target: the Eagles only managed three from 22, while we had four from 12. They didn't even muster a single shot on target until the 82nd minute, by which time we should have put the game out of their reach.

As not much happened for me to write a fully-fledged review, I'll just cover points of interest.

The squad and tactics

I guessed the side right in my preview. Ospina, Mertesacker, Monreal and Coquelin came back in, Bellerin was left on the bench as a precautionary measure and Welbeck was preferred to Walcott. All in all, four changes to our last game. Wilshere made the bench at Flamini's expense, while one of our defenders replaced Akpom.

Did we intend to sit back from the beginning or was it a combination of Palace's pressure and the atrocious quality of the pitch that made us? It's hard to say really, Selhrust Park heavily reminds me of Britannia Stadium in that it's a hard place to conquer. The pitch, quite a few despicable players and disgusting fans on top complete the picture.

The performance

All of this contributed to one of the most defensive performances I've seen from us. Arseblog's usual "by the numbers" section looks at it at greater detail, I'll just go over several things here. We've made 75 clearances, the most in a single game by a Premier League side since 2009. 19 of these were completed by Mertesacker and I've seen a shady number "7" which related to headed clearances from the German. I say "shady" because I think Mert hit double figures, only for some of the others to be written down as "aerial duels won".

That being said we looked much more dangerous on the counter than Palace did with all their possession football. In fact, we should have been ahead in the 3rd minute already, only for the linesman to wrongly flag Ozil offside. Replays showed the German was on, so here we have another example of horrible refereeing. Gosh, I'm writing about refereeing standards every week.

However, in a piece of divine retribution, Santi put us ahead four minutes later, after Welbeck was fouled in the box. It's hard to say whether the Englishman was really fouled inside the box or just outside, but, like I said, we deserved this goal in the previous episode.

We should have been further ahead come 21st minute. Cazorla whipped in our only corner that day, Giroud flicked the ball wit his head towards an unmarked Alexis on the far post and the Chilean blasted his effort wide.

A minute from the whistle it was 2-0. Alexis's clever pass released Welbeck down the left, the Englishman's effort was saved by Speroni, but Giroud was first on the rebound. Olivier poked home his 50th goal for Arsenal.

The second half was more of the same. Palace had the ball, we had the chances. First Ozil's header was saved by Speroni and in the 56th minute came our best opportunity to make it 3-0. The move was simple: someone (probably Mertesacker) booted the ball long towards Ozil, the German tricked the defender and then sent Alexis one-on-one. Though the angle was tight, I think it's fair to expect Alexis to bury such chances. Instead, he missed both the target and the onrushing Olivier Giroud.

After that we fell back and Palace continued to turn the screw. Gayle's header in the 70th minute fizzed just over, Puncheon's free-kick did likewise in the 75th and then, when everyone thought the game was over, the Eagles nearly got a point for their trouble.

The scuffle in the box in the 94th minute saw Murray pull one back and then he almost made a brace a minute later, but, fortunately, his effort hit the post with Ospina out of the picture. We held on and got the three points and, I repeat, we fully deserved those. Despite being dominated it terms of territory and possession we created more chances and used them better.

The aftermath

"I believe that the players know that maybe they switched off a little bit too early. Overall I still must say that our central defenders played very well today against a very direct and a very physical game at the back. They did well so overall I’m pleased to have won three points in a place like this."

That win sees us move into third, as United lost to Swansea (haha) and Southampton is losing to Liverpool as we speak. Tottenham also dropped points at home, so we are now four points ahead of them.

Now onto Monaco.

I'll be back with the preview of that game, most likely, so stay tuned.

Until later

Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)

Crystal Palace preview: emulate our last performance

Hello everyone.

Gosh, it's been a long and hard week. Good thing it's finally over and, though, the exam didn't go down particularly well and I'll have to retake it I'm not going to study for it anywhere near as hard. So normal service resumes starting today.

And today Arsenal travels to Selhrust Park to take on a resurgent Crystal Palace side. The Eagles have won 5 out of their last 8 games (in all comps), such is the effect Pardew has produced. However, they are far from being invincible, even at home. So if we show up with a performance we can win it.

Team news update

"My team selection will not be influenced at all by the Champions League. The most important game is Palace because it is the next one."

That being said, there are some question marks over Bellerin's and Flamini's involvement:

"We have some uncertainties about Flamini and Bellerin - they are doubtful for Saturday."

Don't know about Flamini (he wasn't likely to start anyway), but Bellerin took part in full training yesterday, so that should mean the Spaniard is likely to make it.

However, there is positive news in regards to Oxlade and Wilshere:

"Jack is fine. He could be back in the squad because he’s available again. He’s a bit ahead of schedule and he’s worked hard with no big problems, so it’s good to have him back.

Oxlade Chamberlain is close. He will join in normal training today."

Both have trained and I'm sure at least Wilshere will make the bench. The manager has already gone on record saying he contemplated picking Jack against Boro and I'll be hugely surprised if we don't see the Englishman on the team sheet today. With Oxlade the situation is different, though I have a gut feeling he'll be involved against Monaco if not today. Ramsey remains out, his hammy will keep Aaron sidelined for something around ten more days. No walking on water for him today or midweek, I guess.

With all that out of the way, time to try and guess the team.

The back five

Ospina should come straight back in for Szczesny: the Pole didn't do anything to convince he should stay in goal after the Middlesbrough performance. Sure, he had little to do, but then it was the same story with Ospina for three of four games and the Colombian wasn't removed, which culminated in his brilliance performance against Spurs. So for me David should start.

Defense is another story altogether. Chambers, Gabriel and Gibbs all did brilliantly and it will be hard dropping any of them. Gabriel maybe not so much, he still has to adapt to the rigours of the Premier League, but Chambers and Gibbs provide Arsene with an almighty headache. I think we should keep faith in our best back four, which now consists of Bellerin, Per, Kos and Nacho. If there's a chance Bellerin aggravates his injury, then he needs to sit this one out. Otherwise Hector deserves to regain his spot. As does Nacho.

The midfield

With Ramsey absent and Jack unlikely to start I think a trio that destroyed Middlesbrough can do the job. Coquelin and Ozil play magnificently in their respective preferred positions, while Santi has shown great potential as a link between the two. Besides, the scarcity of options is such that, unless we want to try Rosicky there, we really don't have a choice.

Can Santi do a job in almost a holding position on a permanent basis? That is the question. The author of this article argues the Spaniard is up for the task. He definitely looked comfortable there against Boro and, while it's not even a Premier League team we are talking about (thogh they should become one next season), the makings of playing deeper infield are present. Brilliant close-qurters control, very good distribution, the ability to quickly change the direction of an attack: it's all about Santi Cazorla. At this rate he'll quickly become our new Arteta. There remains the question of where Jack and Ramsey fit into this nice picture, but it's up to them to trove they deserve to start games when fit.

The attack

Giroud and Alexis will play, no doubt about that, but I'm really interested in who will get the nod to start on the right: Walcott or Welbeck. For me it's the latter, simply because Danny can combine his pace with tracking back and helping Bellerin out, whereas Walcott often leaves the full-back exposed.

Theo has been questioned a lot lately, truth be told and I can get why: at this moment in time, Theo still hasn't become a very good all-round performer. In fact, he strongly reminds me of Podolski and that's not a compliment. I sincerely hope injures took their toll and we are yet to see the best of Theo, but with his contract due to expire next summer, some started wondering whether we need to replace the Englishman with a more complete footballer like Reus or Dybala. You can have an in-depth read here and here (the article is in two parts). As for me, I think Theo will need to show a drastic improvement on his current performances by the end of the season to convince the masses we need to keep him.

The verdict

Should our attack click the way it did against Boro I'm sure we can get the win. It will be particularly handy with United visiting Swansea and Tottenham and Southampton facing West Ham and Liverpool respectively. It presents us with a decent chance to break into the top four and we should take it with both hands.

Come on you Gunners.

Finally, I wanted to touch on the FA Cup draw. We didn't have any luck with it this time: we'll have to face United away on the 9th of March. United scraped past Preston North End in the last sixteen due to a mix of appalling refereeing from Phil Dowd and a blatant dive from Rooney. This side has zero class, with Van Gaal quickly becoming more of a joke than Moyes and all this should hint at a win at Old Trafford, only for a small "but".

It's Arsenal they play. We have an atrocious record against United away from home. We've managed to lose to the Devils under Moyes and are yet to face them in the league under Van Gaal. Fingers crossed we show up with a performance on the day. If we do, we should be too much for them to handle.

That's it for now. Back tomorrow with a review.

Until then

Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)