Arsenal 3-0 Watford: confident Gunners swat Watford aside

Well, that was fun. Another good performance and another win by three goals. I think I can get used to it.

Before the game, a lot was made of how tough a team Watford is on their home soil and you could see why: the Hornets started the game at a really good pace, were organised, put men behind the ball and gave very few chances away in the first half. In fact, barring a weak header from Walcott (!), a cracker of a shot from Sanchez and a scythed effort from Ramsey, I do not recall us conjuring up anything else.

Watford also had their moments. Deeney’s stinging low shot was well-parried by Cech, Troy then messed up a simple pass to send Ighalo one-on-one, before the Nigerian decided to dive in the box, when a shot could have been a much better decision.

However, one thing was obvious: we had a plan. One which we’ll call…

The Grand Plan

If the trick against United was to start well because it’s obvious the Devils need time to get into the game this season, the trick against Watford was to tire them out. Something Wenger basically admitted in the post-game presser:

“To beat Watford you have to be completely committed to the game. We faced a Watford team that was well organised and knew exactly what they wanted to do. They were very physical in the challenge and very strong in the challenges and very direct. These three things together, it took us a while to get on top of that. In the second half, the fatigue coming in, Watford came in less in the challenges and we got the ball quicker in transition and were much more dangerous.”

We showed maturity to our game once again. Seeing it was hard to break down a physical Watford side, we just kept the ball and made them run around a bit. After fatigue crept in during the second half, our blitz showing left Watford out cold inside 12 minutes.

The goals

Were the goals particularly outstanding? No, but they were all team goals and featured a moment of brilliance in the build-up. For the first Cazorla split the entire Watford’s defense to find Ozil, for the second Ozil’s cutback was delicious and for the third was preceded by a cracking run from Hector Bellerin. Ake will have nightmares about the Spaniard for a while now.

Some individual moments

I was very glad Ramsey got on the scoresheet, to start with. The Welshman needed that goal, however scrappy it turned out to be. Aaron may have his flaws, his position on the wing definitely doesn’t help get the best out of him, but Rambo will always have my respect, simply because he never hides. He never shies away from the ball or his defensive duties, he always keeps trying. I think he ran furthest at Vicarage Road, definitely among Arsenal players and he also tops the league in terms of sprints made. Rambo has an unbelievable engine, he is also a huge asset for the team, for that he has my backing.

Sanchez got another goal (I think he has 10 in 6 appearances for Club and country), while he is supposed to be out with a groin problem. I’ve stop wondering how this is possible, the answer looks obvious: Alexis Sanchez’s sheer willpower and desire to play every minute of every game outweigh everything.

A word on Mesut Ozil, also. Our midfield maestro notched two assists yesterday (he now tops the league in the regard), but what’s more important, he now equals Riquelme’s all-time assist record, tied on 181. Mesut only just turned 27. Words aren’t enough to express how happy I am to have him on board.

Finally, Ollie Giroud. Man scored his 4th league goal on the night, 3 of these from the bench (he made a total of 6 substitute appearances). He now has two more goals than Walcott, who gets far less stick. However, that’s not a criticism of Theo, I believe he is doing very well in the lone forward role. Furthermore, I believe these two work brilliantly in this combination.

Per Mertesacker, the slow defender

Per had a couple of dodgy moments yesterday, two stand out: on both occasions he failed to get back into position because, well, his recovery speed isn’t great. However, people calling for his head surprise me: do they realise that on both occasions Mert was essentially covering for Monreal and Bellerin, as the duo were caught high up the field? It’s not like Mert failed to cover for himself.

Speaking of how well he did:

1. 94% pass accuracy (51/54, no misplaced passes in our third)
2. 8 ball recoveries
3. 3 interceptions
4. 8/8 clearances (7/7 headed)
5. 2/2 tackles

People need to get their head around one thing: Mert’s game isn’t based on speed, so not having it doesn’t make the BFG a bad defender. Like Mikel “his legs are gone” Arteta, Per’s weapon of choice is positioning and both are pretty damn good at it.

Another point is that Per has a calming influence on our defense. He is a leader, whatever others will have you believe and our back four looks more organised with Mert in it.

Wrapping it up

It was another good day in the office. We got the job done against a resilient Watford side and we got it done when it mattered. City predictably thrashed Bournemouth, while United swatted aside a hapless Everton, so we needed a win to stay in the mix. We did just that. Onto Bayern now.

I’ll be back with a preview of that game.

Until then

Watford preview: poking the Hornets' nest?

Howdy.

It’s been quite some time since I last wrote, but a combination of an extremely tedious Interlull and my rather stressful two weeks at uni contributed to my total lack of inspiration. Glad to see the back of this fortnight.

In what will be Arsenal’s first game in 13 days we face Watford away and, while it’s a favourable game to get back into shape, we should, as always, find the right balance between urgency and confidence (see what I did there?)

Watford seem to be an odd duck. They have only lost two games out of 8 played (City away and Palace at home, the latter thanks to a penalty), while also maintaining an impressive defensive home record. Their only conceded goal was that penalty, in other three games the Hornets amassed 5 points, beating Swansea and holding Southampton to a goalless draw in the process.

Their main threat emanates from Odion Ighalo, the man who scored 5 goals already. Odion mostly operates as a second striker in a 4-4-2, partnered with Troy Deeney. Our centre-backs should be on alert. Luckily for us, Mertesacker and Gabriel stayed behind and Koscielny nurtured an injury, so all three of our full-backs are ready and firing.

Team news

Quite surprisingly, all of our players returned in one piece from international duty. How well they played (and they did play well) is secondary to me as long as no one will have to endure a life-threatening operation in order to sew one of their legs back on. An operation which can keep them out “for a number of weeks”, naturally.

However, I’ll still single out Alexis and Ozil. The former played with a groin injury, scored three times in two games and assisted one more, while the latter provided two assists, the second for the eventual winning goal, one which allowed Germany to top the group.

On top of all this positivity, it’s likely Arteta, Flamini and Koscielny will also be able to make the squad, as all three took part in full training today (Friday).

By the way, while we are on the subject, Wenger gave an update on Wilshere and Welbeck, saying the former can be back in training within a month, while the latter will only return in January. Good to know Jack is ahead of schedule. It really feels like the situation with injuries improved this season. Fingers crossed we’ll be able to keep it this way.

Squad

The only change I realistically see Wenger making from the side that swept aside United is Oxlade for Alexis. Mostly because there are lingering doubts the Chilean recovered from injury:

“I cannot do a lot about it (Alexis playing for Chile with an injury). He came off as you have seen against Manchester United with a hip problem, a problem with the rotator muscle and he wanted to go. He played in the last two games and we have to see how he comes back but it is always a tricky situation Chile are trying to qualify for the World Cup and he is an important player for them but they will use him if they can. He is a guy that always wants to play so I knew that was always going to be a tricky situation.”

I must say I don’t completely agree with the view that we should use our best players against Watford because the Champions League is a lost cause. There are two reasons for that:

1. Watford is, with all due respect, not the strongest of sides in the PL, so resting a player or two (especially if these players have a chance of aggravating their injuries) shouldn’t make the task at hand an impossible one. That’s what depth is for, after all, so that we could rotate when needed without losing too much in the way of overall quality and balance
2. Our Champions League campaign IS NOT a lost cause just yet, but it may well become just that should we lose another home game. Theoretically we can even qualify with 6 points, but hoping it will suffice and letting two games slip by because of that is sheer madness

I’d also probably keep Koscielny wrapped in cotton wool before the Bayern game, though there is a question of whether he needs a bit of playing time to get back into shape. Again, like with Alexis, we shouldn’t use Kos if there is a risk of losing him for our midweek game or, God forbid, for a lengthy period of time. I expect no other tinkering apart from these two.

Predicted line-up: Cech - Bellerin - Mertesacker/Koscielny - Gabriel - Monreal - Coquelin - Cazorla - Ozil - Ramsey - Sanchez/Oxlade - Walcott

The verdict

“We will be confronted by that fact and we will have to produce a quality defensive performance (on Ighalo) but away from home we have done very well until now.

Apart from the game against Chelsea which was under very special circumstances, we have done extremely well away from home.”

This is the part which also gives me a bit of extra confidence: we generally do very well away from home and has shown it again this season. Home loss to West Ham and a draw against Liverpool, albeit understandable, will still be viewed as points dropped (probably rightly so), but our away form has been near impeccable. Three wins against three resilient sides (Newcastle, Palace, Leicester) and the loss to Chelsea under very special circumstances indeed. Palace and Leicester are troublesome teams at their place, I’m sure other PL sides will drop points there, while Newcastle look to be fighting to stay up this season and may also prove a handful.

I expect tomorrow’s game to be similar to the Newcastle one. We’ll most likely seize territory and possession, which is dictated both by our style of play and the sheer gulf in class between the sides, question is, how we use our advantage. After seeing how clinical we can be in recent weeks, I hope we’ll be able to once again show that ruthlessness tomorrow.

Come on you Gunners.

Finally, a bit of extra reading for you. As you all know, the AGM took place on Thursday, so you can catch up with it here (transcript courtesy of Tim Stillman), while Arsene Wenger’s speech in full can be found here.

Also, my colleagues are ready to provide you with their thoughts on Stan Kroenke and give their take on our ticket policy (and why it isn’t half as bad as it is made out to be). To wrap it all up (and I do know it’s offtop), Tim Stillman tells us Gabriel’s story in his weekly column and, as always, it’s very much worth your time.

Phew, I sign off on this note. Back with a review.

Until then

Arsenal 3-0 Manchester United: Arsenal turn up for a big game in a big way

Barely have I finished watching the last replay of Sanchez’s delicious near-post heel flick, that the picture disappeared from my screen. Despite me watching a regular broadcast (yes, I made it in time) and not a stream from some website. I was calm for two reasons: I know such a thing sometimes happens and I was dead sure I won’t miss a goal because we have only just tucked one in.

But when the blackout ended, the first thing I saw was Mesut doing the goat celebration. I thought “Surely not…?” yet I knew there could only be one reason for Ozil to do that. Replays showed he did indeed score our second goal, a calm side-footed finish from inside the box. 74 seconds elapsed between the opener and Ozil’s strike.

United, shell-shocked from the storm they’ve just experienced, tried to get back into the game. Just when it seemed they really could be getting a foothold, Bellerin’s throw-in found Ramsey, the Welshman fooled Young, fed Theo and the Englishman’s turn enabled him to find an unmarked Sanchez on the edge of the box. The Chilean breezed past Darmian and smashed the ball under the bar in a manner highly reminiscent of his Liverpool goal. 3-0. There was no going back from that. It was a knock-out punch.

We could have twisted the knife further still, after Sanchez’s weighed cross found Ramsey, only for Aaron to put his effort wide from point-blank range. However, goals and moments aside, I found a lot of other things to enjoy about our performance.

Passion

Is Scott Parker’s image popping up in your heads? I hope not, because it would be an insult to what our players have demonstrated on Sunday from the very first seconds.

For the entirety of the first 45 minutes we played with hunger, desire and purpose. We were highly clinical too, scoring from all three shots on target. After the game Walcott shed some light on how the team turned the fortunes around in the space of three days:

“We spoke to each other and we wanted to do that for the fans especially. This was also for the manager”.

So the players got together, realised midweek was not good enough and decided to put things right and do it quickly. Given how much stick Wenger has taken and how he went out of his way to protect the players, I’m really happy they returned the favour in such an emphatic way.

The noticeable change from Olympiakos was not only the pre-game mentality, but rather how we translated it to our performance on the pitch, fighting to the death in 50/50s, recovering the ball in insane positions (like Coquelin for the first) and being quicker to scoop up each and every second ball. Well done, lads.

Petr Cech

Our number 1 goalkeeper (give him the actual number 1 shirt already) was a mere spectator in the opening 44 minutes. However, when the 45th minute came, he pulled off a massive save. Carrick found Martial in the box, the Frenchman turned on the spot, getting rid of Mertesacker in the process and took a shot with his left. Luckily for us, Cech stuck out a leg to parry.

He was a bit busier in the second half, saving from an early Young shot, batting away Rooney’s fierce low drive, before throwing himself under Schweinsteiger feet. However, Petr rose to the occasion, clocked 5 saves and looked dead calm on crosses (claiming 4 of those). Round of applause for Petr, were it for his late first-half save, the mood could have been very different indeed going into the break.

Per Mertesacker

I admit I was worried about Big Per, about how he would cope with the pace of Martial. I needn’t have worried: like Cech between the sticks, Per was calm and assured, marking Martial closely and relying on his enormous experience in reading the game to snuff out trouble. Gabriel worked more with Rooney, while Mert did his job against Martial and he did it well. His numbers in full:

1. 4 ball recoveries
2. ¾ tackles
3. 4 interceptions
4. 8/10 clearances
5. 2/2 aerial duels
6. 2/2 headed clearances

Needless to say most of these actions occurred in his central zone, with one particularly tasty tackle coming at just the moment to dispossess Martial in the 33rd minute, after Rooney wasn’t flagged offside in the build-up.

Santi Cazorla

I think I owe an apology to our little Spaniard. I was doubtful he was the man to run circles round the slow pairing of Carrick and Schweinsteiger, however it was just what Santi did. He was one of our top passers with a 89% passing accuracy (49/55), completed 5 out 7 attempted dribbles and had such a complete defensive performance Adrian Clarke singled him out in his usual breakdown.

The Spaniard looked influential, calm with the ball at his feet and, most importantly, very tidy in possession. A performance to remind all of us (myself included) why you shouldn’t write Santi off whoever the opponent and disregarding the circumstances.

The triumvirate of Alexis, Walcott and Ozil (with a sprinkle of Ramsey to it)

These were probably our top performers yesterday. Alexis finished the game with two goals to his name, Ozil with a goal and an assist and Walcott with two assists.

Each of them was gorgeous in his own right, but all three were no less gorgeous collectively and that got me buzzing. They really understand each others’ movement, weak and strong points and all worked tirelessly to bring the best out of one another. The result we can all see: Ozil capped off a great performance with a sublime goal, Sanchez once again exploded into life with one of his crackers from outside the box and Theo displayed surprising upper body strength and workrate. Afterwards Arsene commented Theo’s outing in this way:

“I must say Walcott had a hugely committed performance today in a hugely convincing way. He didn’t score but I like to praise the strikers when they don’t score and contribute and give assists. He was involved in two goals – Ozil's and Alexis’ [second] one. He did really fight today and showed he can fight, commit and protect the ball as well. He is gaining some aspects of his game as a centre forward and they are improving”.

Walcott looks to have truly established himself as first-choice and if his game continues to develop in such leaps in bounds, really, who would begrudge him that?

A couple of words on Ramsey. He looks to be the glue holding this magnificent trio together. He didn’t have an assist to his name, not even a chance created and the only chance he had himself Aaron put horribly wide and yet he was integral. He sliced United’s defense apart and fed Ozil for the first, he turned Ashley Young inside out in the build-up for the third, he completed a whooping 43 out of 46 attempted passes (93% accuracy) and he also put in an almighty defensive shift.

It’s clear Arsene Wenger doesn’t even consider not starting Ramsey in most cases and on these rare occasions Aaron doesn’t (mostly due to fatigue), the Welshman is the first player to enter the fray should we need a midfield boost. He is held in high regard by Arsene and after such performances I’m not even sure I mind.

Closing comments

I could have written another 1200 words on this game. I haven’t even touched on how Bellerin upped his defensive game, how much of a beast Gabriel is, how Monreal turned in another quality performance, how Coquelin was great once more…

But I don’t need to do this. You know it all without me, you’ve seen it just like I did. So I’ll say one more thing only: Sunday’s 3-0 win over Manchester United equals our best ever result against them: a 3-0 win in 1998. I’ve written before the game how tight the games between these two usually are, so what we saw was a historic achievement. Savour it. As will I.

Until later

Manchester United preview: all guns blazing?

Morning, ladies and gentlemen.

It’s United we have to deal with today and once again I find myself searching for imperative adjectives which will demonstrate how we need a win.

However, this time we need a win mostly for psychological reasons. Sure, City thrashed Newcastle yesterday (with a little help from Sergio Aguero), but dropping points won’t result in us disappearing into mid-table obscurity or plummeting towards relegation zone (unlike Chelsea). We’ll simply find ourselves 4 to 6 points off the top. Not pleasant, but not the end-of-the-world territory either.

It feels kind of funny to talk about being close to the top of the league after the midweek debacle, however, that’s the reality. We were poor in the Champions League, no doubt about it, but we aren’t nearly as poor in the league. West Ham aside, we only dropped points twice, both times courtesy of inept refereeing. Let’s get back to the game at hand, though and thus do something the journalists in Arsenal’s presser could not.

Head-to-head

Needless to say, we have a bad record against United, failing to win any of our home games in the league for four consecutive seasons now, meaning our last win came in 2011. Our away record is worse still, the last time we’ve won at Old Trafford was in 2006.

Thankfully, we can ignore that last bit for now. Usually our home games are closer than away ones. It will forever remain a mystery to me how we didn’t beat the Devils in the last two seasons, when they were most vulnerable, however that’s another point beyond the … erm … point.

We can take joy from several things going into the game: we managed to beat United last year, Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott found their goalscoring form and, finally, United aren’t exactly what they used to be under Ferguson. Their defense is particularly mismatched, with Darmian forced to play on the left, Blind centrally and Valencia on the right. Here’s hoping Sanchez and Theo will take full advantage of this.

Team news update

United will be without Shaw (poor lad), Rojo and Herrera. Carrick has recovered and I presume he’ll come straight back into the side for Schneiderlin.

However, we have our hands full with the injured players. The usual trio aside, we are going into the game without Koscielny and Flamini (both hamstring) and Arteta (dead leg). On the subject of Koscielny Wenger said:

“Lauren Koscielny will certainly be out, he has a hamstring strain and it looks like it will be three weeks, something like that”.

It looks like we are dealing with the standard hamstring strain, but I didn’t like the easy manner in which Wenger said “three weeks”. I may be reading too much into this, however I fear the injury will take longer to heal. Guess we’ll have to wait and see what Arsene says after the break.

This is a big loss for us, no doubt about it. This is also a chance for Gabriel to show his worth and establish himself as first-choice and I have to say with Gabriel available Koscielny’s absence looks less of a disaster.

Obviously the good news is that Olivier Giroud will be back in the squad, while I also hope there’s place for Iwobi or Jeff on the bench. I won’t hold my breath, though.

Squad and approach

Think it’s reasonable to expect Cech, Bellerin, Monreal and Ramsey to return. Bellerin will, as always, be invaluable when defending against a pacy winger (Depay in this case) and I cannot express how happy I am to have Hector in our arsenal.

To me the most intriguing is where Ramsey will start. On one hand, Ox wasn’t particularly convincing against Olympiacos. On the other, we all know what he did to United’s defense the last time he played them. We should also keep in mind Darmian is not a natural left back, so unleashing the Ox on him might just be the way to go. Finally, Oxlade also showed tremendous improvement in helping out his full-back. Here are his stats vs Olympiacos:

1. 6 ball recoveries (all 6 on the right side of the pitch)
2. ⅚ tackles (all 6 were attempted on the right side of the pitch)
3. 2/2 clearances
4. 2/2 headed clearances

On a side note, he completed 6 dribbles (out of 11 attempted), almost all on the right. What does it tell us? Two things: he hugs the line and helps out defensively. Which is good enough for me.

Also, Ramsey’s performances vs Olympiacos is nothing to be sniffed at. Yes, he only completed 30 minutes and his stats can’t be impressive because of that, but I think we all felt how much more direct and dangerous the Gunners looked with Rambo in the middle.

Will Arsene be inclined to give Oxlade another go on the right? Will he consider playing Ramsey through the middle? Who gives way if he plans to do both? The obvious candidate to me is Cazorla.

And look, I think we really might benefit from dropping Cazorla this time. Mostly because United are likely to field a trio of Carrick, Schweinsteiger and Rooney and none are particularly quick. Pinning any of them against an engine like Ramsey might be of more use than playing Cazorla once more.

However, based on experiences past, I’m pretty sure Wenger will stick to Ramsey wide and Cazorla central.

As for approach, I think we’ll try to dominate possession and territory as we always do at home. However, I was again intrigued by what I witnessed against Olympiacos in the opening stages. Knowing we have the perfect weapons to play on the counter, Wenger tried to set his team up exactly with counterattacking in mind. And our breaks looked dangerous alright, with the breathtaking speed Alexis, Walcott, Oxlade and Ozil demonstrated.

Might we try this approach again? After all it’s what worked at Old Trafford last year, it’s what worked against Leicester last week. Guess the selection of either Ramsey or Oxlade will answer that question. If it’s the former, we’ll try possession-based football. If it’s the latter, get ready for lightning counters.

Predicted lineup: Cech - Bellerin - Mertesacker - Gabriel - Monreal - Coquelin - Cazorla - Ozil - Alexis - Ramsey - Walcott

The verdict

We need a reaction today. I’m sure we’ll see it. We are notorious for having setbacks, but we are famous to reacting to these setbacks. Rarely do we lose two in a row. And before you start shouting “Zagreb and Chelsea!”, I know perfectly well we lost both these games.

What I can say with the same degree of certainty, we gave a response against Chelsea. It was visible before Mike Dean fucked up the game and robbed us of a competitive encounter. There’s no guarantee we would have won had Dean made the correct calls, however, I’m sure we would have put up an almighty fight.

What about United? Frankly, they are near the top almost by accident. Apart from Sunderland (currently 19th) and Liverpool (who only picked up 4 points in their last 4 games), United are yet to win a game of football in the league by more than one goal. They are highly unconvincing and inconsistent at the moment and the football they demonstrate is mostly dire. I’m not joking, I’ve watched quite a few of their league matches.

So it will come down to us and our attitude. How we play. How we create our chances (Ozil and Cazorla lead the league, by the way, while Cazorla also has most assists since 2012 - 32). How we take these chances. So come on you Gunners. Tear United a new one.

I’m not sure I’ll make the game tomorrow (damn, damn, damn), but I’ll try to record it and watch later in the evening. Back with a review on Monday. Also, I’ll likely write an article on Arsene Wenger later in the week, so look sharp.

Until later

Arsenal 2-3 Olympiacos: different kind of same old?

In my 11 years of supporting Arsenal I've seen us lose a lot of games. Home and away, by a fine margin and only just, to big teams playing crap football and small sides rising to the occasion. Every defeat was, and still is, different. Simply because you can't play two identical games even against the same opponent.

Yet, and I think you'll agree, sometimes there is this feeling of "same old, same old". It's like watching Fabianski race out of goal after you thought you've seen the last of it with Almunia. Like conceding from the opposition's first shot on target. Like seeing the team not turn up for the game.

In that sense, yesterday's defeat feels exactly like it's happened before. It was like watching a horror movie you've never watched, yet knew what the ending would be like. And when the movie peters out towards its inevitable conclusion, you are not left with a sour taste in the mouth. You don't feel robbed, angry, disappointed or cheated out of a better ending. You only feel deflation. As if you already knew, deep down, that this was inevitable, that the movie itself was just an exercise in frustration, a pointless prelude to the main event.

That was exactly how I felt when the final whistle blew. I didn't feel like shouting at Ospina for dropping a clanger, I didn't want to kick furniture, I didn't want to blame the ref for his ineptitude or scream to the heavens at the gross injustice that I've just witnessed. I just wanted to brush my teeth, take a validol and go to bed. Which I did. Which was exactly what I did a week ago, after we lost to Zagreb. And which I'm sure I'll do again this season, be it after another European or domestic fixture.

I've become accustomed to Arsenal screwing with my expectations over the years. I shout and point and scream and name players names during the game. After it, I feel emotionally drained. Numb. No longer able to react. No longer wanting to react.

Is it a consequence of really getting used to losing? Is it a kind of protective reaction from my body? At times like these I wish I was less emotionally involved in the matter, though I have no idea how this can be achieved.

Yesterday's loss felt all the more ironic considering how we talked before the game of the importance of winning your home games. Even more so if we take into account Olympiacos' form in England. But the crunch of it all were our chances of qualifying. In a season when we were supposed to kick on and produce a better result in the Champions League we only went on and lost two opening games against Zagreb and Olympiacos, of all sides, and made qualification from the group nigh on impossible. If Arsenal wasn't involved, or if you were a fan with a particularly dark sense of humour, you would have laughed. We can't make it out of the group in a year when we wanted to at least make it to the last eight. How ironic can it get?

I'll be completely honest with you: we have no business in the knock-out rounds this season. We don't play with any stability, conviction or consistency, at least in Europe. When you are beaten by Zagreb and Olympiacos, let's face it, you are not a heavyweight, one which could go on and have a meaningful European campaign. Heavyweights produce miraculous comebacks in the last ten minutes, heavyweights thrash opponents everyone expects them to thrash. They deliver on a consistent basis. As for us, well, we'll try again next year (if we make the CL spots) and hope we will do better.

Do we try and get into Europa League should we not get the desired results against Bayern? Or should we just leave it, finish fourth and have our Thursdays free? The question is purely speculative, because one man once said "If you play for Arsenal, you don't give up, whatever the score is". I'm sure this man will fight. I'm sure he won't go down, accept defeat and play damage limitation. For him the question of whether we should deliberately lose games doesn't exist. Therefore, I expect him to fight for qualification and then, if he fails, fight for the third place. And then fight in every game of the Europa League, should we make it.

It's painful. In my 11 years, I've never seen Arsenal not make it out of the group stages. Yet the harsh reality is such we are likely to need 10 points from 4 remaining games and will also have to rely on others doing us favours. We have to get the minimum of 4 points from our back-to-back Bayern games. A team which has crushed Olympiacos and Zagreb. As they should have. As any big team worth their salt should have. As WE should have.

Until later