Napoli preview: under control

Hello.

Today I'd like to start with one thing, that seemed to go unnoticed, amidst all the analysis, following our clash with Everton: the FA Cup draw. Arsenal will host Spurs and it will happen on January 4th. A cursory glance at history books tells us the Gunners last faced Tottenham in 2001. I have not even supported Arsenal back then, so I can tell you next to nothing about that game.

What I can tell, however, is that this draw is a hard one, as it rounds off the busy New Year schedule. We play on January 1st in the league and three days later comes this cup game. Not pretty. But we can forget all about it for now and focus on something much more important.

Which is our return fixture in Naples one day from now. I suspect the team is already there, but no news have come in yet. Arsene said post-Everton there were no injures, so let's hope it stayed that way.

Something I also hope for, is a possible return of Sagna or Podolski (or both). They weren't ready to play three days ago, but they may be now. Which leaves only the Ox and Diaby sidelined, with the former having a chance to face City.

We've been building towards the clean bill of health for almost four months, so it's nice to know, we can have everyone up and running ahead of the tough schedule. The returns of Podolski and Oxlade are particularly welcome, cause the former provides us with an alternative to Giroud, while the latter offers some more direct play on the flanks. Tippy-tappy is great, but no alternative to it is not. Our passing game doesn't always come off, you know.

I suspect the manager will introduce some changes tomorrow, cause he must also keep one eye on our weekend game. City play today, having already qualified, so they will be in a better physical shape. They will also play in front of their fans. All in all, it may well prove a sterner test, than the one the Toffees provided us with.

The decision to rotate is now nowhere near as complicated, as it was even a year ago. All the stand-ins will give no less than a hundred percent, knowing the guys waiting in the wings will grab their chance with both hands, should someone perform even slightly below par. Competition can be exciting, isn't it?

I think that, whoever plays, we need to try and replicate our first performance against Napoli, one of the most (if not the most) accomplished our game this far. We overwhelmed them with chances, scored two goals, and then kept the Italians at arm's length for the remainder of the match. Should we pull it off, the first spot is ours.

But if we don't reach this kind of level, we know we can grind out results. Bottom line, I don't envisage us losing the game by a three-goal margin. It just doesn't fit the description of this group of players.

There will surely be more news later today and tomorrow, so I may write again. However, in case I don't, I'll be back with a review come Thursday.

Come on you Gunners and until later the rest of you

Arsenal 1-1 Everton: a fair point

Yesterday we (partially) failed to capitalize on City`s and Chelsea`s results by dropping points against Everton. However, it's turned out to be a most entertaining game, so I almost don't mind the two teams sharing points.

Arsene made five changes to the side, that has beaten Hull, with Gibbs, Arteta, Whilshere, Cazorla and Giroud all being named in the starting eleven. Bendtner dropped to the bench at Gnabry`s expense.

The first forty minutes were unlike anything I've seen this season. The Toffes dominated possession by approximately 70:30 and broke down all our moves early. They failed to create anything of real danger, though, with Lukaku completely invisible due to hard work from Mertescielny.

Five minutes from the whistle Arsenal sparked into life. Giroud saw one of his attempts flagged offside and another blocked by Howard. Ramsey suffered a similar fate from a clever return pass by the Frenchman.

The break seemed the least welcome thing at that point, as we were, for the first time in this game, completely on top, with the home fans roaring the team on.

After the break, however, we picked up from where we left off and had opportunities to score. First Howard saved from a tame header by Cazorla, then Ramsey`s brilliant volley was palmed away.

Everton responded by a great Mirallas shot, which Szczesny got a big hand to and then Barkley blasted the ball under the bar, only for the Pole to intervene again. The game was now at full swing, with chances being created at both ends in rapid succession.

Sensing lack of freshness in the side, Wenger (for the first time in my memory) made a triple change. Flamini, Rosicky and Walcott came on for Ramsey, Wilshere and Cazorla.

This breathed a new life into us and Flamini nearly broke the deadlock, only for his shot to drift just wide of the far post. And then we scored.

Rosicky produced an absolutely gorgeous diagonal pass on Walcott and the Englishman nodded the ball across the goal. Onrushing Giroud was held back, but Ozil was on hand to smash it home from close range.

As the goal came in the 80th minute and I was getting increasingly desperate, I think even my neighbors a couple of floors up heard me expressing my delight. It wasn't to last, sadly.

Four minutes later, Everton broke and their cross from the left was only barely missed by Lukaku`s overhead kick. This kick, however, got in the way of Koscielny`s clearance, so a substitute, Deulofeu, seized control of the ball, rounded off Gibbs and smashed his shot high into the net.

Everton smelled blood and could have gone ahead twice in the next five minutes, courtesy of Lukaku. The Belgian first robbed Arteta of possession, only to fire wide and then was kept out by a brilliant sliding tackle from Szczesny.

Arsenal conjured up a response of their own. Flamini swung his leg wide, when he could have done better (though the circumstances were far from ideal) and then a clever interplay saw us win a corner. A clearance followed, but Giroud picked the ball up outside the box and let fly from approximately 25 yards. With the keeper stranded, he only needed to hit the target, but his effort hit the angle of the post and the bar and rebounded off into play. The final whistle came seconds after that.

Overall, a point apiece seemed about right. Both teams could have won it, so I'll take the point and move on.

I didn't much like individual performances, though. The fighting spirit is there all right, so we managed to get a draw and could even have won it, but some players need to step it up.

Ramsey is tired, but we need to find other outlets, when he's not in bang form. Arteta was a bit under the weather, Wilshere was fleeting in and out, but it's Cazorla, who gets me worried. His passing was once again off, his clever flicks and tricks didn't come off and I think he needs to shoot more often. Luckily, he now have Ozil to share this creative burden.

So overall, an entertaining match, not the worst result and hey, we've even increased our lead to five points. Not bad at all.

Napoli up next

Everton preview: make it seven

Evening everyone.

In a few hours time, Everton comes to town to try and take points from a big club fro the second time inside four days. Which, I hope, they'll be unable to accomplish.

Both City and Chelsea dropped points yesterday (ha!) so a win will elevate us seven points above the second place. Which means even if we lose to BOTH Chelsea and City in upcoming games, we'll stay top. Not that I think we have any intention of dropping points in these matches. It's merely to demonstrate, how good the start of our season is.

In terms of team news, we are without Sagna and will be without him for at least one more game. Far from ideal, but either way we cannot expect him to play every single minute in every single game. The fact, that his contract situation is not getting any better, is not helping too. It looks like the Frenchman's last season with us (which is both sad and wrong), but the reality is, we need to learn to cope without him. I still think, Jenks isn't ready for such a weight of responsibility, but I've heard some talk of us being interested in Johnson. Don't know, how much truth there is to this rumour. The way Sagna has been playing this season needs to be rewarded with a new deal, in my opinion, but the manager may have a different opinion, based on his own observations. Still, I'll hope for the better. For the Frenchman staying, that is.

Apart from Sagna, everyone else is available. Giroud should come back into the side after his midweek rest and Arsene has a pretty good dilemma, choosing between Monreal and Gibbs at left-back. Apart from that, I fancy an Arteta-Flamini partnership in central midfield to counter the threat of Lukaku and Co. This way, the Spaniard will provide cover for Mertesacker and Koscielny, while Mathieu will patrol the flanks to help our full-backs.

The manager has once again warned the players of the dangers, this Everton side poses, but I don't think the players need that. There seems to be a maturity to this group of footballers I have already talked about, so we won't take anyone lightly. Everton may have a good recent record (five clean sheets in six games), but we've already showed, what we can do to teams with low good defences. Let's pull this trick off once again.

Elsewhere, Arsene seems to be on the brink of signing a tree-year contract extension, which can see him become second-highest manager in the Premier League. The sum is rumoured to be around £8 million a year. What is interesting, is that the man himself doesn't want to sign until next year. I remember him saying, he will first see Arsenal through to the knockout stages of the Champions League, so, should everything go well, Arsene will put his signature on the dotted line in four days time. Fingers crossed.

Not much else happening, but you can have a read on how Ozil has adapted to his life in London and also, what the manager thinks about Bendtner. It's well worth your time.

Here's for the (seventh straight home) win later and I'll be back tomorrow with a review

Until then

Arsenal 2-0 Hull: this is getting too easy

Good morning.

Yesterday we've demonstrated once again, why we are genuine title contenders. We played a weaker (on paper) side, but our concentration level didn't drop. The manager made five changes, but they didn't affect the fluidity of our performance. I thought Bendtner up front was a ridiculous decision, but it wasn't. All in all, another accomplished performance. Oh, and a clean sheet.

I thought of giving you a full rundown, as usual, but our domination was so utter and complete, that I decided, I should only focus on the most important events.

As I've already said, Arsene introduced five new faces. Jenkinson, Monreal, Flamini, Rosicky and Bendtner came in for Sagna, Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere and Giroud. And within two minutes we were ahead.

Ramsey played a pass to Jenkinson, whose cross was met with a thumping header from Bendtner. It was the Dane`s first goal for Arsenal since 2011.

The fact, that we have scored inside 120 seconds didn't cool us down and Bendtner could have doubled the lead, following a corner, but his touch was to heavy. Ramsey, meanwhile, tried a distance shot and nearly pulled it off, only for McGregor to parry his effort. Ozil had a chance of his own, but nodded wide from a Bendtner cross.

Before Hull registered an attempt, we had already registered eleven. Their chance, however, was nearly put away by Sagbo, but, mercifully, failed to get his head to the ball. Huddleston then sent in a low cross, which was met by no one.

Inside two minutes of the second half, we scored again. A brilliant move down the left saw Monreal keep the ball in play, round off the defender and pass to Ozil. The German found Ramsey, whose slick return pass split Hull`s defense open and Ozil calmly put his chance away. Bendtner then had another chance from a corner, but his effort was cleared off the line.

After that, we fell back and allowed Hull to seize possession of the ball. They didn't come up with much, though. Livermore fired right at Szczesny, when he could have done better, and Bothroyd`s header sailed wide.

In the latter stages, Whilshere and Arteta came on to shore things up, but weren't overly troubled in their mission. Walcott also made a cameo as a central striker, but didn't impress.

Overall, a convincing performance and a deserved win. This is what the manager had to say after the match:

"We had a good night because we had a good control of the game. We had some great technical quality and keep a clean sheet. We rotated quite a bit as well. We couldn't take all the chances we created but overall it was a very convincing performance".

And on playing Bendtner:

"Look, [it is a gamble] if a guy has not played for a long time, and his last performance was not convincing against Chelsea, but he has worked hard in training and deserved a chance".

He also went on to say, that Walcott didn't train much during the week and I suspect it's the real reason for starting the Dane. However, I, personally, am glad for him. I always thought there is a good striker in him somewhere and were it not for his behavior, things could have played out differently for him at Arsenal. Maybe he still has a chance, I don't know. He's young, his relationship with Wenger may not be beyond repair and he definitely has talent. I guess we'll see, what happens to him, when the transfer window is finally upon us.

This win looks very important in retrospect. City, Chelsea and Liverpool had all won, so we are still four points clear. In an unexpected twist, Everton has beaten United at Old Trafford, so the Merseyside team is also in the mix.

Now we play Everton at home and then Napoli and City away. The chance to rotate was used well, let's hope we have enough petrol left in the tank to grind out positive results.

Until later

Hull preview: last chance

Morning everyone.

Tonight we have another one of those midweek games, but it's the last one (at least for the next couple of weeks), when the manager can loosen his grip on the squad.

That's not to say we are to take the opposition lightly. Before the game, Arsene spoke of warning signs:

"We are lucky at the moment, we get good warnings. We had a good warning before we went to Cardiff, and we have another good warning from Hull's performance against Liverpool".

Hull is clearly a capable side, but given we are title contenders, we should be able to cope with those challenges. I always thought it's not hugely important to win every game against a big team like Chelsea or United (though the latter is getting smaller by the minute), as long as you beat lesser opposition on a regular basis. Sure, you cannot drop points against your direct rivals in every game, but a slip up or two won't hurt that much, if we won five games in a row before finally dropping points.

This year, there's no messing around. Whether we play home or away, the attitude is the same. The fact we are playing against Liverpool, Borussia or Cardiff doesn't influence our approach. We seem to take every opponent seriously, which saw us smash lesser teams to pieces, deliver convincing performances against equals and even scrape out results against sides that (at the moment of playing them, at least) looked slightly better. And that, in my opinion, is how things should be done, if we want to go the distance this season.

Back to Hull, however, and we have a freshly injured player in Sagna. The manager said, the knock is only a light one, so fingers crossed, he's not just playing it down, so as to escape the ensuing panic.

And panic is the right word, cause, however hard-working and honest Jenkinson is, he is not ready to play on a consistent basis just yet. And we have a lot of crucial fixtures up next, so keeping Sagna fit should top our priority list, at least for tonight.

The same should apply to Giroud, Ramsey and probably Ozil. They've played a lot of minutes recently, so a little breather can't hurt. All three are integral to our set-up, to lose them now would be a massive blow. This game is a last chance to rest them, something Arsene said he'll do. Flamini for Ramsey, Rosicky for Ozil and Walcott for Giroud seem obvious choices. We'll have to adjust our style of play to fit Walcott's qualities, which are quite different to those of Giroud, but we have to tackle this problem sooner or later anyway, because the Frenchman is only a human being, of blood, flesh and all that, so we can't possibly expect him to play every game. We should consider spending some money on someone like Djeko, whose play style is similar to Giroud's, so as not to find ourselves in a difficult spot, when the Frenchman is rested.

Speaking of money-spending, there already are various reports, linking us with every player on planet Earth. I try my best to not spoon-feed you this crap (honestly, the transfer window is closed, what transfers can we accomplish right now?), but even the manager has to withstand the press attacks. Arsene was quizzed on a possible move for Morata or Pato, but his response was as negative, as it was short. We are not in on them.

However, he also mentioned, we may not buy a striker at all. A bit surprising, given our current situation, but the manager's confidence was probably boosted by Walcott's return, Podolski's comeback (he may feature next week already) and Sanogo's, erm, existence. We may have forgotten about the Frenchman, but Arsene clearly hasn't. I still think, he's (Yaya, that is) not ready to play at this level, but our manager may know something we don't.

That's basically it for today. Here's for the three points later on and I'll be back tomorrow with a review.

Until then