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

Olympiacos preview: have to win with what's at our disposal

We face Olympiacos in the 2nd game of the group stages and, needless to say, this game is a must-win:

“You have to win your home games if you want to qualify from the group stage, it is simple as that. We cannot afford to drop points now against anyone at home.”

While I have my reservations about our ability to do just that with Bayern in the group, right now Bayern is not our biggest problem, simply because it’s not them we face next.

Head-to-head

We drew Olympiacos three times in the last five years or so. What’s interesting, is that out of the six encounters Arsenal have won only three - all three at home. I seem to vaguely recall the away matches being dead rubber games, though.

Olympiacos aren’t particularly successful at playing English teams away from home - their record of 12 losses in 12 games with 37 goals conceded and 3 scored show just that. However, as we found out the hard way, complacency can be punished by any team at this level, so there shouldn’t be any complacency when we don on the red-and-white.

Team news update

Apart from our usual trio (which will be out for three more months), we will have two further midfielders out, which exacerbates our midfield selection problems. Those two are Mathieu Flamini (hamstring) and Mikel Arteta (who is rumoured to have suffered a dead leg):

“Both have slight muscular problems, but I think Flamini has a scan today (Monday) and Arteta certainly as well. 

They are not big injuries. It is a question of days.”

We also have Olivier Giroud’s suspension to deal with, lest you forgot. However, we’ll have Gabriel back and chomping at the bit, while Francis Coquelin also should make it:

“He has been back since yesterday and I will have to see how he responds to two days of training, but he looks alright.”

With Giroud out, I suspect Iwobi will make the bench, while Gabriel and Coquelin will replace Arteta and Flamini respectively.

Squad and approach

“The game (against Manchester United) will not interfere with that at all. It is more the games we played before that could have an influence. Some players had two tough games at Tottenham and at Leicester, where they were a high level physically. I will have to analyse that today and make my decisions.”

It’s understandable United game shouldn’t affect our selection too much, seeing as we play both them and Olympiacos at home and seeing as there are five days between the games, but the line Wenger dropped on previous matches affecting his selection is interesting.

The only players who played a lot of minutes in both games are Mertesacker and Ramsey, Alexis to a lesser extent. I’m pretty sure Arsene won’t even consider giving Sanchez a rest (as won’t the Chilean himself), especially after his hat-trick heroics.

However, I’m not so sure about the other two. Mertesacker played two full games straight after coming back from injury, so I won’t be surprised to see Gabriel return to the starting line-up. As for Ramsey, the Welshman completed 90 minutes against Tottenham, while also completing close to 70 against Leicester. That, and Oxlade’s presence at the press conference give me the feeling Ox is due a start on the right.

Beyond that I can see Wenger making only one further change: Ospina for Cech. Yes, I do know we don’t have a tradition of rotating keepers for the Champions League, however, we might well have parted ways with this tradition against Zagreb. On top of that, I’m pretty sure Ospina will leave if he is not first-choice at the end of the season. So I’m sure Wenger will give the Colombian all the chances to impress.

Predicted line-up: Ospina - Bellerin - Gabriel - (ain’t nobody like) Koscielny - Monreal - Coquelin - Cazorla - Ozil - Alexis - Oxlade - Walcott

As for the approach, well, I think Wenger hit the nail on the head:

“What changes more (at home) is the attitude of our opponent. We always try to play and go forward. At home we face maybe a different kind of problem, teams regroup in front of their box and you need to be penetrative with your passing, with your movement, and clinical with your finishing.”

I’m pretty sure it will be the case of “We attack - they defend” and all will boil down to how well we take our chances. If we make the most of them, we should have too much for the Greek champions.

The verdict

This is the game which is a bit different to the previous ones in a sense we won’t have a lot of options on the bench and will most likely have to win it with whoever starts. If we presume I guessed the squad right, Ramsey will be the only guy who can realistically make an impact from the bench.

To be honest I’m a bit stunned it’s our midfield that’s skating on thin ice in terms of injuries right now. It looked the very-well stocked at the start of the campaign, but long-term injuries to Wilshere and Rosicky changed the picture a bit. Throw in the fact Arteta, Flamini and Coquelin are all nursing different knocks and there you have it. We are not in crisis just yet, however, we seem to be treading a fine line. Fingers crossed we won’t have to worry about out walking wounded come Tuesday 9:30 p.m.

Finally, a bit of extra reading for you. First article is from Tim Stillman, in which he speculates on whether we can learn to play without a natural DM (might we try this out against Olympiacos?) and the second is a quite brilliant write-up from Daniel Cowan on the underlying reason for Mourinho’s classless midweek comments on Wenger. Check them both out, well worth your time.

Right, back with a review.

Come on you Gunners!

Leicester 2-5 Arsenal: finally

A month back, almost to the day, I’ve read an interesting article from @7amkickoff which stated, in unequivocal terms, that Arsenal WILL get back to their best, that they WILL become much, much better at finishing the chances they create. The reason was very simple: every team has a certain amount of chances created, shots, goals scored etc. every season. And the fluctuations from one campaign to another are not wild, meaning we can more or less predict what will happen next season.

In that sense, the first six games presented an anomaly in that we scored very few goals (just five, three if you take away own goals). We had an atrocious conversion rate, but other important numbers linked to scoring goals (like chances, shots etc.) actually improved. It became obvious this anomaly would be short-lived, because at that rate we would have far inferior numbers to the previous campaign. Such outcome, while possible, was highly unlikely for statistical reasons: as I’ve said above fluctuations from one year to another are not wild. It was just a matter of time before Arsenal broke the goalscoring duck.

I’m not trying to come across as a know-it-all and say I knew we would put 5 past Leicester. What I was sure of, though, is that we would, sooner or later, have a cracking game which would balance out the previous matches with their statistical anomalies and get Arsenal close to their average in terms of goals scored. That such a game happened at a time when we absolutely needed to win to capitalize on City’s slip-up (thank you, Tottenham!) makes me infinitely more happy. As usual, I’m going to dissect the moments I found interesting.

Theo Walcott, the lone forward

Theo’s been playing as a lone forward for a couple of games now (in fact, last time Giroud started a league game for us was August 24th, against Liverpool), however, lingering doubts remained whether Theo has indeed become our Plan A.

Now these doubts have been put to bed. Theo started up front in a tough away fixture and he performed admirably. He scored an all-important equalising goal at a time when Leicester were in front and looked likely to score another and was a live wire while he remained on the pitch. Out of our 26 shots Theo took 8, 7 were from inside the box and 4 of these were on target. I felt Theo was a bit unlucky to come off with only one goal to his name, but there’s no denying that goal was massive. There is also no denying Walcott looked really dangerous with his clever runs in-behind, so I think we are going to embody a force to be reckoned with once the rest of the team fully gets used to Theo’s style of play.

Alexis Sanchez, the hat-trick hero

Alexis Sanchez is a microcosm of Arsenal, in a way. Just like the team, the Chilean struggled in front of goal for six games. Just like the team, he exploded on the day, scoring not one or two, but three goals and it was a sight to behold.

Alexis was in the right place at the right time for the first (a quality that sets real strikers apart), his sheer willpower saw him score a header past much-taller Morgan and Huth and for the third he cut inside from the left and cannoned a distance shot into the bottom corner. It was the first hat-trick for the Chilean in the Arsenal shirt and you couldn’t be happier for him.

A couple of interesting facts about Alexis’ performance:

1. He took 7 shots, 6 from inside the box
2. 3 of these 7 were on target and he scored from all 3
3. 2 of the 7 were headed efforts - not bad for someone who is 5 ft 7 inches tall
4. Sanchez completed all of his dribbles - of which there were 7
5. He had 2 big chances and put away both

Finally, this is a mere guess from my part, but it looks like Sanchez is much more effective with Walcott as a striker - he acts almost as a second striker (which is reflected in his stats) and he looks much more at ease with the Englishman by his side.

Cech, the massive goalkeeper

Yes, he let in two goals, but he also made 5 saves: one at 0-0, one at 3-1 and then a massive three at 4-1. I do not understand why Leicester looked much more interested in chasing the game at 4-1 than they did at 3-1, however, that doesn’t make Cech’s saves any less valuable or, indeed, any less spectacular. At one point he pulled off a great save, then, after realising the defenders aren’t going to help him out, he chased the attacker himself (think it was Vardy) and palmed the ball away from under his feet. He might have let in 2, but he also showed how important he is and I am genuinely happy we have a goalkeeper of Cech’s level.

Arteta, not done yet

I wasn’t really surprised to see Flamini start the game. It was a safer option than Ramsey and with Arteta playing all the 90 minutes in midweek it was obvious Mathieu was the fresher guy. He also scored twice, let’s not forget that.

However, when Arteta came on in the 21st minute to replace an injured Flamini, the game, which has been end-to-end stuff, calmed down a great deal. Both teams still had their moments, but Arteta brought assuredness to the proceedings with his metronomic passing and we instantly looked more organised and less vulnerable on the counter.

Arteta didn’t do anything particularly interesting stats-wise, didn’t have a Coquelin-esque performance, tackling anyone and everyone in sight. His only really decent (for a DM) figure was his passing: 88% accuracy (46/52), but even this is not much of an anomaly (how many times did I use that word?) for our lego-haired Spaniard, who’s used to clocking 95% passing accuracies with over 80 passes per game.

His greatest asset, like Mertesacker’s, was his calming influence: Mikel slowed down the tempo when we badly needed just that and continued to control the proceedings in his unobtrusive, yet effective manner. Even if Coquelin doesn’t make it in time for Olympiacos, I’ll be calm.

The aftermath

It was a massive performance, a massive win away from home against an in-form team and an opportunity to get us within reaching distance to the very top, the opportunity we grabbed with both hands, legs and Sanchez’s head.

With Tottenham humiliating the newly-crowned invincible Champions at White Hart Lane, Chelsea hilariously dropping points against a team facing a relegation battle and United powering past a hapless Sunderland, we did what was required. A win against United next Sunday and we’ll go into the break at least joint-second, with a maximum two points off the top. Not bad for a team in crisis, eh?

Until later, enjoy the win, Gooners