Aston Villa 0-2 Arsenal: Giroud and Ramsey fire Arsenal to the top

Quite unexpectedly (for me, first of all) I made the game. That’s due to my missing out on Cumberbetch’s “Hamlet”. For those of you interested, someone here came up with a brilliant idea to broadcast the play on a big screen, in cinemas. And sell tickets, naturally.

So my friend proposed we go and see the play, but then a last-minute hindrance prevented him from joining me. That’s my personal life in a nutshell. Even when I do have the energy and desire to go out on a weekend, something stops me at the last possible minute.

Away from my non-existent personal life, and, more importantly, moaning of a 22-year-old and back to matters Arsenal, though. The Gunners did the job in a calm and professional manner and, despite this not being one of our better performances, I’ll have a dull 2-0 over a rollercoaster 3-2, say, any day. I just love it when the Gunners go about their business as calmly as they did today. 3 points, top of the league, a clean sheet and an intact nervous system. On to points of interest.

The performance itself

It felt like we were playing in second gear the entire game, but this I can’t blame the boys for. The performance in midweek was as draining as it was exciting. Both on physical and mental fronts. The same 11 guys who started in Greece also started in Birmingham. That’s as much down to the quality of their game as to our inability to rotate them. Sanchez’s return can’t come soon enough, but I fear this won’t ease the burden on our midfield. Hope Arteta’s working on his calves.

The quality that set us apart on the day, the same which helped us overpower Olympiacos, was efficiency in front of goal. Up until 80th minute we took only 5 shots with 2 on target, both were goals. In the final 14 minutes we took another 3 shots, 2 of which were on target, but our overall 8 shots looked meagre compared to Villa’s 18. The Villains’ downfall was what? You are right, efficiency.

Villa took 18 shots, but only two were on target and both were from outside the box. Cech can catch these potshots all day long (congratulations to him for equalling James’ record, by the way). But a more revealing stat shows us both Arsene’s troops and Garde’s men took 7 shots from inside the box, the difference being efficiency. 4 of our 7 shots were on target, 2 of them goals, while the Villains saw one shot blocked and the other 6 put wide.

In other words, while being far from exciting, the Gunners were clinical and that was enough.

Hector Bellerin

Our Spaniard seems to be suffering from a dip in form. Ever since he came back from his injury. Hector didn’t quite looked himself. This run stretches to 8 games, including today’s.

Bayern performance exempting (I simply don’t want to recall that atrocity), we have conceded 5 goals in 7 games. It’s not much per se, but most of these goals came from the right side of the pitch or can be in some way traced back to Bellerin.

Spurs? Kane outrun Mert who tried to cover for Hector, who was out of position badly. West Brom? Bellerin failed to man-mark Morrison for the first and allowed a low cross to come in for the 2nd. Norwich? The pass for the goal came from the right side. Sunderland? Who the hell was Koscielny covering for on the right when he conceded that free-kick? And against Villa Bellerin was suspect defensively again.

Maybe I’m being picky. After all, Bellerin is only 20, it’s his first season as a regular. It’s not like he is Monreal, a full-back with years of experience (kudos to Monreal, by the way, another solid performance). Form fluctuates at such a young age, this is nothing new.

Moreover, we have to understand Bellerin’s, erm, surroundings, changed quite a lot in these past weeks. By that I mean we longer have Coquelin and Cazorla, who were better suited to cover for the Spaniard. Both patrolled the space in front of our back 4 more efficiently than Ramsey and Flamini currently do. Also, instead of having Ramsey on the flank, Hector now has Campbell. Our right-back is as affected by the current changes as the rest of the team, maybe more.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of room for manoeuvre, at least till Cazorla and Coquelin return. Or until Arsene buys a new holding midfielder in January. So Hector has to adapt to the new situation somehow.

Aaron Ramsey

Rambo had another good performance in the middle. He scored that second goal (and started the move which led to it himself), he completed 71 out of his 78 attempted passes (made the most passes of any on-field player), while also chipping in in defense, winning 5 tackles, 3 of these centrally, 2 near our box. Finally, the Welshman ran a whopping 12 km, setting a new Premier League record. The man’s an engine.

Arsene was also full of praise for Aaron:

“He had an outstanding performance today. I think of course he is naturally more of a central midfielder and I pushed him out wide for a while because I believe we have seen many times that when players are pushed against the line they need to shorten their technique. When they come back into the middle again, they are better players.”

Make it 2 goals and 2 assists for Ramsey in his last 3 games. Also notice how Arsene talks about purposefully playing Aaron wide. It clearly never was his intention to keep the Welshman there till the end of days.

However, I still think a Flamini-Ramsey partnership is too gung-ho. Neither can set a tempo to our game (other than chaotic) and I sincerely hope Arsene addresses this problem by either making Arteta/Wilshere a part of the equation or delving into the depths of the transfer market in January.

The aftermath

That was a very important win with some nice little bonuses on top: Giroud scored his 50th league goal by coolly converting another penalty, Cech kept his first clean sheet since October, thus equalling James’ record, Ozil got his 13th assist in just 15 games...

But it was also important from a strategic point of view. Arsenal has moved into the 1st place as a result, a point above City (who got a lucky bounce vs Swansea) and Leicester. Granted, Leicester can still leapfrog us, but they’ll have to beat Chelsea to do that. Doesn’t seem particularly likely, but with Chelsea you just never know…

However we also put some distance between us and the rest. United are now 4 points behind, Spurs (hahaha) and Palace 7 and everyone else even more. Nice weekend for the Gunners. Now we get 8 days till the City game to recover and prepare both physically and mentally.

Let’s hope we do just that.

Until later

Villa preview: a chance to go top

We travel to Villa Park to take on Remi Garde’s Aston Villa and, needless to say, three points is the acceptable result. After a downright disastrous November we’ve only recently notched our first league win (in 4 games) and considering how hard of a January we are about to have, picking up as many points as humanly possible in December is a must.

Head-to-head

Aston Villa are dead-last in the table, having picked up just 6 points from 15 games. Garde’s men are 6 points off 19th-placed Sunderland, 8 points off safety and 9 points off Chelsea (mwahaha).

Their numbers are pretty abysmal: 14 league games without a win, 23 lost league games in 2015 calendar year and an 8-game winless streak at home to top it all off. They have conceded 28 goals this season (only Sunderland, Newcastle and Bournemouth conceded more - 30) and scored only 13 - less than a goal per game. Things looked a bit better for them during Garde’s first game in charge (a draw vs City), but since then they’ve lost twice and drawn another game with a combined difference of -5.

Furthermore, Villa have an atrocious record vs Arsenal. The Villains haven’t beaten Arsenal at home in 16 league games (a run that stretches, naturally, back to 1998) and have lost all 3 games to the Gunners last year, conceding 12 times in the process and failing to score even 1 goal.

Our overall away record should also be a source of worries for Villa fans - only 2 lost games in the last 14, with 10 wins. This record, frankly, should have been even better, but alas, we screwed up our November big time.

Team news update

We don’t have fresh injury concerns, while no one is coming back too (which isn’t very surprising). However, Alexis looks to be on course to return for our pivotal clash vs City on the 21st:

"He is back on Sunday, he trains on Monday morning at 9.30 a.m.

He is running already... I sent him back to Chile, where he has been running with the physio of the national team, and we will see what kind of state he is in next week. He may be a bit short for City, certainly, but with Alexis you never know."

Alexis? Short after a week of training? You wish. Guy played in our first league game after barely having two training sessions. I rather think it’s Wenger playing mind games a bit, making Pellegrini nervous as to whether Sanchez will be involved.

The next guy to come back should be Arteta, but all the others will only “be available after Christmas”. Whatever the hell that means. Wenger only specified the date of Rosicky’s return (end of January), the mooted date for Jack is early January (the cup game, maybe?), while Welbeck resembles a forgotten man more and more. No update on him was given.

Injury musings

This situation is sad and a bit alarming. I don’t mean just Welbeck, I mean our regular injury crisis. We started the season with 24 players, on paper. In reality, it was 21, because Wilshere, Rosicky, Welbeck. This list of 21 players includes Flamini (a 3rd-choice DM who is now 1st-choice) and a half-dead Arteta. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mikel, I’ve defended him for quite some time (and continue to do so, he is a much better footballer than given credit for) and I am, of course, deeply grateful for everything he’s done for us, coming in at a torrid time in 2011 and steadying the ship. But it has become apparent we can no longer rely on him.

Mikel limped off on the 21st of November with a “slight calf strain”. One which has already kept him on the sidelines for 3 weeks and one which will keep him out for at least further 2. Arteta’s ongoing problems basically mean we had, at best, 20 players we can rely on in August. That includes Flamini (supposed to be 3rd-choice, remember?)  The real question is, did Arsene know Arteta wouldn’t be able to keep up? Because if he did, not buying another midfielder was sheer madness. You can’t for months on end relying on just 20 players.

Right now we have 17 fit players. Alexis’ return will make it 18, which means only just scraping a starting XI and a bench. A bench with 4 defenders on it. When it comes right down to it, 2 injuries in midfield (Cazorla and Coquelin) was all it took to place Arsenal in a tricky situation. Not only because both are, per se, very important players, who have been regular starters in 2015, but also because, starting the season with a 21-man (de-facto) means any further injuries strain the squad to its limits. Which is what happened to us. We are not mad because Cazorla and Coquelin are out. Any half-decent side can cope with 2 injuries, regardless of how important the injured were. It’s coping with 5-6 that makes the situation dangerous.

I can see only one way out: buying another central midfielder in January and weathering the storm. And then, in May, assessing our injury-prone players and their future with the Club. Arteta, Flamini and Rosicky will definitely leave, thus solving some of our problems. Of other players, only the English contingent seems injury-prone, Calum Chambers exempting. I doubt we’ll see Ramsey or Walcott axed, the former Wenger loves too much and Aaron is the least injury-prone, the latter signed a new lucrative contract just this summer.

Which leaves us with Oxlade, Wilshere, Gibbs and possibly Welbeck. Danny suffered a nasty injury, but that doesn’t mean he is prone yet, the other three, though… Arsene should really pay close attention to how they fare in 2016. Especially since Gibbs and Oxlade haven’t established themselves as regulars still and their performances, for now at least, leave a lot to be desired.

If I sound cynical, I don’t mean to. I love Jack, Danny and Ox, Gibbs to a lesser extent maybe. But I’m dead tired of relying on players who don’t contribute all that much and take up places in the squad. Not just one or two players too. Six. Six injury-prone players. Their absence costs us every season and I want that to change. If such desperate times require such desperate measures, then so be it.

Squad

I can’t see Arsene making many changes, simply because we don’t have the luxury of choosing. The only debatable positions are striker, left/right wing and, possibly, central midfield.

As for changing strikers, well, I still think Giroud may need a rest, simply because he started 10 games in a row, but look what happened the last time I suggested resting the Frenchman: a quite wonderful performance topped off with a hat-trick. We know how Arsene is reluctant to rotate in-form players and, more importantly, Ollie’s heroics should have breathed new life into the Frenchman, so I don’t think we’ll see Ollie rested just yet.

As for our wings, Campbell seems to have cemented his place, hilarious as it may seem. A run in the side definitely benefited the Costa-Rican, he notched at least 2 goals and 2 assists in the last 8 games (ever since he started vs Swansea) and he should be in better physical shape than either Walcott or Oxlade, both of whom have only just returned from injury.

The other side of the pitch is more of a dilemma. Walcott or Oxlade. I’d say Walcott will get the nod, simply because he offers more than the Ox. He is tidier on the ball and much more threatening in the final third.

Finally, I’m very interested at which stage the operation “Chambers in central midfield” currently is. Personally, I’m surprised we haven’t seen Calum play there for more than 10 minutes lately. The opportunity have been ample ever since Coquelin limped off against West Brom: Norwich and Sunderland in the league and Zagreb and Olympiacos in the CL. Sure, these were all very important games, games we had to win, but it’s still better to give Calum a try there than against City or during the busy Christmas schedule.

Aston Villa is the last game to blood Chambers in a new position. After that we have City and Southampton and both look much less forgiving opponents. After Southampton it’s five days till January, a month by which Wenger must already make up his mind whether he needs a new holding midfielder or whether Chambers and Flamini are adequate stand-ins until Coquelin returns. Unless, of course, Wenger has already decided Chambers is a no-go in midfield and we need to buy. That would explain why he’s persisting with Flamini at a time when the opposition allows us to try out Chambers in a new role.

Predicted line-up: Cech - Bellerin - Mertesacker - Koscielny - Monreal - Flamini - Ramsey - Ozil - Walcott - Campbell - Giroud

The verdict

As it stands, we should have enough in our lockers to beat Villa. On a high after beating Sunderland and, more importantly, Olympiacos, the players should be up for the task at hand.

A win will also take us to the top of the table, at least till Leicester play Chelsea. City have only just beaten a manager-less Swansea (but they still did), meaning we can leapfrog them by a solitary point in case we win.

So come on you Gunners.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to watch the game live, so there will be no review from me. However, keep your eyes peeled anyway, in case Sohum makes the game.

Over and out from me for now.

P.S. Oh, just in case you’ve been thinking about additional reading on Aston Villa, here’s this week’s “A view from the opponents” column. Can thoroughly recommend it, fascinating stuff.

Olympiacos 0-3 Arsenal: the French kiss

I have a strange emotional state before games: I rarely hope for the best or dread the worst. On Twitter, maybe. Sometimes (even quite often) you can see me putting on a brave face, while expressing full confidence the Gunners can do the job, whatever the difficulty of it. Occasionally you can see me moaning we will fall (though this is a much less frequent occurrence).

However in real life, I mostly take games in their stride. You won’t see me predicting a heavy loss or a resounding win, whatever the opposition. I rarely write us off, disregarding our form and/or players available (we are Arsenal, after all), but I also rarely say things like “It’s only QPR for Christ’s sake, what can go wrong?”

It’s when the game kicks off that my nerves kick in proper and my mood starts swinging from one end of spectrum to the other, which may not necessarily be related to what’s happening on the pitch. It’s when the whistle for the kick-off blows that I start hoping for the best/dreading the worst.

Is it to do with my rationality? I like to think of myself as a rational man, prematurely celebrating success or predicting gloom is not the sign of being rational. SImply because until the game starts you rarely have reasons to think your team will run out winners or will be consigned to the history books.

Or maybe such a state of mine is dependent on a kind of nervous stupor I enter once the line-ups are revealed? I just don’t have the time or energy to make predictions of any sort, because I’m too busy worrying myself into this senseless condition.

Whatever reason it is, the fact remains: I am never full of confidence one way or the other prior to kick-off. And I don’t spend days on end worrying about the upcoming game. Maybe, just maybe, that means I still can enjoy football where Arsenal is involved and the unpredictability of the game precludes me on some deep psychological level from making predictions of any kind.

Why am I saying all this? Simple: it was exactly how I felt on Wednesday. And on Saturday, before Sunderland. This is how I will feel when I sit down to watch us take on City in 10-days time (unfortunately, I’ll miss our trip to Birmingham this weekend). Sure, every week I speculate on our form, players’ availability and possible scenarios of how the game will unfold (and I’m usually decent at guessing), however you are unlikely to see me saying things like the end result with certainty.

So when I sat down on Wednesday to watch the game I kind of...succumbed to the inevitability of what was about to unfold.

After watching the opening 20 minutes or so I started to get desperate. Not much was happening on the pitch, we didn't try to take Olympiacos by storm and the commentator kept nagging on how this “was all part of Marco Silva’s grand plan” and “how such a game suited him down to the ground”.

But then, on the 25th minute we sparked into life. Joel Campbell, who minutes before switched flanks with Theo Walcott, stormed down the right flank, put in a low cross and Flamini’s deflected shot rattled the bar. Giroud headed the ball into the keeper's arms from the resulting corner and this was when I understood: the game was on. We were in it.

4 minutes later we went ahead. Ozil, after seemingly being pushed away from the box, turned on the spot and sliced Olympiacos’ defense open with one deft stroke of his left foot. Ramsey ran onto the German's through pass and weighed in a cross for Olivier Giroud. The Frenchman met it with a thumping header, which Roberto couldn't save despite his best efforts.

But it was only the beginning of the Frenchman's heroics. Four minutes after the restart Campbell twinkle-toed his way past 3 Olympiacos defenders after latching onto Ozil’s pass and laid the ball on a platter for Giroud. Ollie timed his run between 3 (!) defenders in such a way that he found himself one-on-one with Roberto, with loads of defenders in the box rendered absolutely useless and our reinforcements out of the equation. The Frenchman, who moments before barely got up after seemingly doing his ankle in, didn't miss.

However Ollie didn’t stop there. On the 66th minute he burst into the box, his cutback found Nacho Monreal in a good shooting position, the Spaniard took a shot, Elabdellaoui blocked the shot with his arm and Rizzoli pointed to the spot. Even before the cameraman showed who the penalty taker would be, I’ve heard “Na na Giroud” emanating from the away sector and knew the Frenchman was onto his hat-trick. Ollie stepped up, ignored Roberto’s antics and calmly sent the keeper the other way for his first hat-trick in an Arsenal shirt. 3-0 and game over. Olympiacos didn’t even look bothered going forward and we could have extended our lead further, only for Giroud to be flagged offside and Ozil forcing a fine save from Roberto.

Now, even after such a performance I’ve seen people say it wasn’t Giroud’s best game in our shirt or that, indeed, the Frenchman hasn’t done anything special. I strongly with both points. I’m not at all inclined to find fault with Ollie’s hat-trick, especially at a time when even the English media acknowledged his achievement. For several reasons:

1. A hat-trick is a hat-trick. You don’t score these all that often and if people find it okay to wank over Benzema’s hat-trick against Malme in a game which means nothing for both sides, I reserve my right to be over the moon with Giroud after he delivered at such a crucial time
2. Giroud showed different aspects to his game. A good sense of positioning for the first and a powerful header, strong hold-up play and a perfectly-timed run for the second and nerves of steel for the penalty. Yes, he wouldn’t have scored his goals without Ramsey, Ozil, Campbell, Monreal etc., but that’s a team game. The same can be said about almost every goal
3. Finally, I simply love Ollie Giroud. For his resolve, for his spirit, for his love for the shirt. I have defended Olivier Giroud long enough and fiercely enough to allow myself not to do this when such a performance comes along

One last thing I’ll do before wrapping up: honorable mentions. First up is Joel Campbell, who once again worked tirelessly for the team, created moments of danger and his assist was nothing short of sublime.

Second up is Ozil, who left the field without an assist or a goal to his name (I believe it’s the first time he’s done that in ten games), but set-up both Ramsey and then Campbell so that they could, in their turn, set up Giroud. The German was a little less noticeable, but that doesn’t diminish his contribution in the slightest.

Finally, Petr Cech. He made at least one crucial save from Fortunis at 2-0. Also, he stood firm in a couple of other potentially dangerous situations, so big thumbs up to our keeper. Finally, his response to a stupid question post-game was nothing short of classy.

I’ll leave it at this. Back with the usual preview for the Aston Villa game.

Up the Arsenal

Olympiacos preview: do or die

If you have ever played the original Uncharted game (run to the store asap if you haven’t), then you know there are five difficulty settings there: very easy, easy, normal, hard and crushing. The first three correspond to their respective names. On hard things get much trickier and I think there would have been few complaints if “hard” was the toughest setting.

But it isn’t. However to unlock “crushing” you have to first complete the game on “hard”. This is a perfectly understandable requirement, as not even hard can prepare you sufficiently for what comes next.

Being a game geek (at the time), I wanted to complete the game on crushing, however, even the opening scenes (where you are explained the basic controls) proved tough to get through. Once I did, once the tutorial was over, the shit really hit the fan. I was repeatedly slaughtered by simple mercenaries in the early chapters (the game is divided in 22 chapters) and my progress halted. I had to come up with ways at putting myself into minimal danger (i.e. sticking to cover during shoot-outs as much as possible), while also maximising the output (still killing my enemies).

You know what I did? Devised a plan which allowed me to be pretty accurate with my shooting by blind-firing out of cover. I noticed that Drake shoots roughly in the centre of the screen without aiming, so I marked the centre of the screen and placed a sticker exactly above it, dead-in-the-middle. Voilà.

I brought the whole thing up in regards to our Olympiacos game. We seem to be approaching this game on hard, only to find out the game itself will be played on crushing. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.

In our case “crushing” means pretty much the same it did to be: we have to get to the our destination point (a win by two goals or more) operating within the limitations of a strictly defined system (very few players we can change around) all the while being constantly aware any lapse of concentration can prove costly indeed (i.e. conceding a goal). But, like was the case with completing Drake's Fortune on crushing, it is doable.

Squad and approach

I’ve skipped the usual “team news” section because there is nothing new to report about. We don’t have any new injuries, no one is coming back, so there you have it.

I also don’t see a lot of sense in the “head-to-head” section, because our record away in Greece, while appaling, is more down to Arsenal qualifying already by that point and playing a bunch of kids/second-string players as a consequence. Moving on.

How we approach the game is a slightly more interesting question. I say “slightly” because Arsene basically laid down what we will do in the presser:

“There is one positive thing for us - we know exactly what we have to do. We know that we have to go for it from the start. So let's do that and hopefully we can get through. We know what is expected and we have studied Olympiacos”.

While one can make a case that we have a squad more suited to counter-attacking football right now, it seems Wenger won’t play the waiting game. Whether that’s because it’s hard to pick off your opponent twice (at least) inside one game, handing someone the initiative is dangerous or because we may not have the resilience to withstand pressure without Coquelin (or, indeed, all of the above), is not that important. We are unlikely to go this way on Wednesday.

However, will Olympiacos accept it? From what I’ve heard, they are a side full of attacking-minded players. They may not be willing to hand over the initiative and shut shop. All of this may lead to a fascinating (to a casual observer) battle for the ball in the opening minutes.

However, I’m more than sure the Greeks will plough for the more conservative variant. There are two reasons for them to do that:

1. We aren’t always very good at picking locks. The chances of us scoring twice against a side that sits deep are well below scoring twice in an end-to-end contest.
2. We seem to be susceptible to counters recently. Even Sunderland made use of it. I’m sure Olympiacos’ players and manager studied us just as we studied them.

It is something Mesut Ozil is aware of and warns against:

“Olympiacos can play good football and we saw that at the Emirates. They want to play on the counter-attack but we can’t concede goals like we did before again”.

If we assume it’s going to be another game where we have to unlock a defense and avoid conceding on a counter, there is at least one change the manager may consider making: Gabriel for Mertesacker.

I know I’ve been harping about how the Brazilian should start games for a while now (though I’m not alone here), but I didn’t like one bit how we were left exposed vs Sunderland when Koscielny pushed up. The most notable moment happened in the 3rd minute, when Borini raced through on goal because Kos got tangled up in a duel up front. Anam studies Koscielny’s (and Ramsey’s) risk/reward system of play in-depth here.

If we assume Koscielny has become our Coquelin (for the time being) then pairing him up with someone pacy only makes sense. This way Mert’s lack of pace won’t be exposed and he won’t be asked to cover for both himself and Kos, something he naturally can’t do, especially if we are talking counter-attacks.

Another change I’d propose is Theo for Giroud. The Frenchman has been carrying a heavy burden ever since Theo sustained an injury, which only was made heavier when Alexis limped off against Norwich. The Frenchman has started 7 games in this period (9 in a row if we count in Everton and Sheffield) and has only been subbed off twice if I recall correctly: against Zagreb and this past weekend against Sunderland.

As someone concisely summed it up, Giroud is becoming negative as a result of being overplayed. In the past couple of games we’ve seen the effects of this: Ollie seemed more interested in arguing with the ref and lying on the ground than in scoring goals and creating chances for others. He clearly needs a break.

Will we also see Chambers in place of Flamini? Rumours keep circulating we just might. As far as I know Calum continues to be educated in this mould on the training ground, he completed at least one U21s game in midfield (and Gatting was full of praise for the Englishman) and, finally, we do know Wenger talked him up for that role. Guess we’ll see soon enough.

Predicted line-up: Cech - Bellerin - Mertesacker - Koscielny - Monreal - Flamini - Ramsey - Ozil - Oxlade - Campbell - Walcott

The verdict

While our chances are pretty slim, I remain optimistic (surprising, I know). We are not in the uncharted territory. It’s not the first time we have to win by several goals to go through. Yes, we haven’t done it before, but then we never needed to win by two goals, the margin was always bigger. We’ve won by two goals in the return leg at least twice in recent history (Bayern, Monaco) and even by three goals (Milan).

Olympiacos is not as good as Bayern, with all due respect, otherwise they wouldn’t have lost both legs by a shedload of goals. And I highly doubt they are as good defensive-wise as Monaco. Which means that our chance, while slim, remains very real.

So come on you Gunners.

Arsenal 3-1 Sunderland: back on track

Finally. A win. A pretty good performance with a threadbare squad. Another Ozil assist. Only thing lacking was the clean sheet, one which would have taken Cech level with James and one which he thoroughly deserved.

It wasn’t our best performance, granted. After the 1st half we didn’t look any more convincing than we did vs Norwich or West Bromwich, though we should still have been 1-0 up. However, this was a win the team desperately needed to get November out of the system and we achieved just that.

As always, I’ll talk you through the points of interest.

Petr Cech

My Man of the Match. He made two absolutely huge saves to keep the scores at 0-0 and then he made further two to keep them at 1-1. His 4th save in particular was out of this world, have a look yourselves.

Today he was the difference between no points and three, because I’m sure we wouldn’t have found the resources to go on and salvage something from the game had we fallen behind. This was another game when Cech really earned us points with a masterful display and I’m very sad we couldn’t reward the man with a clean sheet he thoroughly deserved.

Laurent Koscielny

Kos did return from his injury and was thrust into the action right away. You could see why: the Frenchman put in a massive performance. Here’s his game by the numbers (keep in mind Sunderland only enjoyed 26% possession, thus they didn’t exactly camp in our third. Means Koscielny was very efficient with the little work he had):

1. 2/2 tackles
2. 6 ball recoveries
3. 5 interceptions
4. 7/7 clearances
5. 5/8 aerial duels won
6. 40/48 passes completed (83% accuracy)

However what I liked most about Kos’ performance was how he drove the team forward in the first half. He was unnervingly good at dribbling past opponents and passing under pressure. Well done to Koscielny.

Aaron Ramsey

I’ve mixed feelings about Aaron’s display. On the one hand, he looked a tad selfish once again, shooting from outside the box in the 1st half when passing the ball was a better option, attempting an overhead kick in the 2nd whereas letting the ball get to Giroud was again the better alternative and, finally, trying for Hollywood passes or embarking on risky dribbles and losing the ball as a result.

On the other, Ramsey was everywhere. He completed 114 out of 124 passes attempted (92% accuracy), created 4 chances for his teammates, took 7 shots (5 from inside the box) himself and got an assist and a goal to his name in the end.

Ramsey wasn’t very switched on defensively, but on this occasion he didn’t need to be. I only hope Arsene still mentions it, because we aren’t going to face teams which sit this deep every week, so Aaron will have to help out Flamini more.

Overall, it was a very positive display from Rambo. He looked at ease back in the middle, he combined with Ozil a lot and he did it well and he showed us what we lacked with Santi in the middle: energy and willingness to make things happen. Here’s hoping Aaron will build on this display.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

I’m worried about Alex, honestly. With Alexis out of the equation for the time being, this is Oxlade’s chance to shine, to show his worth. I don’t remember where I’ve first seen this thought, but we play in such a way we can only accommodate one high risk/reward system player. Alexis is always going to be that one, so it was hard to have a look in for Alex.

Now he has a chance to establish himself, but against Sunderland he was again below-par. As someone rightly pointed out to me, Alex was only marginally worse than Campbell, Joel’s goal skewed our perception a bit, but still, the Ox was pretty poor.

He didn’t complete a single cross or dribble, he took only one shot and created only one chance for a teammate and completed only 24 passes (out of 28 attempted) in his 64 minutes on the pitch. In simple terms, Ox was mostly uninvolved, especially when he and Campbell swapped flanks. The sheer fact Campbell was subbed off later than Oxlade speaks volumes.

This is very sad to see. Alex is a very talented player, with a much higher ceiling than Campbell, yet it isn’t gleaned from his performances this season. I hope Ox will get better with games, that what we are seeing now is merely the result of lack of playing time. Otherwise I’ll start to have serious misgivings about Oxlade’s future with Arsenal.

The verdict

“It was a very important game for us tonight because we came out of three disappointing results. We had lost only one game but I think it was a very, very important game for us today, psychologically, for the fact we had not won, for the fact we had lost important players in our side and we had to show that we can win. We were edgy and nervy in the first half against a very organised team who were dangerous on the counter-attack but in the second half I think we have shown mental strength and desire in our game and more fluency as well. All was not perfect of course but the team have shown mental strength after a goal before half-time. We still managed to win the game in the second half.”

And that is basically it. We needed a win badly, we got it. We didn’t sustain any new injuries.

The win takes us to 2nd place, behind Leicester, who thrashed Swansea away courtesy of a Riayd Mahrez hat-trick. United drew their home game against West Ham, while City lost 2-0 to Stoke away. Now we need to take games one-by-one and keep fingers crossed for quick returns of Arteta, Wilshere and Sanchez.

Until later