Wenger's Lucky Thirteenth?

There is always an element of subjectivity in any analysis or judgement, particularly so, perhaps, in matters of the heart. And football.

Along with the Corrs dilemma, the other seminal philososphical debate of the modern era is if you had a straight choice between Arsenal winning the Champions League and the Premier League - which would you choose?

Now, before you choke on your cornflakes, take a moment to reflect a little further on it.
It would be the dream Champs League final against the team of your choosing (Manure? Barca?), the dream scoreline (that in itself is tricky - a 6-0 thrashing or a brilliant last winute winner?), at the venue of your choice (got to be in Spain), and you get the memory of being there for the rest of your life. I guess the dream format for winning the league would be a repeat of the Invincibles season in 2004.

13 years ago, the above scenarios were both so unrealistic for Arsenal fans that they actually did pose questions that would trouble drink-addled brains late into the night, but times have changed. In 2004 the Invincibles won the perfect league title. In 2006 the dream Champions League final almost happened. All but the damned scoreline in Paris that is.
But since that moment, there has been a bit of a lull in the Arsene Wenger invasion of world football.

But I think we are at a turning point. Its not the dark before the dawn - the sun is already peaking over the rooftops and its going to be a glorious day.

There is a confidence in Arsenal's play that we have not seen for a while. Olympiacos, the Greek champions, were utterly thrashed on Tuesday night at the Emirates. The inclusion of Cesc, Rosicky and Arshavin in the line up had the explosive result that we have only been able to dream about since January when Arshavin signed. But seeing those three together on the pitch was simply incredible.

People may point to Olympiacos being a bad side, that we only scored late, or that Arshavin's goal was offside, but I have not seen Arsenal play that well for years.

Eboue is back to his very best this season. He still likes the theatrics and may not be the best defender in the world, but his confidence has improved dramatically. The mistakes have been eradicated and he now poses a genuine selection headache with Sagna. Clichy on the left likewise seems to have stopped diving in to tackles and playing more of a perecntage game as a defender.
The front six players now has options that I do not think an Arsenal side has ever had before. It sounds a bold claim, but its probably right. Tuesday night was the first time we had Arshavin, Rosicky and Cesc start a match together, but Bendtner and Walcott were both missing., as was Denilson. I cannot wait to see what this team can do with a full strength side - on paper it could be incredible.

That said, as per 1979's post on Monday, big doubts remain over our defensive abilities, particulalry the balance in midfield where Song is currently our only tough player out there. Denilson would add to the balance defensively, but he is not exactly nails hard himself and (shock horror) is not as good going forwards as Diaby, who is currently playing. Somewhat bizarrely, apart from Song, 99% of the good tackles that have been made in midfield have come from Tomas Rosicky. so I would expect Tommy to play in midfield more than as part of the front 3.

The permutations up top are bewildering between RVP / Bendtner / Arshavin / Eduardo / Walcott / Vela and I won't even try to give a comparison between them, other than to say that Arshavin and RVP are practically dead certs to play if fit, so the rest are really competing for one slot.

If we can put Blackburn to the sword on Sunday and get to 15 points from 7 games, then we will have made a more than decent start to the season. Its a hell of a long way to go, but I am surprised to realise that the first quarter of the season is almost gone.

Wenger needs to keep the team motivated and focused and if we can get through our traditional sticky patch in November unscathed, then who knows what Wenger's lucky 13th year is going to bring. 'Cos I want that Champions League trophy in our cabinet real bad...