The warm september sun bore down in Islington this afternoon, and the 59 odd thousand Gooners in the Emirates were treated to something of an exhibition of football from an Arsenal team that looked to have recovered well from the trials of a mid-week game away in Belgium.
Vito Mannone retained his place in goal as Almunia remained in the sick bay, Rosicky dropped to the bench, Eboue came in to the advanced wide right position in the 4-3-3 alongside RVP and Eduardo, with Diaby/Cesc/Song in midfield. I said on Friday that i wanted to see an improvement from Arsenal, and Clichy and Cesc in particular. And 2 out of 3 was not a bad return by any means.
However, I will start briefly with the negatives, which for me was the somewhat lacklustre 90 mins put it by our captain Cesc Fabregas. I don't want to dwell on it on an afternoon when we won 4-0, but I was unimpressed, again, by the lack of workrate from Cesc. I think you could count the number of tackles and headers he won on one hand. Yes, he is a nice player in possession and scored a goal, but he is no Rosicky.
Anyway, moving on to the game itself, the first 45 mins was a slow builder. A lot of toil and possession but a shortage of clear chances. Clichy played with composure down the left, Diaby meandered around a bit, RVP and Eduardo looked productive, and the Eboue tried the worst Hand-of-God impression I have ever seen when he could not quite reach a good cross from Eduardo. It was truly embarrassing.
Thankfully, man of the match Thomas Vermaelen trotted up for a corner about 10 minutes later and thundered the ball into the back of the net. He scored an absolute belter in the second half with his left foot. In fact, it was so good that I assumed RVP had hit it at first. Plus this guy was excellent defensively all match. He attacks the ball in the air, heads it with ease, is good on the deck, looks quick to recover from any minor mistakes he makes. He looks proper.
So 1-0 at half time and in theory in the game was still in the balance. Wigan had done very little indeed, but there is always the feeling that this Arsenal side will concede, so we needed a bright start to the second half.
In some ways we got it, but the second goal took a bit more time that I would have liked. However, when Vermaelen continued to join the attack and drifted to the edge of the box, I had no idea that he was about to unleash the ball into the top left corner. He is our top scorer this season and has been a rock at the back so far.
The third goal was an Eduardo show. He volleyed against the post, the rebound worked back into the box and eventually fell to his right foot, but Eboue got a good touch on the shot to claim the goal, but Eduardo deserves a lot of credit. The 4th came late on to add a nice gloss, a good cross from Bennndtner squeezed in by Cesc. Alex Song also deserves a mention after a good second half, Clichy was much improved, and Rosicky looked a class act again in his 25 min appearance as a sub.
So an easy three points in the sun for the Gooners, and 9 points from 5 games now begins to move us back in the right direction. This was a nice one and hopefully we can build on it. There is a lot of potential in this team and we are now beginning to play some football AND get the results. Sometimes.
Saturday, 19 September 2009
Friday, 18 September 2009
Wigan Preview
Tomorrow afternoon's game at the Emirates against Wigan should, on paper, be a stroll in the park if Arsenal turn up mentally and physically prepared. However, its been a funny start to the season so far and things are rarely as predictable as we would like them to be.
Over recent years, Arsenal have had a habit of drawing games at home that we should really win 95% of the time. You can never expect a perfect record at home, but those draws mean a lot of dropped points over the course of the season.
Almunia and RVP are tipped to be available again for the match against Wigan and I would expect them both to start. Since Arshavin is injured, then the tasty prospect arises that Wenger might play Eduardo, Bennnndtner and RVP from the off. However, I would be surprised if Wenger does that and the mystery that is Abou Diaby is almost certain to play in that advanced role.
I would also like to see a better performance from Cesc and Clichy tomorrow than was provided to the moule-frite brigade on Wednesday. Both had poor games, by their standards, but but are extraordinarily talented footballers and we need them to get back on track.
Clichy could certainly do with more protection from the midfield, where Abou Diaby often leaves him very exposed, but Gael's over eagerness to nick the ball from the toes of his opposite man sometimes means he dives in to tackle, misses, and gives their winger a clear run in. Its an odd one because Gael has the pace to stick with anyone so doesn't need to dive in. Instead, it seems his ambition to have a stormer means that mistakes can result. Unfortunately for the team though, we look defensively weak down the left side at the moment.
Talking of world class players, there is a clip from Ajax on Youtube where the one and only Dennis Bergkamp scores a magnificent goal in some kick-a-round game. Watching the clip brings a shiver down the spine just to remember how good a player Dennis was. Indeed, he still is.
We will always miss a player of the quality that Bergkamp possessed, but there are a couple of players in the current team who have the potential to go to that level. After the trials of the last two games in Manchester, and the choas of Wednesday in Belgium, it would be nice to think that Cesc Fabregas will use a nice afternoon against Wigan to remind the world just how good he is.
Come on you Gunners.
Over recent years, Arsenal have had a habit of drawing games at home that we should really win 95% of the time. You can never expect a perfect record at home, but those draws mean a lot of dropped points over the course of the season.
Almunia and RVP are tipped to be available again for the match against Wigan and I would expect them both to start. Since Arshavin is injured, then the tasty prospect arises that Wenger might play Eduardo, Bennnndtner and RVP from the off. However, I would be surprised if Wenger does that and the mystery that is Abou Diaby is almost certain to play in that advanced role.
I would also like to see a better performance from Cesc and Clichy tomorrow than was provided to the moule-frite brigade on Wednesday. Both had poor games, by their standards, but but are extraordinarily talented footballers and we need them to get back on track.
Clichy could certainly do with more protection from the midfield, where Abou Diaby often leaves him very exposed, but Gael's over eagerness to nick the ball from the toes of his opposite man sometimes means he dives in to tackle, misses, and gives their winger a clear run in. Its an odd one because Gael has the pace to stick with anyone so doesn't need to dive in. Instead, it seems his ambition to have a stormer means that mistakes can result. Unfortunately for the team though, we look defensively weak down the left side at the moment.
Talking of world class players, there is a clip from Ajax on Youtube where the one and only Dennis Bergkamp scores a magnificent goal in some kick-a-round game. Watching the clip brings a shiver down the spine just to remember how good a player Dennis was. Indeed, he still is.
We will always miss a player of the quality that Bergkamp possessed, but there are a couple of players in the current team who have the potential to go to that level. After the trials of the last two games in Manchester, and the choas of Wednesday in Belgium, it would be nice to think that Cesc Fabregas will use a nice afternoon against Wigan to remind the world just how good he is.
Come on you Gunners.
Thursday, 17 September 2009
The Liege Stadium Mystery
Well, where to start on the shambolic performance last night against Standard Liege? Was that 3-points and move on? Or a disastrous reflection of the weaknesses of our squad?
I'm not sure on the answer just yet, but it really was an exercise in bizarre football. The first 5 minutes was just a shocker. No complaints about their first goal - a stupid mistake by Eduardo and then a good finish. However, I wouldn't have given the penalty - at the time it looked like no contact was made and despite countless replays, I still couldn't see it. Still, I guess we had it coming after Eduardo's dubious penalty against Celtic.
That said, I almost broke the TV at half time listening to Jamie Rednapp's 'punditry'. The man who never won anything reckoned that it was a stonewall penalty and that he had no doubts whatsoever. For once, I found myself warming to John Collins, who clearly thinks Rednapp is a prick, and Graeme Souness, who thought Arsenal would go on and win second half.
I really don't know why Sky employ Jamie Rednapp. He played for Bournemouth (for his dad), Liverpool (where he won the League Cup in 1995), Spurs (nuff said), and Southampton (for his dad). He somehow managed 17 caps for England, but thats it.
Now, I am not saying that John Collins is a legend, but he won the French league with Monaco, played in a semi-final of the Champions League for them, and has made a start at being a professional manager for Hibs. Plus, he doesn't just shoot his mouth off every five seconds and actually has something interesting to say.
Graeme Souness is a legend. And I bet he would love to smash Jamie Rednapp's face in. Because Graeme thinks he is a cunt.
Anyway, I digress.
I sat dumb-founded through most of the first half, wandering just what Abou Diaby and Gael Clichy were doing. We could not string two passes together. Eventually, after about 25 minutes, we had a shot at their goal. Unfortunately, the player who took it was Diaby with his left foot and it was a weak, feeble effort that missed by miles.
However, we seemed to grow a bit more confidence as the half drew on, Tomas Rosicky looked better and better and eventually Diaby slotted a nice ball to Bennnnnndnter, who actually had made a run towards goal for a change, and finished beautifully. 2-1 at half time and we looked all right. I have already told you about half time.
The second half was a continuation of the same. Cesc continued to play as if he was stuck in treacle, Clichy continued to dive in and miss the ball, but Diaby looked less shite and most of the good stuff we did continued to come from Rosicky.
I don't really remember us having many shots before we scored the equaliser. A couple of lame long rangers from Cesc was about it. But we had tons of possession. That said, Eboue had to make an outrageous clearance virtually a yard out of the goal to stop Liege going 3-1 up. It was about the best thing he did all night.
And then is all happened in the last 10 minutes. Our equaliser was a shocker. Song and Vermaelen might have been offside, Song definitely hand-balled it, but the goal stood. Absolutely shocking from the ref and linesman.
And before the dust had even settled, we almost scored again from a corner, an outrageous back-heel by Vermaelen, and then we did score from a corner when Eduardo kneed it in in a shambolic goal mouth scramble.
So, 3 points it was. I still don't know what to make of it.
I'm not sure on the answer just yet, but it really was an exercise in bizarre football. The first 5 minutes was just a shocker. No complaints about their first goal - a stupid mistake by Eduardo and then a good finish. However, I wouldn't have given the penalty - at the time it looked like no contact was made and despite countless replays, I still couldn't see it. Still, I guess we had it coming after Eduardo's dubious penalty against Celtic.
That said, I almost broke the TV at half time listening to Jamie Rednapp's 'punditry'. The man who never won anything reckoned that it was a stonewall penalty and that he had no doubts whatsoever. For once, I found myself warming to John Collins, who clearly thinks Rednapp is a prick, and Graeme Souness, who thought Arsenal would go on and win second half.
I really don't know why Sky employ Jamie Rednapp. He played for Bournemouth (for his dad), Liverpool (where he won the League Cup in 1995), Spurs (nuff said), and Southampton (for his dad). He somehow managed 17 caps for England, but thats it.
Now, I am not saying that John Collins is a legend, but he won the French league with Monaco, played in a semi-final of the Champions League for them, and has made a start at being a professional manager for Hibs. Plus, he doesn't just shoot his mouth off every five seconds and actually has something interesting to say.
Graeme Souness is a legend. And I bet he would love to smash Jamie Rednapp's face in. Because Graeme thinks he is a cunt.
Anyway, I digress.
I sat dumb-founded through most of the first half, wandering just what Abou Diaby and Gael Clichy were doing. We could not string two passes together. Eventually, after about 25 minutes, we had a shot at their goal. Unfortunately, the player who took it was Diaby with his left foot and it was a weak, feeble effort that missed by miles.
However, we seemed to grow a bit more confidence as the half drew on, Tomas Rosicky looked better and better and eventually Diaby slotted a nice ball to Bennnnnndnter, who actually had made a run towards goal for a change, and finished beautifully. 2-1 at half time and we looked all right. I have already told you about half time.
The second half was a continuation of the same. Cesc continued to play as if he was stuck in treacle, Clichy continued to dive in and miss the ball, but Diaby looked less shite and most of the good stuff we did continued to come from Rosicky.
I don't really remember us having many shots before we scored the equaliser. A couple of lame long rangers from Cesc was about it. But we had tons of possession. That said, Eboue had to make an outrageous clearance virtually a yard out of the goal to stop Liege going 3-1 up. It was about the best thing he did all night.
And then is all happened in the last 10 minutes. Our equaliser was a shocker. Song and Vermaelen might have been offside, Song definitely hand-balled it, but the goal stood. Absolutely shocking from the ref and linesman.
And before the dust had even settled, we almost scored again from a corner, an outrageous back-heel by Vermaelen, and then we did score from a corner when Eduardo kneed it in in a shambolic goal mouth scramble.
So, 3 points it was. I still don't know what to make of it.
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Liege Preview
Pre-match posts are almost pointless given that we all kind of expect to beat Liege tonight, we know very little about our opposition, and the overriding feeling is that things are still a bit low in the Arsenal camp following consequtive defeats in Manchester.
Objectively, the team news is not good. Almunia, RVP, Denilson, Arshavin, Nasri, Walcott, Fabianski, Djourou, Vela are all out. Its not great to go into a Champs League away game with a third choice keeper playing, but otherwise we have enough strength in the squad to find a decent XI. It would seem nailed-on that Bennnnnndtner and Eduardo will play up front, maybe with Diaby, or maybe we revert back to 4-4-2. I am frankly surprised that Rosicky made the trip but then I guess we are down to the bare bones.
More subjectively, the Belgian league is shite and Standard Liege are now a pale imitation of the team that pushed Liverpool close in the qualifiers last year. But as I said, that simply the view of an optimist who thinks we should be too good on the night for the moule-frite brigade.
The availability of Eboue to play wide right, perhaps Diaby on the left, with Cesc and Song in the middle, would pose a nice return to a four man midfield. However, I would not be surprised to see us lining up with a 5 man midfield tonight, maybe with Bennnndtner dropping to a wing, in the usual half-arsed somewhat chaotic approach that we take to European away leags.
Chelsea and ManUre squeezed narrow victories last night in games that they barely deserved to win. It would be nice to think that Arsenal can do the same tonight. That said, I think a 3-3 thriller is more likely with our lot.
Come on you Gunners!
Objectively, the team news is not good. Almunia, RVP, Denilson, Arshavin, Nasri, Walcott, Fabianski, Djourou, Vela are all out. Its not great to go into a Champs League away game with a third choice keeper playing, but otherwise we have enough strength in the squad to find a decent XI. It would seem nailed-on that Bennnnnndtner and Eduardo will play up front, maybe with Diaby, or maybe we revert back to 4-4-2. I am frankly surprised that Rosicky made the trip but then I guess we are down to the bare bones.
More subjectively, the Belgian league is shite and Standard Liege are now a pale imitation of the team that pushed Liverpool close in the qualifiers last year. But as I said, that simply the view of an optimist who thinks we should be too good on the night for the moule-frite brigade.
The availability of Eboue to play wide right, perhaps Diaby on the left, with Cesc and Song in the middle, would pose a nice return to a four man midfield. However, I would not be surprised to see us lining up with a 5 man midfield tonight, maybe with Bennnndtner dropping to a wing, in the usual half-arsed somewhat chaotic approach that we take to European away leags.
Chelsea and ManUre squeezed narrow victories last night in games that they barely deserved to win. It would be nice to think that Arsenal can do the same tonight. That said, I think a 3-3 thriller is more likely with our lot.
Come on you Gunners!
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
The winning attitude
As the dust begins to settle on the events over the weekend at the Eastlands, its fitting to remind ourselves just how fickle the game of football is.
Yesterday's arch villain, Eduardo, is a forgiven man and I have not seen an ounce in this mornings papers to suggest that UEFA was not correct to over turn the two match ban. Yet, if that is right, then 99% of the press was wrong to criticise Eduardo in the first place. But lets not let consistency get in the way of a good story.
And this week's story is all about Adebayor. Still, I guess he deserves it. And that seems to be the fuel that is feeding this one. Man Citeh have managed in impressive speed to lose their status as the well liked counsins to ManUre, who struggling to live in the shadows of the United machine. Everyone liken to say that real Mancs support Citeh. Yet, £250m quid later, they have become public enemy number one, hated by Arsenal fans, Aston Villa, Everton, not to mention United. And that gives a lot of disgruntled fans and a lot of journalists all the ammunition they need.
I would rather Arsenal finished 6th this year than become like Citeh.
And that leads me to the point of this little wandering amble. And that is we need to see how things pan out a bit more before making any judgments on this team, transfers etc.
Arsenal have lost 2 of their first 4 games and having played some nice football, there are some cracks showing. 6 points from 4 games is not that good, but its not terrible considering we have played 3 away games. What we need to do is try to only lose 2 or 3 more times before Christmas, which is very do-able.
Plus, we haven't drawn any games yet, which seems slightly odd, but then few Premiership games seem to be draws at the moment, which is perhaps an indication of the gung-ho attitude of the early season.
The temptation to settle for draws can be very strong, but ManUre have shown time and time again that losing doesn't matter in the long run, so long as you win more games than your rivals. Its an attitude to draw games that kills you. The teams that win twenty to twenty-five games a season will get the points to challenge at the top of the table. Whereas if you manage 15 draws in a season, unless you are unbeaten then mid-table is where you'll be.
And that is why we should remain positive. Yes, we lost like idiots at Old Trafford and at Eastlands, but we went down fighting and looking to take 3 points on each occasion. This Arsenal team remains in transition, and we still have not seen what it will look like with a fit Rosicky, Walcott and Arshavin. But it smells of goals, goals, goals......
Yesterday's arch villain, Eduardo, is a forgiven man and I have not seen an ounce in this mornings papers to suggest that UEFA was not correct to over turn the two match ban. Yet, if that is right, then 99% of the press was wrong to criticise Eduardo in the first place. But lets not let consistency get in the way of a good story.
And this week's story is all about Adebayor. Still, I guess he deserves it. And that seems to be the fuel that is feeding this one. Man Citeh have managed in impressive speed to lose their status as the well liked counsins to ManUre, who struggling to live in the shadows of the United machine. Everyone liken to say that real Mancs support Citeh. Yet, £250m quid later, they have become public enemy number one, hated by Arsenal fans, Aston Villa, Everton, not to mention United. And that gives a lot of disgruntled fans and a lot of journalists all the ammunition they need.
I would rather Arsenal finished 6th this year than become like Citeh.
And that leads me to the point of this little wandering amble. And that is we need to see how things pan out a bit more before making any judgments on this team, transfers etc.
Arsenal have lost 2 of their first 4 games and having played some nice football, there are some cracks showing. 6 points from 4 games is not that good, but its not terrible considering we have played 3 away games. What we need to do is try to only lose 2 or 3 more times before Christmas, which is very do-able.
Plus, we haven't drawn any games yet, which seems slightly odd, but then few Premiership games seem to be draws at the moment, which is perhaps an indication of the gung-ho attitude of the early season.
The temptation to settle for draws can be very strong, but ManUre have shown time and time again that losing doesn't matter in the long run, so long as you win more games than your rivals. Its an attitude to draw games that kills you. The teams that win twenty to twenty-five games a season will get the points to challenge at the top of the table. Whereas if you manage 15 draws in a season, unless you are unbeaten then mid-table is where you'll be.
And that is why we should remain positive. Yes, we lost like idiots at Old Trafford and at Eastlands, but we went down fighting and looking to take 3 points on each occasion. This Arsenal team remains in transition, and we still have not seen what it will look like with a fit Rosicky, Walcott and Arshavin. But it smells of goals, goals, goals......
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Naive Arsenal pay the price
The last twenty minutes against Man City at the Eastlands was a terrible repeat episode of what we perhaps had too quickly thought was last season's weaknesses. Whilst I strongly applaud the sensible comments that are doing the rounds on the decent blogs this Sunday, there is no escaping the fact that shipping 4 goals against Man City is a shite result, albeit coming from a performance that was better than the scoreline might have suggested.
However, I cannot help thinking today that despite the change in formation to 4-3-3 this season, there are certain key factors that are letting us down. I make no particular attempt to point the finger of blame, but Abou Diaby remains a mystery of a player to me and a real Albatross around our necks. I simply don't think that Diaby deserves the number of chances he is getting and can't imagine that he would make it into any other squads in the top 6 teams. Gael Clichy and Manuel Almunia also continue to look error prone this season, whilst Sagna is also not yet back to his best. But i don't think wholesale changes in personnel are required. The whole team just needs to work harder. We let Adebayor make his point yesterday.
Bendntner is wasted on the wing, our midfield plays at a pedestrian pace most of the time and we lack an air of professionalism to close matches out that we should win. I find it disappointing that the recognised mercenaries of Citeh's ranks play with determination and passion that we cannot muster.
That said, i think we have played well enough this season to think that zero points from 2 matches in Manchester was harsh on us. But having got back into the game at 1-1 yesterday, my sense is that we naively pushed on for the winner too quickly, whereas we had some more time and things might have developed for us. Just as ManUre had to do very little to get the winner against us at Old Trafford. Instead, we flooded forwards against Citeh and got caught. Its the sort of gift that we do not receive very often and teams know better than to over-commit against us. We really need to stop being so generous.
Its a bad two results at Manchester, but we shouldn't overeact at that this stage. But next week's games now take on a new light. We need to put this episode behind us and get back on with it against Wigan.
However, I cannot help thinking today that despite the change in formation to 4-3-3 this season, there are certain key factors that are letting us down. I make no particular attempt to point the finger of blame, but Abou Diaby remains a mystery of a player to me and a real Albatross around our necks. I simply don't think that Diaby deserves the number of chances he is getting and can't imagine that he would make it into any other squads in the top 6 teams. Gael Clichy and Manuel Almunia also continue to look error prone this season, whilst Sagna is also not yet back to his best. But i don't think wholesale changes in personnel are required. The whole team just needs to work harder. We let Adebayor make his point yesterday.
Bendntner is wasted on the wing, our midfield plays at a pedestrian pace most of the time and we lack an air of professionalism to close matches out that we should win. I find it disappointing that the recognised mercenaries of Citeh's ranks play with determination and passion that we cannot muster.
That said, i think we have played well enough this season to think that zero points from 2 matches in Manchester was harsh on us. But having got back into the game at 1-1 yesterday, my sense is that we naively pushed on for the winner too quickly, whereas we had some more time and things might have developed for us. Just as ManUre had to do very little to get the winner against us at Old Trafford. Instead, we flooded forwards against Citeh and got caught. Its the sort of gift that we do not receive very often and teams know better than to over-commit against us. We really need to stop being so generous.
Its a bad two results at Manchester, but we shouldn't overeact at that this stage. But next week's games now take on a new light. We need to put this episode behind us and get back on with it against Wigan.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Pre city thoughts
The last post on the Kakuta story and the general topic of the transfer of young players provoked a lot of good banter, thank you one and all. It is clearly one very complex area and it seems that most people agree that blanket bans on the transfer of young players is not a clever way to solve the problem. As always FIFA and UEFA are rushing to bring in new rules and regulations before engaging their small brains, not good for football me thinks. Arsene has had some sensible things to say:
Spot on, this is a point I made as well, if you stop the best youngsters getting the best coaching and all round training then you will not be improving football. It is strange that FIFA want to introduce this blanket ban when they openly allow the likes of Madrid, the Milans and Barca to tap up adults who are under contract in clear contravention of rules that already exist. FIFA need to work out which rules they actually want to bother enforcing or are they just more concerned by keeping certain people happy?
The only bad news on top of the Djourou blow is that Andrei Arshavin is out for a week or so after the damn Russians played him when not fully fit. I was just having a quick think about points in the league and winning the title, it is clear that we'll need at least two points in three to be near the action, this means that losing a game means we need to win the next two. Overall our start of six points from three games is decent, especially given the three points away to Everton and the performances so far. It's just annoying we don't have nine as we should have beaten the Mancs, if it wasn't for Mike Dean we might well have had the full compliment.
Not wanting to gaze too far into the distance, we have City away, then Wigan at home, then Fulham away. Realistically we need to pick up a minimum of six points from these three games to keep things rolling along. Gareth Barry is a very handy player, he put in yet another solid performance for England in the week without getting that much recognition, and it will be important that we don't let him dictate things on Saturday, we'll need our midfield and strikers to hassle him and give him no time or space with which to run the show. Ireland is another one to watch, his late runs from midfield can be tricky to defend against. Hopefully Diaby, Denilson and Fabregas will start in the midfield, while I would be keen to see Eduardo get a start, he is looking rather sharp. Come on you Gunners.
"If you have a child who is a good musician, what is your first reaction? It is to put it into a good music school, not in an average one, so why should that not happen in football?"
Spot on, this is a point I made as well, if you stop the best youngsters getting the best coaching and all round training then you will not be improving football. It is strange that FIFA want to introduce this blanket ban when they openly allow the likes of Madrid, the Milans and Barca to tap up adults who are under contract in clear contravention of rules that already exist. FIFA need to work out which rules they actually want to bother enforcing or are they just more concerned by keeping certain people happy?
The only bad news on top of the Djourou blow is that Andrei Arshavin is out for a week or so after the damn Russians played him when not fully fit. I was just having a quick think about points in the league and winning the title, it is clear that we'll need at least two points in three to be near the action, this means that losing a game means we need to win the next two. Overall our start of six points from three games is decent, especially given the three points away to Everton and the performances so far. It's just annoying we don't have nine as we should have beaten the Mancs, if it wasn't for Mike Dean we might well have had the full compliment.
Not wanting to gaze too far into the distance, we have City away, then Wigan at home, then Fulham away. Realistically we need to pick up a minimum of six points from these three games to keep things rolling along. Gareth Barry is a very handy player, he put in yet another solid performance for England in the week without getting that much recognition, and it will be important that we don't let him dictate things on Saturday, we'll need our midfield and strikers to hassle him and give him no time or space with which to run the show. Ireland is another one to watch, his late runs from midfield can be tricky to defend against. Hopefully Diaby, Denilson and Fabregas will start in the midfield, while I would be keen to see Eduardo get a start, he is looking rather sharp. Come on you Gunners.
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