Once more unto the international break dear friends, once more
We have been riding an undulating course of late. The humdrum of league encounters has been punctuated by the lofty heights of all or nothing cup competitions and then it’s back down again to the daily grind. Except of course that the daily grind for us represents jousting with the very best for the biggest prizes of all. Not that the main prize is actually in reach you understand. To be honest it isn’t even in view yet. There is a veritable forest of ifs to negotiate before we even snatch a glance. If we can overtake the blue Mancunians, if Chelsea lose their game in hand and if we go on to beat Chelsea then there may just be the smallest hint of a glimpse of a prize. Oh, and all of this is predicated on us first taking maximum points from an away trip to Newcastle, from Liverpool and from Burnley. You can see why Arsène is a confirmed celebrant at the Church Of One Game At A Time, can’t you?
We supporters, free from the constraints which necessity places on those at the heart of the drama, can dream big and wonder if the seemingly impossible might become true. We did this on Tuesday didn’t we? And didn’t that dreaming make for a thrilling evening of football? Winning the league represents a far more outlandish scenario than that which we hoped to see in Monaco but a win at St James Park today will at least keep the infinitesimally small flame alight for another week.
It would be nice to have some spark no matter how tiny its source to warm us during the evil chill of the dreaded international break. I despise the interruption as I’m sure you do. The only good thing one can say for it is that it gives our injured players a little more time to recover without missing games. I hate it because, like an advertisement in the middle of a tense drama or an unwelcome knock on the bathroom door it breaks one’s concentration, disrupts the flow. More than this though the internationals ruin the pattern, the run of energy and momentum which has built over the preceding weeks of league football. Chelsea have stuttered. Six points dropped in their last six games. Manchester City have stumbled, eight points dropped. Arsenal and Liverpool have powered forward winning their last five and dropping only three and two respectively in their last six. After this weekend all of that will be as nought. The teams will return after the nonsensical irrelevance of the international sideshow, and like actors retaking the stage following an air raid warning will try in vain to pick up their lines, to remember where they were stood before the sirens cleared the theatre. The actor may in fact recall his script but the particular energy of the moment can never be recaptured.
Each international break is a small death and whatever is resurrected can never be the same as that which has passed. Be that as it may. Drop points today and none of that will matter. I don’t expect us to give Newcastle the room to prosper this afternoon. I expect us to apply a similar choke hold as that with which we so expertly stifled and suffocated Monaco. This was the single most pleasing aspect of our superb performance on Tuesday. The way the players were able to attack with fluency and invention and yet simultaneously envelop the opposition in a blanket of defensive discipline; harrying defenders, closing midfielders and throttling the forwards. If the players can raise themselves from their understandable disappointment to achieve similar heights in the North East today they ought to give their hosts an uncomfortable afternoon. I wonder if they can? In truth they should take an awful lot of encouragement from the way they played in the Principality. Far from being discomfited they should reflect on a masterful display of team work and individual brilliance. They missed out on the result by a tiny fraction but they showed how good a footballing team they can be and that may prove more important in the long run.
What of our opponents? Well, like us, they have their own idiot brigade who thought they could help their team by harassing the manager. This is a fascinating idea which I’m sure must delight any passing anthropologists. The suggestion that publicly abusing the very person responsible for engineering the success of your team will somehow benefit the players he has to inspire. That denigrating achievement and applauding defeat can in some way lead to better things is the work of an intelligence so far beyond the reach of mine that I am speechless to pass judgement upon it. Unlike the sad, bewildered minority of our own supporters who follow a similar logic, the Newcastle fifth columnists got their wish. As the champagne bubbles went flat in the aftermath of New Years Eve celebrations and twenty fourteen gave way to twenty fifteen, Alan Pardew returned to Crystal Palace leaving the fog of war on the Tyne far behind, and frankly, who can blame him? Before he took the plane south Newcastle had enjoyed a mixed bag of results. They were rampant in October and November beating, among others, Spurs, Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea in a run which was cruelly brought to an abrupt halt at the Emirates when we demolished them in a four one rout.
With Mertesacker hitting the underside of the bar and Wellbeck’s brilliant falling chipped goal being wrongly disallowed the scoreline actually flattered Newcastle. Giroud scored two fine goals that day underlining yet again to all but the blind or the stupid just how valuable he is to us. Honestly if you even entertain those who try to draw you into a debate as to whether Olivier Giroud is good enough for Arsenal you need to have a long hard look at yourself. If he never scored another goal for us, the rest of his game is so good, so important to the way we play that he would still merit a place in our starting line up. It isn’t just Larry’s form which should give us heart. With Aaron coming back to his best and Mesut and Santi in their pomp the Arsenal scythe looks sharp as the season ripens and the final harvest approaches.
While the superstars in the squad are showered in rightful praise there are three other players who have been punching well above their weight. Hector, Nacho and Francis are all wrongly denigrated as respectively, merely quick, dull and tough. Each player has, however, far more to his game than these lazy stereotypes. Hector Bellerin is possessed of some crazy ball skills and is, I believe, playing well within himself at the moment, and understandably so. To be catapulted from the youth team to the Champions League would leave anyone a little overawed but when this boy shows what he is capable of I think he’ll be running rings around premier league defenders for fun. Nacho Monreal is a far better footballer than people give him credit for. I don’t see him showing the same flashes of genius of which Hector is capable but his reading of the game, position, pace and passing out of trouble when allied to his willingness and versatility have seen him take full advantage of Gibbs’ carefully managed recovery.
Which brings me to Francis Coquelin. Now I know that people hated Arteta with a slavering insanity akin to a fish hating water. Consequently anyone who wasn’t Arteta had, they felt, to be applauded. But the same people had spent so long telling us that we needed a big, tough, hard tackling defensive minded player that to save face they are now forced to pretend that Coquelin is just that type of player. They therefore ignore his range of passing. They ignore his wonderful snake like twisting to guard possession while looking for a pass. They ignore the sublime touch and skill with which he brings the ball under control and they ignore his wonderful slight of foot when going past the opposition. I think he has the potential to become a complete player. My message to these fools is that just because you are too stupid to see what a brilliant footballer Mikel Arteta is doesn’t mean you have to close your eyes while watching his understudy. If Coquelin can learn to read the game like our captain then his other attributes will ensure he has everything needed to succeed at the very top. Just don’t pretend to me that he is a big brute tackler who can’t do anything else simply because that is what you want to see.
We can probably expect some changes today. Maybe Theo, maybe Gabriel. Personally I’d love to see Tomáš. Please Arsène, please. Whoever starts at three o’clock I hope they can continue the good work of Tuesday night. I also hope that we can go into the enforced misery of No Football Fortnight with a win under our belts and that West Brom, Leicester, Liverpool and Hull can all give us something to smile about. I trust you will find suitable diversions with which to entertain yourself during the Arsenal drought, I’ll be back on April the fourth with my Liverpool preview, until then, I bid you farewell.
Positively Arsenal 
Our team is on the up.. we hear Man city, one point ahead of us is in the title race but not us.. if it were not serious it would surely be funny… Me even when we are 14 point behind consider us in the title race till it is mathematically over.. so it clear where i stand n that point. the team continue to be in a position to take advantage of dropped point around them and who knows where that can propel them to… i recall 2ce this season when we had a chance to go 3d and didn’t take it… if city drop point today we can actually go second… so hope they are up for it!
Always like le coq and Dennilson so am glad at least one of them survived the fickle fans onslaught…
pls remain in the comments steww… its important that you do… no disappearing into thin air! LOL
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its good that we have the option of rotation today, Chambers, Gibbs, Gabrel, Flamini, Rosicky, Walcott all in with a chance of getting in the starting 11 today, would not expect them all to start, but would be no surprise if two or three of them get it to freshen up weary legs
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Hey there TS – I’m here. Was beginning to wonder if I’d written in invisible ink today. Post been up three hours and only now a comment!
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Morning Stew – good piece and I am keen to respond with the care and detail your effort deserves.
We have had astronomical waves up here so I admit I am
Just in from the beach !
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Which beach do you frequent AN?
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Sunny Hunny this morning Stew though my nearest is Snettisham – some fine stretches up here and deserted this time of year.
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I love a deserted strand.
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Excellent blog again steww. Particularly loved what you said about Giroud and Coquelin. I watched Francis in awe on Tuesday evening – he was everywhere, winning balls, laying off, running at their defence with the ball. Yes, he can sometimes be a bit over-ambitious with his through balls, but “practice makes perfect” and he at least shows he has the vision. Better over-ambitious than the opposite in my view.
3 points today.
Onward and upward.
COYG
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Simply super stuff Steww – I especially appreciated the paragraph commencing “What of our opponents?” Like your Giroud comment, if you never wrote another word (heaven forbid) …
Enjoy your very own international break (if you are indeed off for the duration).
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Thanks Andrew. I’m not going anywhere but as I do the match reviews and there will be no matches to review…
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Regular and irregular readers of Positively Arsenal who are also minded to frequent the shallow waters of Twitter might like to learn this blogging/commenting sensation of a site is now ‘officially’ represented on Twitter @postivelyarse – go follow and retweet as you see fit.
As we don’t appear to be disappearing anywhere soon – and our work supporting Arsenal is clearly a long way from being done – we thought it would be good to get our own Twitter handle installed. In particular, this will help us promote each new blog post should George forget to wake up and do it all for us.
Thanks.
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For once I see our opponents are decimated by injuries, self inflicted as well as the usual, as the cobble together 13 fit players today. Coloccini suspended, Cisse suspended ( spits) , Steven Taylor injured, Tiote injured, Dummett injured and half a dozen others who I have barely heard off but all injured. A crop of almost Arsenal proportions of misfortune.
Never does to be too cocky, Sissoko may have a blinder but a very erratic player, one game brilliant, another anonymous.
I fancy their shortage of men in the centre of defence, just Williamson who is a reconsidered centre back I think, may be helpful.
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I read about their injury woes but forbore to mention it in the post out some primitive fear of hubris.
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Well they did beat Chelsea in December, Les Bleus’ invincible credentials thereby shredded, with 6-7 players on show today so it should be a decent contest. Even so we have the speed and the guile to leave them reeling.
4-0 at HT I predict.
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Ha ha. anicoll tweaks the nipple of hubris.
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steew do you possess doctorate in english literature? are you an author?
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Excellent stuff as usual from our number 10,we all know how today rolls,we start sluggishly,Newcastle go close a few times,which wakes us up from our CL hangover,Mesut & Santi carve out some chances with their magic,we score 2 goals with Giroud getting one of them,we play some lovely football,somehow concede a comedy goal,drop a little bit physically,hold on for 2-1 (despite an awful referee) and enjoy the next 2 weeks off. I’d take all of that.
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Our third game with Mike Jones in charge this season Mel and six points in the two preceding. I am expecting another sound performance from the man from Chester.
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Steww, as you know I am out in the West and it being Saturday morning I am slowly coming to terms with the real world after the Monday-Friday grind. Just my way of explaining my late arrival.
Not surprisingly, this blog is up to your usual high literary and footballing standards. Among the many things I was in full agreement was your observation that our boys may be still affected by the enormous disappointment of falling just inches short of overcoming Monaco on Tuesday. As for the Newcastle injuries, the less said about that the better. Even down to 13 players they will be up for it. We have seen it all before, no matter how dormant a team is and the players seemingly just going through the motions, once Arsenal is in town they raise their game several notches. I am concerned.
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canon13 – I will take the compliment inherent in your question – thank you. Sorry to disappoint but I left school at 16 so no I don’t have any education to speak of. I wish I was an author, but I have no idea how to go about getting my writing published.
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Someone saying Mesut might miss the game. Bloody bloody.
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Fine blog once again Steww, thank you. I’m quite confident about our match today, I won’t venture with a score prediction though I stare at the nipple of hubris!
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George – He put in a hell of a shift in Monaco. Maybe just needs a rest? Is TR7 fit? If so we have a hell of a plan B don’t we?
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Disappointing in Manchester. Nice to see Pulis upset though.
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So West Brom’s tactic of “make a heavy foul early in the game and hope to get away with it” backfires. Wrong man gets the red card but they pay for the dirty tactics. See it so often. Player gets away with multiple bad fouls early in the game before a yellow card much less a red. Remember Fellaini making 7 fouls before getting a yellow in our match before United.
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yopur welcome steww… the flow is very book-like…and in a very civilised format… it reads like a river ..escher metamorphosis
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yeah shotta like cahill got away with that slaughter-chop on alexis early at sb
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Mesut has the lurgy
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Per and Bellerin rested.
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Excellent again Steww , sorry for the laxte comment but I was at work all morning. Shame about Mesuts cold but hopefully we can stop him going to Germany and chill out here for a few days. 3 points essential today although unless everyone else implodes we will be saying that before every game. Once again im abit disappointed there’s no Chuba on the bench but its a mark of our strong squad that he can’t get in. City now 3 up I hope they don’t score anymore.
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Ugh, every one at my house is ill, so of course Mesut is ill, too. This week bites. Every time we get a rhythm going…
Well, no matter, the boys will handle it just fine. I’m strangely confident going into this one, and I’m rarely confident. If it tanks, I guess you guys know who to blame!
Oh, and great blog Stew. As always.
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cannon13 at 1:54 pm – Was that “Cahill slaughter-chop on Alexis” in the 1st or 2nd half?” My brain is hazy.
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1st and early too
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COYG
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Just thought I’d say I watched the Bournemouth-Middlesbrough game. Apart from Midllesbrough being totally outplayed, it was interesting to see two of Chelsea’s blue-eyed boys on loan, Bamford and Kalas, who were both superbly inept. Kalas particularly so – he was given a roasting in the first half by Calum Wilson who beat him for pace several times before nut-megging him and forcing the foul for the first penalty.
Don’t think we’ll be seeing those two in the Chelsea first team in the foreseeable future. Strange, because I remember Maureen talking about Kalas in glowing terms after an appearance as sub.
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A little bit of rotatation was on the cards: Ramsey not starting midweek had as much to do with being judicious with his hammy’s after he’d just returned as much as other reasoning. At least that’s my guess.
Come on Arsenal!
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Fins. It is noticeable that with the greater depth now in our squad long term injured are very much being eased back. Gibbs, Theo, Aaron all good examples.
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Really great start from Gabriel.
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Arsenal team to play @NUFC: Ospina, Chambers, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey, Alexis, Cazorla, Welbeck, Giroud
subs: Szczesny, Gibbs, Mertesacker, Bellerin, Flamini, Rosicky, Walcott
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I’ve worked out that plan John Carver said he had for dealing with Arsenal, its kick them, then kick them some more.
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Defending from the front again today – I like it.
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Larry does it again
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Giroud makes it 1-0 to the Arsenal
anyone got a good stream
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Great improvised finish but it all came about thanks to the foul Larry won by harassing their defence.
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eduardo you use Sopcast?
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no I don’t use it
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Fuck me we are battering them
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Larry again. How great is this man!
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have the FAPL blocked first row sports live streams as they don’t seem to have FAPL games anymore
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And Larry gets his second. Newcastle like a poor kid walked into a heavyweight boxing match against the world champion.
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