Hamjambo Positivistas,

What a sumptuous game we were treated to yesterday, an almost 94½ minutes of constant action, unceasing drama in which to lose concentration for a moment was weakness.

Unlike the great majority of Arsenal games I have the honour of reviewing for once it was not the eye catching quality of our technique that caught my eye. It was not a game for the technical enthusiast, nor the fan who enjoys the sight of our lads so are often exercising their silky craft and weaving a route through the opposition half. No it was primarily a physical contest, a ‘battle’ at times.

I would go probably so far as to say that for a number of our more skilled players yesterday was not one of their better games, ruffled and harried as they were by the vigour of our black clad opponents. That the Leicester goalkeeper spent a largely untroubled first half was not expected.

Having recognised that dislocation however those same players replaced their usual deft footballing cunning with a second half of relentless running, tackling and fighting. If there had been hesitation before half time there was certainty after it. The ball was now cleared decisively, passes were placed crisply, we began to push our hands around the throat of the Fox as it squirmed and snapped. The substitutions, which again I admit raised an eyebrow in Norfolk, proved pivotal in transforming control of the game into goal chances.

And slowly, inch by inch, blade by blade, we established our ascendancy on the pitch. Kante caged, Drinkwater exhausted, Vardy tripping the light fantastic as Cech played matador. Leicester crumpled back, more solid, and not much less difficult to get through but they were pinned on the ropes, clinging on, covering up, blows reining in toward a by-now desperately busy Kasper Schmeichel. Arsenal had the force of gravity on their side. 24 shots on target I see – Extraordinary – it made Frazer Forster’s recent evening at the Emirates look like a training session!

With our equalizer from Theo and more than 20 minutes to go I admit I had more or less already marked in the three points. That it took until the very last move of the game to transform the total control we enjoyed to eventually put the visitors down on their back in the most dramatic and terminal fashion was no surprise. We needed to become desperate, and by 94 minutes we were. It was the timing that proved almost agonizing. There was no luck though. The visitors ended on the mat, eyes glazed, dribbling, counted out.

As I said above I saw that not as a game in which I would shine the spotlight on individual performances or point to one player or another as decisive in the victory. The triumph was an outcome of collective will, of joint enterprise and energy. Bring those resources of character together in the coming weeks and defeat against any domestic, or indeed international, opponents, is unthinkable.

As is important when we are challenging on so many fronts it did not appear that we picked up any additional injuries yesterday. In such a physically tough game that is a benefit. That the boy from Longsight was back and sharp is obviously a boost to our attacking options. A pleasant few days break beckons to prepare for Hull and another early FA Cup start on Saturday. The Premier League title race remains wide open.

Enjoy the snap of Danny carried in this morning’s Independent and enjoy your break.

* and thank you to Amy and Arsene for today’s headline – I know, I know

Its the new stick used by the malcontent to beat Arsene with. They are turning Leicester’s miracle season from their success to Arsenal’s and Arsene’s failure. “Arsene said we couldn’t compete with oil money” they squeal with glee. “George, this destroyed your argument that we needed oil money to compete” my own personal hoard of following halfwits screech at me on Twitter.

Well they would be right, had I, Arsene or anyone else said that. The problem for them is, we didn’t say that. Or anything remotely like it. In fact here is exactly what I said on this very blog last July.

“There have been studies done that show an 85% direct correlation between spend and success, across all major leagues. This isn’t my opinion, it is fact. It may be a sad fact and one we wish didn’t exist, but a fact it is and being a fact, we have to acknowledge it and until it changes, accept it. In simple terms that leaves you a 15% chance of beating the odds. So yes, it can be done. Again I ask though, not why Arsenal ‘could’ be the team to do it, but why they ‘should’ be the club to do it?

People will point to Atlético Madrid as an example of how it can be done. Yes, but they are the 3rd biggest club in Spain and have done it once in 20 years. That is 5% of the time and within the previously mentioned 15% window.However that simply proves the maths, it does not mean they (or anyone else) should be expected to do it. Just that its possible. No one is saying its impossible.”

So there we have it. A correlation of 85% between spend and success means that 85 times out of 100, money wins. For the slow of learning, it doesn’t mean 100 times out of 100. The debate has never been whether its possible to compete with less money, but rather how much of a disadvantage it puts Arsenal (or any other team for that matter) at.

If Leicester do go on and win the title, it will do nothing more than confirm that it is possible, but as I said, that was never in question.

The fact is that since Roman and Mansour tipped up with their ill-gotten gains, they immediately made it (this is simplistic) 85% more difficult for teams that can’t match their spending, to win the league. No one was making it up. Chelsea, and City have won it with United being the only team that was able to have a squad that matched their’s on cost. Only those three clubs were able to pay the wage bill that allowed them to compete for the League Cup and Champions League.  The two exceptions, so far, have been Leicester and Liverpool, coincidentally both teams that had/have no interest in any competitions other than the league itself. I’m not imagining this, it happened. Honestly, its in history book now.

If we glance across The Channel we see that PSG are 21 points clear after 24 games. Is anyone going to tell me this is down to anything other than “oil money” ?

The rarity of what Leicester are doing does not show how easy it is to do, the very opposite in fact, it proves how difficult it must be.

People will say “if Leicester can do it , why not Arsenal ?”  Well the truth is there is no reason why it should not be Arsenal. That said,  you must accept then that any team can do it. Not just Arsenal. Why should Arsenal be the one club that should have been expected to do it?

So let all the malcontents climb back on their perches and wait until they can find their next stick.

Good evening Positivistas,

With an early kick off, a windy, wet day on the South coast the safe collection of three points with not too much difficulty is the result all of us were looking for. We slide into third place behind champions elect Leicester and Spurs, a week of preparation for the blockbuster seven days hence.

Of today’s game ?

That was certainly not a ‘classic’ Arsenal performance or even, if I am being honest, much of a game of football at the unfortunately named “Vitality” stadium. We started the better than the home side it has to be said, a little sharper and quicker. We imposed that quality with two chances and two excellent finishes, and then settled back to see out the next 70 minutes of the game. For much of the second half however our play seemed hesitant and we were not quite convinced what we were about. A third goal would have killed the game but we seemed reluctant really push for it. It may be I was not the only one eyeing-up next Sunday’s fixture long before the official end of today’s game.

I thought our back five put in a good display today. Cech never put a foot or hand wrong on an afternoon where the ball was affected by the weather. Kosc and Gabriel were solid, but for one nasty first half slip by the Brazilian with Hector saving his arse, and Nacho put in his usual 93 minutes of concentrated professional effort.

Going forward Ramsey played well and kept going for the full distance when others we clearly flagging. Flamster was generally good even though he was fortunate to stay on after his chien lunatique first half effort. The Ox was better and can satisfaction in a well taken goal. Sanchez looked generally out of sorts – not like himself at all – I suspect illness.

For the Cherries they were lively enough all over the park without ever piercing our defensive shield. It was not until the very end that Cech was really tested. Loads of effort and probably, when someone shows me the stats, loads of possession, but no guile, no cunning. Just the same offensive approach recycled time after time for 93 minutes. Commiserative pat on the shoulders for Smith, Arter and Ritchie but their best player in red and black for me was Pugh who might just have turned it. AFCB have enjoyed a good run of results recently and they should not be disheartened by defeat today. I remain convinced they won’t go down.

No doubt somewhere someone is preparing a petition on Mr Friend. As you may have noticed recently if people want to post links to these petitions on here I am content allow them through the filter. I thought the referee was really rather good today, and helped by two sets of players who did not feign injury or roll around (very much).

Onwards to next Sunday from a solid if unexciting foundation today. I saw no injuries or obvious knocks. Arsene is clearly being cautious with Sanchez and Le Coq as they pick up first team action again. We are scoring again which is a relief and the finishing of both goals was good quality.

Enjoy your Sunday and we shall meet later in the week.

(Snap of Mesut sucking his thumb from the Guardian in case you wondered – odd lad)

Good Morning Fellow Positives,

I suspect I would be hard pushed to find many Arsenal fans who would regard last night’s result, as opposed to last night’s performance, as anything other than a disappointment. Two points we might reasonably have expected to collect went unclaimed, the single point sparse recompense.

I might however gently point out to those likely to submerge into long term grief that the single point leaves us just two points behind everyone’s title favourites Citeh, and just five behind the still scampering Foxes. Admittedly the result also places us behind the Neighbours which I appreciate would test the patience of St Monica, but a temporary arrangement I am sure.

The reason for optimism immediately practical. Citeh and Leicester meet on Saturday, and the following weekend we play the Foxes and Citeh take on Spuds. Certainly the arrangement of results require us to take our chances, with wins in both games against Bournemouth and against Leicester, but do that and we could be on the same points as Leicester, in front of Citeh and Spuds. Admittedly the results would have to fall for us the right way but that would depend on a bit of luck. Even without a bit of luck and already tight race for the title is likely to further bunch up in terms of points.

The key theme of theme of luck, providence, good fortune etc. leads me neatly ( well I think neatly) into last night’s game and the review of events.

I thought we played well last night. The opening phase of 15 minutes or so Saints came out and put us under pressure and I assume were looking to snatch an early goal before retreating behind what is a well organised defence. Koeman is no idiot and he knew he was in for a difficult evening. When that initiative failed we gradually took control and, as we all saw or heard, created openings in the visitors’ defence. We were not quite at our best but still effective despite Saints disrupting our midfield by being quick into the tackle and roughing us up. Where we did break through, and create clear goal-scoring chances Fraser Forster got his foot, arm, hand, shoulder* (tick box as appropriate) in the way.

Half time came and went and it did not seem conceivable that with the pressure we had imposed that eventually we would not break through and yet, and yet…….

From 60-65 minutes onwards we stepped up the urgency and the speed of our play while Saints engaged in some blatant timewasting that led to the predictable 6-7 minutes of time added on. During that final, frantic half an hour we created goal scoring chances on Southampton’s goal every minute. Shot after shot and headers poured into the opposition and yet again Forster managed to leap and claw every on target effort away. One important point should be made is that where Arsenal have failed to score earlier in the season a lot of the problem came from shots that went high and/or wide of the target. Not last night.  The official statistics say ten shots on target. I am surprised, it seemed like more, much more.

And so eventually we ran out of time. The visitors, who looked exhausted in the final few minutes, celebrated. They will not earn a point in a harder game all season. Credit to Forster, excellent display of keeping and while the pure goal keeping art was absent from some of his saves, he had the occasional flashes of luck that gave his side the result they were evidently delighted with.

For us I thought both full backs were magnificent all night. I thought Mesut and Alexis were excellent. I thought Koscielny was a leader all over the field.

So onwards to Bournemouth, Sunday lunchtime. Let us bring Arsenal’s footballing destiny back into our own hands.

Enjoy the week.

Góðan daginn Positivistas,

Another Sunday morning, another FA Cup victory to ponder. On seeing the starting line up I admit a little quiver of nervousness crept in. Multiple changes of personnel from what would be regarded as our PL starting eleven at the moment, a start for young Iwobi, two returners from two months out through injury in Alexis and Le Coq, and the debut of a player who no one had heard of five weeks ago. And not just the starts but looking at the bench Mesut and Aaron had been given the weekend off to catch up on those long delayed DIY jobs that had been on their to-do list for months. Yes I felt just a twang of concern.

Needless to say my worry was misplaced and swiftly set aside by a strong opening with Arsenal controlling the ball and pinning back the custard shirted/rhubarb shorted opposition in their own half.

The Ox was at number 10, pulling the strings, constantly busy, running at the opposition, trying to slot THE PASS through to Olivier. Alexis was doing what he does, bouncing like Tigger, after a long sleep. Le Coq showing absolutely no sign of rustiness as far as I could see and the way he was getting stuck into tackles there was no hesitation that can crop up after a player is seriously injured in a challenge. Credit to Iwobi all afternoon who tried to play his game. He is still raw but was not put off by the physical approach of the opposition and the lack of time he was given to play.

On 19 minutes we took control of the tie through Chambers excellent finish that curled into far corner. Any strike with the outside of the boot that beats a keeper from the edge of the box deserves praise and I see in the media we have a multiple Samba theme. I am sure you will all have seen in on television from several angles. The nice thing was the time Callum takes in choosing how to hit the ball, and where to place the shot. That is a really very confident finish from such a young player.

Just after our opener there was a big roar from the Arsenal fans in the West Stand lower as Tomas began to warm up. And picked up round the stadium. He has been away far too long.

There followed another 25 minutes when Burnley, to their credit, did what they had to do and forced their way back into the game. They played two strikers throughout the game and Vokes and Gray were ever eager to pounce on any error along our back line. I was also impressed with Burnley’s centre back by the name of Michael Keane and their full back Darikwa, both comfortable on the ball. As is our style we fell victim to a little carelessness with the ball in defence, and the visitors struck with what was a very good header. As the half finished however we were back in control.

Ten minutes into the second period the tie was effectively over. Having stuck to the job of defending in depth and in numbers Burnley were unable to cope with the speed and movement of first the Ox and then Alexis. The Chilean’s finishing was efficient and unstoppable. Once in front there was no chance of our allowing Burnley back into the game. It would have made life smoother to have converted one of our many chances for a third but Gabriel and Kosc policed Burnley’s strikers carefully and Ospina did not have a busy afternoon. And what our Colombian keeper did have to do, particularly when called on to deal with crosses, he did impeccably I should say.

And so to mention the man we have all been waiting for Mohamed Elneny. I was not sure what to expect and the reports of him being a holding midfield player seemed to be accurate as, in the opening few minutes he and Le Coq both patrolled a narrow corridor in the centre of the pitch. No disrespect to our East Lancashire cousins but that did seem slight overkill. After that little defensive phase however Mo spread his wings and popped up all over the pitch, at various points taking on Ramsey’s job on the right wing. He is a big man, with big hair, who is not going to be easy to knock off the ball. He was calm, he tackled cleanly, he stayed on his feet. We have a BFE I’d say.

Great to meet up yesterday with the chaps.

Enjoy your Sunday, 5^th round draw tonight. All the usual suspects are still in it. I fancy a big game.