Tactics, formations and set ups. It seems every Arsenal fan is an expert on them. Yes we all know them well,  all of us bar Arsene that is.

I mean its easy, right?

Start with a world class goalkeeper. One that dominates his area and controls the defenders.

Next we want a couple of centre backs. One of who should be big lump that flings himself in front of everything and heads the ball far far away from his area. The other,  a smaller beast, who can cover the big lumps lack of pace and play out from the back. Oh yes ,and they should have a telepathic understanding and work as a pair, as one.

Now we want two fullbacks No nonsense players that defend first and one of who never passes the halfway line unless his mate is tucked in.

Right, now we want two big “physical presence” midfielders that can play a bit. Pace and power, thats the key here, pace and power. Protecting the back four and setting the platform for the forwards to enjoy themselves. Don’t forget they need pace and power. This is the Premier League, pace and power is vital.

The next thing we need are a pair of wingers that have, err, umm, well, pace and power. They must be able to help the fullbacks and also attack with gay abandon, and score 20 goals per season.

A world class No.10 comes in handy now. He must have vision and creativity as well as being able to drop into midfield and help out by being a physical presence. Obviously he has to be able to score, but his main job is to create for others.

Last but not least comes the world class striker. He has to be lightning quick, strong as an Ox, and score at a rate that no other striker in the league does.

On the bench we need seven outstanding players that would walk into the starting eleven of any of our rivals.

There we have it, management by numbers. The default team of every expert layman fan.

The formation is 4 4 1 1, or the No.10 can fall back and its 4 5 1, or the wingers can push up and its 4 3 3 .

Yes this management malarkey is a piece of piss.

You may be detecting a hint of sarcasm by now?

Still. I’ll soldier on.

On top of this extensive knowledge we are all also experts on player development, training regimes, fitness and last but not least –  we all have medical knowledge far beyond that of specialists that the club hire.

Of course our knowledge doesn’t stop there, oh no ! Club and global finances are well within our understanding. The negotiation of transfers is a task we would absolutely excel at.

Its true that every fan has one thing in life that they are outstanding at, and thats running Arsenal football club . And doing better in every field than the useless experts that the useless board employs.

When challenged on our credentials we have no problem here. “I know my stuff, I’ve been watching Arsenal for X years”

I mean its easy to prove how right you are. As soon as Arsenal lose,  you point to which of the default team settings that were not used and claim that had they been, the result would have been better. Its foolproof because no one can prove it wouldn’t. This is evidence of your genius.

“We didn’t win because we had no power and pace in Midfield” 

So basically we all want a manager that uses this template.

Sort of like the 1998 Arsenal team ?

We need a manager that understands this set up works and does it !

Players need to be told by the manager , exactly what to do and when to do it, following this template . The one we understand. The one that won stuff.

We certainly don’t want some visionary that thinks his old template needs revising because football evolves. No, we want a manager that thinks like us and does stuff we understand.

Look, we all know this squad has huge deficiencies and Arsene refuses to address them. I would list these deficiencies but I just cant think of one at present.

Anyway, we should all be happy because the very smartest among us can write blogs and do Podcasts to show just how smart we are. Spare a thought for the previous generations that had to hide their genius under a bushel.

Today we have a post from  @Shotta_gooner.

Although I agree wholeheartedly with my old friend and ally, I was tempted not to post this. My thinking is that there are reasonable people (although I struggle to accept those reasons) that think it is time for Arsene to step aside. When I use the term WOB, I use it in relation to those stupid people that repeat unsubstantiated garbage, lies , and misrepresentations to make their points in a disrespectful and downright abusive way. 

Also I don’t want us to be seen as an Arsene blog. rather than an Arsenal blog. But hey-ho.

Anyway, here it is, enjoy.

WOB on the ropes …

Old narratives die hard. It is well known that it is human nature to cling desperately to old paradigms and ideologies despite clear evidence to the contrary sometimes with disastrous consequences. Such is the current state of the seemingly permanent group of malcontents within supporters of Arsenal Football Club often described as the Wenger Out Brigade or WOBs for short.

The past year or so and into this new season must have been a stomach churning seesaw for the anti—Wenger zealots. Despair at the end of last year with Arsenal winning the FA cup, rendering the 9 year without a trophy mantra null and void. Untrammeled glee in December as Wenger was booed at the Stoke train station following a loss to the Orcs. From their point of view, Wenger might have scored a few tactical victories in the summer transfer window but the team was struggling to win games, languishing outside the top-four, proof in their eyes the old “frog” was unable to take the club forward

.

Going down …

But while they rubbed their hands with glee there was some ominous signs. Alexis Sanchez was having an explosive start to his English career, totally unprecedented in the history of foreign players transitioning into the premier league. 12 goals and 7 assists so far  in the Premiership for a players who cost only £30 million compared to the £70 million that Barca stumped up for Luis Suarez must rank as one of Wenger’s best transfer steals ever,  arguably even greater than £25 million he coaxed out of Manchester City for Adebayor.

To add insult to injury, while Arsene was not having the best of starts, the WOBs long-held managerial alternatives have not cooperated with their narrative. Jurgen Klopp, the poster boy for managing with an inferior budget, given his recent successes over the German-colossus Bayern, has this season seen the magic evaporate with his club languishing in the relegation zone half-way into the season. Unlike Wenger who has kept Arsenal in the top-four despite years of losing his best players, Dortmund is reeling after first losing Goetze in 2013 and then Lewandowski in 2014. Kloppie’s luster has taken a hit. So has Roberto Martinez whose first year at Everton was a blinder. But the second-season syndrome has left Everton struggle to sustain mid-table mediocrity. As these managers flounder, so have the WOBs.

Fast forward to January 2015 and the old saw that Arsenal cannot beat a top team takes a big hit with victory over defending champions Manchester City at the Etihad, the first time since 2010. It wasn’t merely the defeat of a top-four team,  it was a hammer blow to the bogus narrative that stubborn old Wenger doesn’t do tactics. For months the boss had been tweaking our set-up, experimenting in real games with a 4-1-4-1, with predictably mixed results. A rare few were willing to give Wenger the benefit of the doubt of a badly truncated post world-cup pre-season and an unending rash of early season injuries to some of our best players (Koscielny, Arteta, Giroud, Debuchy, Ramsey to name a few).

Speaking of injuries, the malcontents seem confused as what to make of the newly employed fitness guru Shad Forsythe since they had proclaimed him to be one of their successes in their campaign against Wenger’s ancient training methods. Notice he escaped becoming scapegoat du jour.

Back to January 2015 and the victory over City, despite Wenger previously disclosed publicly for this season he had to tweak the system to make the team less vulnerable to heavy defeats as happened in the prior year (the scars of  Liverpool, Chelsea and Everton away are still raw) , the WOBs and their media enablers resort to lies and obfuscation. Rather than admit that the veteran manager had the nous to execute a difficult but necessary change, we are left with patent nonsense that the victory over City was due to Wenger finally listening to the players and playing a more defensive system. It took Kieran Gibbs in his own blog to confirm that the system had been discussed and agreed between player and manager in previous games, the difference at City was the execution. But why let facts get in the way of a false narrative.

Since City, it has been difficult for the malcontents and the pundits to ignore Arsenal’s progress as the season unfolds. Stoke, Brighton and the recent tonking of Aston Villa concurrent with the return from injury of Giroud, Ramsey, Walcott and Ozil has forced the malcontents underground. The media is now forced to admit that Arsenal is a serious contender for a top-4 position.

… and out.

With mounting evidence that Wenger is close to completing the rebuild of another great team , you would think the WOBs would admit defeat and fade away.  With Tottenham coming in clear view over the horizon it is timely to remember that old narratives die hard and that it takes only one defeat for the hysteria and nonsense to resume.

Andrew alerted me to a piece in the Independent last week. For those of you from outside of the UK the Indie is that rarest of beasts; a quality tabloid newspaper. It has featured some of my favourite ever journalists including Fergal Keane and the utterly peerless Robert Fisk who not only understand their subject but carry out proper research and present intelligent balanced findings in a coherent and well written manner. On this occasion Andrew didn’t link to an analysis of Rwandan genocide or one hundred years of armed imperial folly in Afghanistan, the piece he drew to my attention concerned Arsenal and their new defensive acquisition Gabriel Paulista. The headline read “Talented Brazilian could grow into world-class defender at Arsenal” and frankly, if looking a bit like Martin Raymond Keown counts in any way towards that then the accompanying picture suggested the lad is well on the way.

I wish I’d stopped reading then and there and returned to Twitter where I could have gone back to browsing photographs of Mike Wood’s latest beer du jour or read more of George’s attempts to reconcile the Israeli’s and the Palestinians and bring peace to the world. That man really is the Henry Kissinger of Twitter, the Ghandi between the goalposts isn’t he? Where there is discord let George bring harmony as St Francis famously said. I wish he could bring me closer to a loving understanding with sports journalists in the same way he brought Spurs and Arsenal fans together on Positively Arsenal the other day.

The Independent article was the usual tame journalistic froth in which sports writers excel. We didn’t learn anything much about the player or the transfer but right in the middle was this little nugget of nonsense, like a lexiconic landmine in a mundane path through an unremarkable paragraph it went off in my face causing me to spill soup into my moustache

“Villarreal’s scouting record in South America is as good as Arsène Wenger’s record for signing defenders is bad.”

Now there are two things happening here. Firstly, and perhaps most obviously, the journalist is deflecting attention away from Arsène’s role in spotting young talent by suggesting the real work was done by Villareal. As my children would doubtlessly say, meh. It’s the kind of lazy rubbish we all filter out when reading about Arsenal, but the other thing, the huge blatant lie that Arsène is crap at buying defenders stuck so deep in my craw that I barely finished reading and had to push my bowl of cauliflower and yellow split pea to one side – croutons and all. I know, I know these idiots have an agenda to feed Arsène haters as much red meat as possible until the lie becomes a cliché and the cliché ends up presented as a fact and the great man’s name gets dragged through ever more deeper mud; it’s their job, it’s sad, I hate it but I need to grow up and learn to live with it.

Before we play ‘Arsene’s great defensive signings down through the ages’ and ask which one is your favourite (and we shall, oh yes we shall play just that game) let us consider the crowning turd in the swimming pool which came at the end of the item and which we all know will be parroted by the anti Arsene brigade in various forms if for no other reason than it serves to deride our current defensive players.

“Arsenal may have found the defender for whom they have been looking for so long. One who loves defending, who rarely gets injured, whose leap gets him to most headers, whose stride carries him confidently out of defence”

In a nutshell the twerp writing this piece perfectly described both Lauren Koscielny and Tommy Vermaelen among many others. Obviously I am overlooking the nonsense about rarely getting injured, not only because it suits me so to do but because numbers of injuries cannot be predicted nor controlled and are usually caused by cowardly or corrupt officials allowing thuggish opponents free reign while they go about attacking our players.

All of which leads me back to the lesson which I should have learned a long time ago. Do not get involved in any transfer talk even after the signing has been made as we know nothing about any player and will not know anything of worth until they’ve had a run in the side, and for God’s sake do not ever under any circumstances read any published sports journalist. In fact, thinking about it, we don’t even necessarily know anything after their first or second runs in the side do we? Look at Francis Coquelin; his development so perfectly managed that when recalled he was in a position to astonish even those of us who already liked the lad. Cut out the off the ground, two footed challenges and I would even say I love him just a little bit. We didn’t know how good he could be, but now we’ve had a hint. The new signings we know nothing about.

What about today’s game. What, specifically, about our opponents, Aston Villa? Do we know anything of substance about them? Not much I’m afraid. I mentioned Brian Clough last week and like Clough’s Forest, Villa once did the impossible and won the European cup by defeating Bayern Munich in the final. Not many people know it but they also beat Barcelona in the Super Cup in the following season. Even less people know that Villa’s first ever match was played against a local rugby union team and they had to play the first half under rugby rules and the second half under football rules. Which is a bit like when we play Stoke or Chelsea except we have to play both halves under one set of rules while the opposition are allowed to pretty much choose which sport they’re playing depending upon whether they want to garotte our players or just break their legs.

Villa have had a few good seasons here and there recently, but then many teams do. There is often one pretender to the top four but they seldom mount a sustained challenge over more than one season. It takes an extraordinary manager to keep a team dining at that particular table year in year out, especially when you look at the prices on the menu and the money available to the stinking rich diners with their fat arses permanently ensconced in most of the chairs. This go around, though,  Mr Lambert’s chaps are finding things a little tough. Three points outside the bottom three they are in an interestingly symmetrical relationship with our club. Their negative goal difference of minus fourteen mirroring perfectly our plus fourteen. They sit two places outside the relegation zone we sit two places outside the Champions League zone. Their name ends with an A ours starts with an A. The list is endless. Well OK so I was reaching a little at the end there but if the league placings mean anything then we should be winning this. Of course we all know anyone can beat anyone and it’s current form that matters not current league position. A glance at their recent form shows DWLLW which is as inconclusive as you can get but compare and contrast with our rather nicer looking LWWWW and I know which side I’d rather support. In fact the only thing bar an exceptional Villa performance which might mar our Sunday roasties and curdle the custard is a dramatic exhibition from the most influential man on the pitch when last they won at the Emirates.

I speak of none other than the diabolical and by now infamous Arsenal nemesis, the man aiming to dethrone Asmodeus Dean as the pretender to Beelzebub Riley none other than Berith Anthony Taylor, Prince of The Cherubim. In a breathtaking move that defies my feeble verbal attempts to encapsulate its myopic brainlessness, the man who proved himself beyond incapable on the opening game of last season gets the chance to destroy another good footballing contest this afternoon. It is an indictment of the standard of officiating in the premier league that we often worry more about the referee than the opposition players in the build up to a match but I’ll let you decide if it’s corruption or incompetence which steers so many officials to have such a disproportionately negative impact on so many of our games.

All I can say is take heart Positivistas! Look at who wielded the whistle and cards at the Etihad. If we can come through such an encounter with one of the worst referees in the history of the game they we can overcome both Villa and their twelfth man Taylor.

Now about that game I mentioned earlier. The man, who we are told is incapable of buying or spotting a decent defender, bought or raised, among others, the following. Can you pick a favourite?

Last night I caused a bit of a kerfuffle on twitter when I posted this .

Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge ·

No doubt in my mind that I want Spurs to beat Chelsea, and beat them well.

Apparently this is unacceptable to the “Local club for local people, proper Arsenal” crew, and was interpreted to mean that I want Spurs to win. Well I don’t want them to win, I don’t want them to win anything, but I do want Chelsea to win less. Much as it irks us, one of them will win the COC, I would prefer that not to be Chelsea.

People who know me ,know that a big part of why I love Arsenal with such passion is down the the ethos and playing style of the the club. Chelsea are the polar opposite of what I respect and love about Arsenal, So yes, I want them to win less than Spurs. And I make no apologies for this.

Of course I understand that for many people who are “local fans” they would want Spurs to lose less. This doesn’t rile me. Its their choice. The reality is though , that I am not a local fan. I have never even met a Spurs fan, so how am I expect to get it?

What does rile me is that these people want to set the parameters for my support. I have to feel like them otherwise I am not a real Arsenal fan. They, the “local club for local people ,proper Arsenal” fans decide what good support is. Is it a coincidence that the ones that resorted to abuse towards me ,are for the most, the same fans who abuse me for my support of Arsene. The same ones who tell me I’m not a real fan because I back him ?

These people are insistent that to be a proper fan you must see Spurs as the biggest rival. Because its a local thing? Right? Yet they seem unable to grasp that local fans do not make up the vast majority of the fan base.

I know hundreds of United fans and not one single Spurs fan, so who am I ‘liable to see as the biggest rival? Who would you think I would want to beat more? Go on , hazard a wild guess !

Did you guess United?

You were right then. But according to these narrow minded halfwits, that means I cant be a real Arsenal supporter.

What is more worrying than anything is that these people can’t grasp it. We all must feel like them to be “proper Arsenal”

Now, there are many non-local fans that see Spurs as our biggest rivals. They may be old enough to remember when Spurs were actually rivals at all in football terms, or they may have simply bought into the traditional rivalry. That’s understandable to me. I get it. But seriously,does that make them better fans? Well it seems they think it does.

Are people from all over the globe expected to see Spurs are the biggest rivals? That’s Spurs, a mid table team that never finishes above Arsenal? Really? Why? Well I will tell you why, its because the “local club for local fan, proper Arsenal” feel they have the right to dictate how other should feel about their club. Because its their club, not our club, its theirs.

Ok  I then tweeted these

Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge ·

Here is another bombshell. I dont hate the fans of any club. They are just doing what we do following the club of their choice >

Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge · 

>I dont really see the difference from hating a set of supporters to hating an ethnic group or people from another country.

More howls from the mentally challenged.

Again I make no apologies for this,  hating people because they support another football team is tribalism.

Justifying hatred by calling it “football rivalry” is about as lame as it gets in my opinion.

Some people actually told me that I didn’t understand because I have never had a fight with a Spurs fan. They were scum.

What? Are they sub-human?

The notion that its ok to hate people because they are doing exactly what we are doing, supporting the club of their choice is a a notion that has led to all sorts of barbarity in the past.

The very idea that hatred for someone else makes you a better fan is so off its not true.

If you feel the necessity to hate in order to love, you really need to reevaluate your life and your support.

Perhaps start by moving into the 21st century?

Finally I tweeted

Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge · 12h12 hours ago

I am getting hate because I don’t hate random people I’ve never met, from random people I’ve never met. Seems reasonable.

Think about that for a moment. I think it tells me exactly the type of person we are dealing with here.

Its now two years since Positively Arsenal swung open its door and welcomed people into it warm and friendly community.

Well. alright, we welcomed in those we agreed with and shut out those we don’t. I have no problem admitting that comments that are overtly abusive or just daft are not approved. In other words comments from the type of person I talked about in one of my first posts, repeated below.

You might think that despite the club doing everything the malcontent fans said they would not do, that these fans would have learned. But they don’t ,and everything I said still holds true.

They either won’t learn, or just don’t want too.

It is now obvious that even the signings of world class players and silverware has done nothing to make them reconsider their regurgitated poorly formed opinions.

So read the post again and tell me if you think all is as it was, or is the tide turning?

“Is it just me or are others infuriated by ignorance and stupidity?

Now I don’t blame people who are stupid, simply because they are.  I mean they are born stupid.  Nobody chooses to be an idiot.  Mostly they can’t help it.  Such is life.

No, what annoys me is that some stupid people insist on thinking they are smart.  And smart to the extent that they know more about a given subject than a top professional.

Of course this likely happens in all manner of activities, but I want to talk about football – and Arsenal in particular.

I am told all the time “I am entitled to an opinion”.

Of course when I claim that in that case, I am entitled to hold the opinion that they are idiots, that same ‘entitlement’ doesn’t appear to hold true for me.

If an opinion is formed from a position of almost total ignorance or built on falsehoods and misinformation, what is it worth?  It is in fact worth less than nothing.  I would prefer to hold no opinion on matters, rather than one which proves I am a foolish halfwit.

If I have a heart complaint I’d go to see a specialist heart Consultant.  If he tells me I am in decent health and half an Aspirin per day and some light exercise will see me well would I then insist that I need a quadruple bypass simply because my plumber mate down the pub says that’s what I need?

Or if I read a blog by an accountant in which he insists he has strong opinions on the matter, and I should therefore accept what he is saying, would I?

No!

Well why does anyone who watches a football match and follows Piers Morgan on twitter think that they know better than Arsene Wenger?  The reality is that in all likelihood, Doris the Tea Lady knows more about football and Arsenal than them.  I get told “I am a season ticket holder, 30 years of watching Arsenal, that entitles me to an opinion.”  Well I have been watching Westerns for 50 years but I would not presume to tell John Ford how to direct one.  (I know he is dead by the way.)

Buying a ticket entitles you to nothing more than a seat and a game to watch.  It does not buy you the right to pick the team, choose formations or set tactics.

If someone tells me the world is flat, I don’t feel the need to debate the subject with them.  There could be only two reasons they believe that.

Complete stupidity.  Or ignorance.

Ignorance can be excused.  But if they have been told the facts and shown the evidence, ignorance can be excluded and stupidity is all that is left.  So when someone says something like “Wenger does not understand defence” they immediately fall into the stupid category.  And they should not complain when I tell them that they are a moron.

Or when people insist that Arsene has refused to spend money.

Again, idiot.

The annual accounts over the past 10 years prove there has been no money.  Arsene has said there has been no money.  So if they are going to ignore the facts then they can only be stupid. There is no alternative.

The biggest problem is not people like bloggers claiming to understand things that they clearly don’t.  There will always be people who hugely overestimate their knowledge and intellect.  No, the problem is the masses of ill-informed halfwits that accept and repeat as fact, the opinions of these leaders of opinion.  Hitler was not the problem.  It was the millions of followers he attracted that was the problem.

Some want-to-be manager writing a blog about Arsenal is not the problem.  It’s the pathetic halfwits that believe that what he is saying has some real value, who are the problem.

People claim to know why Mata did not sign for Arsenal, for example. When in fact they have no idea at all the reasons for him going to Chelsea.

Here is the thing.

I have opinions about players, formations and tactics.  Ask me on a Saturday morning to pick the team and I will have a go.  But the difference is that by Saturday teatime, if we have lost I won’t claim it was because the manager was too stupid to pick the team that I did.

Pointing to an outcome and claiming it would have been better if your advice had been heeded Is nothing but evidence of your own arrogance and stupidity.

I really can’t understand why so many people believe that their one field of excellence is football and Arsenal.

But I can understand why they infuriate me with their ignorance and stupidity.”

Rosicky’s shirt in the Borussia Dortmund Museum

A record attendance yesterday evening at the new Brighton and Hove Albion Stadium to see them play The Arsenal play for the second time in the cup in the last few years. I guess the Brighton fans enjoyed the football last time out. Not forgetting the Arsenal support:

“You’ve only come to see The Arsenal”

Like Steww I had a feeling last season was a special year. Nothing to do with the Cup games, more so the controlled Ozil inspired surge to the top of the table. Coincidentally or perhaps magically it was during the home league game against Hull when Nicholas Bendtner scored after sixty-odd seconds following Jenkinson’s early run and cross. If Bendy scores after the first minute upon what might have been his first start in the league after trying to leave the club I concluded for myself that it would be a good season for The Arsenal.
Bendtner didn’t quite follow through; circumstances meant he was relegated behind Sanogo when the new player regained or gained fitness. In my ignorant and speculative opinion the squad model since 07/08 has always been to have two Big Lumps up top to juggle with the speedsters.  Amidst some confusion Bendtner’s season ended early late one night with him humping a hubcap during a break back home. Fortunately The Arsenal kept their focus and came through in the end.

Brighton. A big difference for me going to an away game outside of London. Usually, what with AFC being a “local club for local people” according to the not so great and good I trundle along the hard yards to Home games.

First starts for Özil and Walcott, a second start for Ramsey upon their returns. As expected the BFG was given a well earned rest, and neither Ozil or Walcott had he legs to last ninety minutes as the Seagulls found some late hope and energy.

I have a good feeling about this season too. Why? Well Arsenal football club signed my favourite non-Arsenal footballer, Alexis Sanchez.
Following on from the Ozil and Cazorla signings. The rehabilitation of Master Rosicky. The recovery from major injuries of Ramsey and Wilshere (just about regaining his best fitness and form, that acceleration, before he was hacked off the park, again. Not even a foul called…). Chambers coming in to complete his apprenticeship under the Big German (Wilshere is for me Rozza’s apprentice), some new signing to help alleviate Koscielny’s workload. It’s a fair guess that having managed Rosicky’s fitness for the final run of fixtures in recent seasons no staff knows more about tricksy tendons in football then those at the Arsenal? I might be over optimistic but I couldn’t groan about those who signed Koscielny in the first place wanting to make sure they found the correct player to cover. We could again see against Brighton the logic in wanting to give Monreal more minutes during the season, to help him to develop and also because like many footballers he appears to play better when not coming in to the team cold.

There were moments last season when I just knew the FA Cup was coming to the Emirates. I didn’t say anything at the time so I can’t prove it, but this is a football blog – an Arsenal blog in fact – and as such I don’t need to prove a damn thing. The moments to which I refer occurred on those wonderful FA Cup matchdays when we beat Spurs and then Liverpool and later on an in form Everton; all strong Premier League teams, all potential banana skins. More than those results however the feeling that last year was our year really came over me on days like the fifth of January when Swansea won at Old Trafford. Also February the fifteenth when the clash of the Oil Men’s Private Trophy Teams saw Man City boot Chelsea out of the tournament. I also experienced a small psychic frisson when Mansour’s little vanity project was unexpectedly put out by Wigan in the following month.

There are certain teams you hope to avoid in the draw, and if those teams aren’t even in the draw then you’d be inhuman not to at least think to yourself, ‘Hello, if we keep our noses clean we could be in here’. Now I know that there are those whose glass is perennially and proverbially in a clichéd half empty condition, and such down at the mouth ne’er do wells will point to the Jacks of Swindon, Wrexham, Bradford and Blackburn and remind us of our experiences at having the beanstalk cut from under us. It of course goes without saying that we will need to do our bit, continuing at Brighton where we left off against Hull but the results yesterday were little short of sensational. Even the teams with nothing except the FA Cup to play for failed to overcome what should have been weaker opposition, both Liverpool and Man United managing to hold Cambridge and Bolton respectively.

So now it’s our turn.

I haven’t had any premonitions this time around. I’m not here as some kind of FA Cup Doris Stokes, in fact I’m only writing this because I was ambushed on Twitter by a geographically challenged George clearly labouring under the delusion that I would be an appropriate choice as I live down south and therefore somewhere near to the venue for today’s fixture. Brighton and Hove presumably having been washed away by the waves of the English Channel and ended up on the mud bound coast of the Severn Estuary. I don’t know how the simple folk of Somersetshire will cope when the Brighton Gay Pride carnival comes to Nether Stowey nor how Norman Cook’s latest live set will go down at The Rose and Crown in Huish Episcopi but I hope Mesut Özil finds his targets better than George can find East Sussex on a map.

Talking of which, Arsène conceded that our flawless Deutscher spielmacher doesn’t like playing on the wing but may begin his rehabilitation out there. It is a mouthwatering prospect to have him and Santi and Alexis in the same squad isn’t it? Add to that Theo easing himself back to full steam, the very, very promising Serge Gnabry returning to fitness and Aaron chomping at the bit to get back into the goal scoring groove he rediscovered just before suffering another injury and you simply have to be optimistic for the second half of the season. Given the teams knocked out yesterday I think we should extend that confidence to the FA Cup. People will be nervous of over confidence and a lower league opponent boosted by the feats of Middlesbrough and Bradford, but don’t panic I’m not taking this or any other away fixture for granted, far from it. In fact I believe the results yesterday and on Friday simply serve as a timely reminder that in a sporting contest anyone can have a bad day; it isn’t science, chance plays far too big a part in football for that.

The unvarnished truth is we are in such great form, so full of confidence and with key players at the very top of their game that we have no reason to fear anybody right now. If the players work as hard as they did at The Etihad they will create the platform for our free scoring forwards to finish the job. Sounds simple when I put it like that doesn’t it? At the time of writing I don’t know who will spear head the attack but I hope it will be Chuba Akpom with Mesut and Campbell either side of him. The youngster has been in such great form he must be desperate to show what he can do and with Wellbeck still out our sexy French pugilist may well be rested for this one.

As for Brighton, I have no personal experience of the place beyond attending a funeral there once. Friend or relative of a friend. Or relative of a friend of a relative. It was back in my drinking days so I’m pretty sketchy on the details to be honest. I played a gig in Littlehampton once but that’s West Sussex so hardly counts. Unless you’re George in which case they’re probably the same place. Oh yes, the Librarian at the college where I work went to university there and is friends with a Brighton coach driver, so there you go. My credentials to comment on all things pertaining to the town and its history are impeccable. As credentials go they’re certainly every bit as impeccable as any football blog’s are to teach anyone about tactics and they’re at that all the time.

In a footballistic context the name of Brighton and Hove Albion conjures, for people of a certain generation, the unforgettable image of Clough and Taylor in green sweaters and shirt collars. For me the greatest thing they ever did while at the helm of the South Coast club was to allow Bruce Bannister and Alan Warboys to share seven goals in an 8 – 2 hammering meted out by my local team in December of 1973. Brian Clough is the only non Arsenal manager I’ve ever had time for and in a move characteristic of the man he went into the Bristol Rovers dressing room that afternoon and congratulated the visitors saying to Alan Warboys that the eye injury he suffered that afternoon must have been self inflicted as the Brighton defence had got nowhere near him. I wasn’t at the game but Brian ‘It’s up for grabs now’ Moore was and I was lucky enough to be allowed to have my dinner on a tray in the front room that Sunday so that I could watch the Big Match. A rare moment of weakness from my otherwise strict Methodist mother.

I’d be happy with a similar scoreline today but I’d also be delighted with a cut and thrust, end to end battle and a one goal margin. It’s the FA Cup after all, it’s all about entertainment and excitement and the plucky little cliché cutting the big man down to size. Let’s just hope Jack has tired of hacking at the beanstalk come four o’clock this afternoon, he has after all had a busy weekend. And while we’re at it let’s hope Liz is as forgiving as my Mum was back in 1973. I’d better finish up now, I’ve got to go and get my tray ready just in case.

A guest post from Muppet  ( @MupetGooner )

If you are not a Wenger supporter, look away now.

Wasn’t it a great win on Sunday ? Superb. Simply superb. For numerous reasons. We beat the premier league champions at their own ground. We ended the 3 year barren run of away wins  against City, Chelsea and Man U.

There was a good news story in Coquelin, who was up against one of the best play-makers in Europe, in Silva, and produced a performance that was quite astonishing given his relative lack of experience at this level.

There was a good news story also in Bellerin, who also looked accomplished at right back, at the tender age of 19.

Cazorla was magnificent, combining mesmerising footwork and gritty resilience to produce a phenomenal performance.

The whole team were disciplined and maintained a shape and organisation that had the pundits stunned, and purring, for Ospina had nothing to do. This is no exaggeration. Souness said he was stunned, so did Carragher.

In the aftermath of the result, we started to hear that “The penny had dropped” for Wenger. This was no “Mourinho tactical masterclass”, heralded after the chavs 1-0 win in February last year. No, this was “the penny had dropped” for Wenger, and he had been taught how to do this by Mourinho, despite Mourinho failing to repeat the trick himself in September, drawing 1-1. The style of the performance was manna sent from heaven for the wobs. The “Bould effect” was attributed to the result, as well as the end of an era of “Wenger Stubbornness”.

It’s a good thing that Arsenal fans are happy. It really is. But the level of delusion in some quarters is worrying. There are those that believe that if you have a good defensive midfielder, sitting in front of the back 4, it is the road to premier league and champions league glory. Just sit that man in front of the back 4, the “Gilberto” screen, inbetween the defenders and the midfield, and he will cause this stunning transformation that will provide untold glory and riches for the team. The same people believe, that in 18 years of qualifying for the champions league, finishing with an average position somewhere in between 2nd and 3rd in the league, that we have never defended, or held an organisational shape. Neither have we beaten big teams. And also, if we are so inept, how did we manage the 19 clean sheets last year, and how did we manage to have the best away form in the premiership in the previous season ? I take it we didn’t have any shape in any of those games ? I also would like to know how Everton, with their favoured 4-1-4-1 formation, didn’t achieve anything during Moyes’s tenure, as after all, he always deployed a gritty DM in front of the back 4.

Then there was the AW failing of not beating the top 4 big teams away from home. The damning graphic would be produced of our recent away form against City, Chelsea and Manchester United – ignoring Liverpool – as we won there in 2012. Also ignored is that AW is the man who ended the 100 year run of an english team going to the San Siro and not achieving a win. This is also the man who became the manager of the first english team to go to the Bernabau and achieve a win. And what glorious wins they were. These were not Stokish, smash and grab raids, having a man on the goal line standing on the goalkeepers shoulders at every corner. These were 2 memorable wins, exemplifying class and pure unadulterated football. This is also a man who went unbeaten in the premiership. A man who has transformed the club into one of the most popular amongst neutrals. And all we hear in the British press is a narrative that is underpinned by ignorance and commercial expediency. The results in Dortmund and Munich away, not seen as achieved against a big team.

We were told at the beginning of the season – look at Martinez and Klopp. Young, dynamic, fresh – exactly what we need. Yep, young, dynamic and at the bottom of the table, or heading that way. We were told that Wenger had committed mistakes in letting Vermaelen, Jenkinson and Sagna go, and not signing replacements. In reality, in came Debuchy, Chambers and Bellerin. Nobody wanted to consider Bellerin. He was too young. Not a serious squad contender. After watching him against City, not only is he under consideration, people are now saying that we don’t need Jenkinson back. So does the manager deserve some credit here ? Does the manager also deserve some credit for pursuing an internal solution with Coquelin ? Does the manager also deserve credit for the Monreal signing and his deployment at Center back as cover – a player who is now looking exceptional. I say yes, yes and yes. This is without even considering the acquisition of Sanchez and Welbeck. Welbeck rates 7 out of 10 for a transfer, but Sanchez is in the stratosphere. £35 million ? What ? I hear you say. If you don’t want to give Wenger credit for that, then well.. words fail me.
Whenever one listens to the press or some of the bloggers on the state of Arsenal, one hears the largely negative narrative, but not a positive one. Of course, it’s hip to be realistic. Be too optimistic, and overrate your players – you’re deluded. Keep it real. Of course, of course. But frankly, there are some amongst us, who believe that we are on the cusp of something special here, can see the vision, and have seen it all along. A long term plan that is being effected at Arsenal. Pay off the stadium loan, grow the commercial revenue and build the squad. The squad building exercise is not a supermarket sweep at Harrods, which we can’t afford. Instead, there are patient acquisitions, internal solutions to problems. There are positions in which we can still strengthen, and will strengthen. Unlike certain other clubs, we don’t have any problems with FFP, and we will be able to spend big in the transfer market.

Even though it is already January, we still haven’t seen a team with Walcott, Ozil, Sanchez, Cazorla and Giroud. Which suggests to me that we’re playing at 80% of our potential. We see City and Chelsea line up with their best players, and wonder one day if that will happen to us. I hope that it will.