Risky thing, ambition …

Competition in the Premier League has never been more fierce and the evidence for this lies all around in the form of the shattered dreams of the fans of Spurs, Liverpool, United and, to a lesser extent, even Man City.

The first two are evidence that simply spending a vast sum no longer buys the division and the latter two more evidence of the same yet with two, three, maybe ten times the expenditure.

Chelsea have put together a decent if largely loathsome side, though this hasn’t been achieved overnight; that they have required – or somehow acquired – the rub of the green this season in the form of outstanding refereeing contribution to elevate their position to a point where much of the media have them already crowned champions is indisputable. Game after game after game, Chelsea are gaining competitive advantage of the kind that makes an already good side appear invincible. A year ago, with Arsenal striding high, the word from the 4th Estate was simply that it couldn’t possibly last. Yet this year, the chavs are apparently indisputably water-tight. Indeed, champions elect.

How strange. And how sure they all seem.

And all around me all I hear are Arsenal fans tearing into club, players and manager.

Noisy individuals, many of whom have swapped their sunny summits of FA Cup success for a morose autumn of tragic victimhood, criminally misled by the club into thinking all would be unremittingly rosy in Arsenal’s footballing garden. That by now we would have a minimum of two ‘worldies’ (‘or even one!!’) for every position. That we would at least avoid squandering three-goal leads and jettisoning victories to low(ish)-flying Welsh opposition. That our squad would be purring like the English Champions. Oh alright, hang on, like Chelsea’s then (but without the mind-numbingly dull Mourinho-esque non-spectacle).

On Sky’s Sunday Supplement programme this weekend, four white men were reflecting on the lack of opportunity for men of any colour in the backrooms of the English game. They did this blissfully unaware of the irony of this caucasian broadcast, despite the well-meaning commentary on a lamentable and frankly shocking situation.

As I watched them, it struck me as equally ironic that at the heart of the complaints of Arsenal fans lies a perception of a lack of commitment by the club.

No commitment to spend, no commitment to keep ticket prices down. No commitment to acquire experience or to give youth its chance. No commitment to clear dead wood, no commitment to tie down players on long-term contracts. No commitment to attack, nor to defend. No commitment to buy an out-and-out goal-scorer/midfielder/goalkeeper. These are all actual charges that have been laid at the door of the club at different times in recent years and for different, doubtless carefully calculated reasons by the club’s accusers.

Charges laid by people at least some of whom’s own commitment start and end with the purchase of a ticket, the price of a Sky subscription, the five minutes invested in posting online complaints, criticism and/or abuse of the club and its staff. The irony of any critique, centring as it does on matters of commitment, appears as lost on most of the perpetrators as it did Sky’s angst-ridden, journalist debaters-turned-social-commentators.

Football is, of course, nothing without the supporters.

But the era of the traditional supporter, in the wider context of distinct club-based mass groups, appears to have passed, having been largely supplanted by a self-pitying bunch of miserable, unhappy individuals, masquerading as ‘fans’ yet behaving like ‘consumers’. Rather than being a part of something, followers give the impression of being a part from everything – their fellow fans and chosen club included.

This misery is as palpable as it is widespread.

Even those of us with a more ‘optimistic’ outlook feel robbed on a weekly basis by the perpetuation of a worsening refereeing crisis that denies us all access to justice and a sense of fair play on the field of play. Some of us favour the introduction of video-technology. Why? Because the amount we invest in following the game surely justifies the adoption of what we might argue to be ‘best practice’.

And so it goes on.

In the same week that City fans had to be bribed into their own Champions’ League hosting stadium with the supermarket style promise of two tickets for the price of one, the blight of fan apathy at Stamford Bridge was such that Jose himself was bitterly complaining of the absence of atmosphere at The Home of Chav.

Despite sovereign-scale funding in teams over many years, it is extremely telling that neither Chelsea nor City presently have real need of newer, larger stadiums.

And despite the influx of the greatest array of footballing talent this country has arguably ever seen, the discontent with football in a wider context, at least in the UK, has never been greater.

The price English football is paying for the mass ‘consumerisation’ of the nation’s once favourite game is finding expression not only in the struggles of the national side but also at the very heart of the game’s essence.

Fatally, football, for the vast majority of modern day followers, is over-promising and under-delivering.

The high costs involved in being a fan has created the sense of entitlement and expectation more normally associated with a public service-based activity. But whereas high-class hotels and restaurants are geared up to deliver and never (or at worst, rarely) disappoint, football remains as relentlessly unreliable and gloriously unpredictable as ever.

And, it would seem, no amount of money is likely to ever change that.

Southampton’s currently outstanding season is testament to that, and more power to them.

Dortmund, over in the Bundesliga, were once also capable of similar – and greater -footballing miracles. It’s sad to say that Southampton, despite the well-earned plaudits, are today as vulnerable to off-field dismantling of their carefully nurtured squad(s) as their German counter-parts, even while the Saints look so good on it.

Arsenal’s own on-field ‘miracle’ is yet to happen though Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor, even, a decade.

That the off-field miracle HAS occurred is worthy of its own acknowledgement even though few are currently in the mood to celebrate anything.

It means that once we have assembled – and tuned-up – a title winning team, we won’t be going the way of Spurs, Liverpool, Dortmund or Southampton in losing our best players the moment they emerge. Let’s face it, we’ve been there and done that; mercifully we are unlikely to have to wear that particular shirt again.

And the sooner our own fan base realises this the better. For sure we are, frustratingly, a work still in progress. But it’s long-term, sustainable progress, nowadays both stately and invulnerable.

And our own fans can expedite the process by leading the way in returning to old-fashioned ways of supporting – to be our club’s 12th man at every match.

It’s not just about player-acquisition or tactics; the sooner fan-generated confidence courses through the veins of the club the sooner the whole process will cement our place at the top tables of the football world.

Yes, of course, the club HAS to get it right, but so too do the fans.

And, of course, that requires commitment, doesn’t it?

A guest post from Muppet   @MuppetGooner

The story of this season so far has been that all events have conspired to support the negative narrative supported by a number of über bloggers and media commentators. You will know it well. The unbalanced team, the groundhog day scenario of competing for a top 4 place just to appear in the champions league, with no chance of actually winning it or proceeding beyond the quarter finals. The insistence on attacking football. The lack of fist pumping leaders in the side. The suicidal decisions to bolster the attack and neglect the defence, letting two experienced defenders go. The weekly evidence, showing a clueless manager, incapable of making tactical substitutions, unsure of his best team, out of his depth.

The (negative) narrative is that the common denominator of all of these events is Wenger. The same lack of organisation and generosity in defence manifested itself in the same way, say, 5 or 6 years ago, and therefore he is to blame, and the reason for all our troubles. The negativity is exacerbated, as well by time, by the weight of expectation, heightened from last year’s FA Cup, and having more money from commercial deals. And magnified by Twitter and the press. A few über bloggers are also to blame, passing off some events as evidence of Wenger’s or the club’s incompetence, without being challenged. A bunch of idiots on Twitter letting off steam is not as worrying as the über bloggers and media commentators, as they carry some influence, and get followed by the herds.

On to a different narrative later, a positive narrative. But for the moment a simple example to illustrate the point that seemingly intelligent people, supposed experts, can spout utter BS, fuelled by a narrative, and get away with it. It was during the world cup, and Özil was playing against the U.S. The commentator said something like, “and Özil has been a passenger in this game”. The moment that he said that, Özil, far advanced up the pitch, received a ball on the right hand side. He was surrounded by 3 players. The ball, travelling at some pace, was tricky, but his 1^st touch was magnificent, simply sublime. He could have been easily dispossessed. Instead, in the blink of an eye, he managed to lay the ball off to his left, in field. Surely, no English player would have been capable of those 2 seconds of exemplary technique, ensuring on-going possession of the ball?

More recent examples of an absurd narrative have been that Sanchez is carrying the team. Have we yet witnessed a tweet that credits Wenger for the signing of Sanchez?  The reason for pointing this out is that in the face of accusations about positive dogmatism, it should also be said that negative dogmatism is just as bad, and unfortunately it seems to be preached by those who believe they are somewhere in the middle of the two. A well known blogger, pontificated that “we predicted all the problems as a result of not signing an extra central defender to replace Vermaelen”. Well, we know the defence is not perfect, but at this stage of the season, we have conceded 11 goals, 1 fewer than Chelsea and City, who have “world class” managers and “world class” players including Kompany and Terry, the 2 best central defenders in the entire galactic universe. If Chelsea, with their pragmatic genius manager, have conceded only 1 fewer than us, then doesn’t that surely mean that extreme negativity as well as hyperbole is at play here?

In a recent interview, another well known über blogger discussed the state of the defence with a journalist, and they discussed the problems of Monreal as a centre back, at length, and the paucity of options. The assertion was then made that these problems were those that had never been addressed and will never be addressed. But this is where the positive narrative comes in. Perhaps not even positive, as the events over the last 2 to 3 years has shown that we are making progress, however slow it is deemed by some. We killed the idea that we had an ideological block by smashing our transfer record and signing Özil. Then came Sanchez. By any stretch of the imagination, both of these signings were from Harrods. Man U and City may have paid more for a few players recently, but haven’t they been screwed? The signings of Welbeck and Chambers have also been excellent. But the problem has been the perceived inactivity in the signing of a centre back and a defensive midfielder – the mythical DM. This is the fuel on the flames of the negative narrative. Wenger’s achilles heel. Unforgiveable, for some. But would one be deluded if they believed that we have made several attempts to sign players in these positions – not from Lidl or Aldi, but again, from Harrods?

This season, on the evidence so far, has shown us that problems are not fixed overnight, and world class players do not grow on trees. Man U are in transition for a 2^nd season, and despite spending more in 2 seasons than probably the entire net spend in Wenger’s reign, are in mid table. They couldn’t find the defenders they were looking for, and are paying a heavy price for not replacing Ferdinand, Vidic and Evra. Liverpool, despite spending colossal amounts of money in the summer to replace Suarez, are a shadow of the swashbuckling side they were last year. For me this points to 2 things, a successful team needs excellent players to succeed and these obviously take time and money to sign and acquire, and also they need time as a team to gel. So hence we are told, now, that these clubs are in “transition”. Fair enough (well actually, utter tosh), but, if this is true for them – and one has to snort somewhat, then it certainly applies to us, as we have not yet had the time to fully capitalise on the transfer market, as it’s only in the last 2 years where our financial muscle has significantly strengthened. And if you believe, as  we do on here, in Wenger’s acumen in the market, then, imagine the effect of what Wenger will achieve when our net spend matches that of Liverpool and Manchester United. It will be very interesting indeed. One has looked forward to it ever since the realisation that austerity restricted us after the stadium move. To let Wenger go, or even demand his departure at this point in time, for me, is a sign that you didn’t understand the stadium move. You never understood what is was about, which was to put ourselves in a position to compete with the bigger clubs in Europe, by having the financial power to acquire players in the top tier.

If we are not quite there yet, and if you believe that all it takes are for these remaining jigsaw pieces, a top tier centre back and defensive midfielder, then it’s going to take time, because, known players in the top tier are jealously guarded by their clubs. My assertion, if I may, is that Wenger won’t buy if the quality doesn’t fit, and he has little option but to wait or to nurture younger players to maturity – Ox/Ramsey/Chambers etc. We know that this is frustrating to many, but what is the alternative? The detractor argument is that anybody is better that nothing or that there are copious amounts of players out there that will fit the bill. Really? I would wager that the amount of players that Wenger is looking at is probably under 5, worldwide. And that none of them are currently available. We know of whispers about Khedira. Certainly, Gustavo, the Brazilian. One of the Bender brothers has been linked for 2 years. For whatever reason so far, and please don’t tell us it’s because it’s not on Wenger’s priority list, the deals have not come off. We must believe they will come off, and we have to be patient.

A guest post for Tim, @foreverheady, a braver man than me.

I changed my seat at half-time. Pleased with the two goal lead I paused the TV, put the children to bed, made a cup of tea and then went back into the sitting room – and sat in a different place. I knew at the time I shouldn’t do it, but I thought it wouldn’t matter: the job was surely done, and I waited to be entertained. The Emirates crowd were of the same opinion I reckon: after Alexis’s wonder free kick the antiphonal chanting began: North Bank, Clock End. We are only those things when strolling to victory, when all worry is gone.  When Oxlade opened up his body Thierry like to make it three the players’ celebrations told us that they thought it was over too.

Except nobody had remembered to tell that to the Sporting Gods – or rather, we had all forgotten the essential rule of Tragedy, that pride comes before a fall and the one thing that is guaranteed to irritate Fate is misplaced Hubris.  Suddenly the players stopped doing what they had been doing so well, and showboated a bit: not much, to be fair, but enough for Anderlecht to take control of the midfield. Defensive duties were left undone as player after player sought to join the attacking party and feast on the adulation of the crowd. It seemed suddenly as if everyone and everything had forgotten their proper jobs, and as shape was lost so the chaos began.  Attackers didn’t track back, midfielders forgot to challenge and mark, full backs and central defenders pushed forward worryingly, hamstrings abandoned their primary purpose, managers sat back when immediate action was needed, linesmen forgot to check for offside, London autumn turned monsoon and still the crowd partied as if it was, if not quite 1999, at least the last time we had bossed lesser European opposition.

Lear-like, Monreal stumbled, and this time the ref saw all too well: the keeper sent effortlessly the wrong way and suddenly, as clear as day, the third goal became inevitable. It is virtually impossible to take your foot off the pedal in sport and then reapply it at will: the mind-set has been changed irrevocably and momentum ceded fatally to your opponent. As far as the players were concerned they didn’t need to do any more: the game had already been won, except of course it hadn’t been and the fat lady was a long way from singing the praises of the greatest team the world had ever seen. And so the crowd’s heroes who were carrying all before them suddenly had feet of clay and became a group of anxious and worried young twenty year olds, all too aware of their own vulnerability. The only thing that surprised me about the game was that it ended in a draw.

And so the recriminations began, and the insults cascaded down on The Arsenal.  Useless. Weak. Tactically naïve. Shambolic. Spineless. All the good things that happened in the first 60 minutes washed away by North London rain and the bitter tears of dashed expectations, replaced instead by anger and bile. But if in the Anderlecht away match you had thought that the result didn’t count because it was won in the last minute, and only papered over the cracks of a sub-standard performance, then how do you react to last night’s game? Only a draw, but that doesn’t matter because for large parts of the match the arsenal were very, very good? No, that would be absurd, because a match is a full match and needs to be played for all 90 minutes before the prizes are given out – and woe betide any team who think it is over before it really is.  And if you as a spectator thought at any stage last night that you could chill because the game was safe, then to my mind you are as bad as any of the players who relaxed prematurely. And if you did worse than that, and changed your seat, or moved from your positon, or ignored any of those important rituals that the Gods think so important, then you really need to take a long hard look at yourself and realise that like it or not, we are all in this together.

I made the mistake of tweeting:

”

Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge · Nov 1

A guest post from our resident roving reported Andrew @anicoll5

Chances are you saw the game, you have seen the headlines and digested the words of the learned and not so learned pundits in the 17 hours since referee Pawson blew the final whistle. You will have the warm glow following a contest deservedly won by the far, far superior football team.

Like me I suspect you will have wow’ed and coo’ed at the energy of Sanchez, his physical strength, his unquenchable “GIVE-ME-THE-BALL-NOW” approach for 93 minutes. Unlike me you may have known the name of referee Pawson without having to look it up in the paper a few moments ago, surely the mark of good game management by the officials, in PGMOL-ese, at least.

Of the day itself Tim (@foreverheady ) and I met and we supped in the George, penned inside the pub because Islington have temporarily withdrawn permission for customers on matchdays to drink outside. We bellowed at one another for an hour in an effort to rise above the din. I am relieved the pub has just one more game of the ban to serve before it will be business as usual.

Of the game itself the first half I thought the football was good. Fair play to the Lancastrians, no recognised names in their side, no PL form to give them any confidence of nicking even a point but organised, sensible, no risks taken and difficult to get through. We played well but did not quite ‘click’ in the opening 45. Moves broke down around the edge of the box when a  Burnley boot got in the way, passes were just not precise enough, a little slow to move the ball, if Welbeck ran right, Sanchez knocked the ball left. I don’t know if it was shown on the box but about 20 minutes into the match our Chilean and the boy from Longsight M16 had a noisy shouting and pointing stand off after yet another breakdown.

Second half we notched up a gear in the quality of our passing and the speed of movement. The opposition started to show signs of fraying, with missed tackles, clumsy half clearances, corner after corner, and the clearest indication that they were about to crack……

And so they did, Sanchez leaping like an angry salmon between two large haddock to put away one of the best crosses of the afternoon.

And with blood in the water ( I shall stay with the fishy theme) we circled and struck again at the helpless victim, and again………., and but for an exceptional save from Heaton and the intercession of frame of the goal our German Shark would have pushed the score line towards the 5-0 result that reflected the disparity between the teams on and the clubs off the pitch. Still that would be greedy and it does not harm to throw the little ones back. ( OK that’s it, no more fish)

The reception that Theo received was good to hear and I got the impression he was genuinely touched by it. The game was won but he ran around with confidence and a bit of style. Good to see. No other injuries I saw yesterday although Mikel looked a bit tired and stiff as he went off.

Good support from the visitors who spent most of the afternoon singing “In our Lancashire Homes”. George Formby had a better song for Arsenal fans yesterday though “It’s Turned Out Nice Again”.

Toodle Pip

Below is a post made by an unknown Tottenham fan on an unknown Santi Carzola fanpage. His understanding should put many Arsenal fans to shame. Sadly it wont because the ones who should read it wont bother.

“I’m as big a Tottenham fan as you’ll meet, but I can’t help feeling that if you hate Arsenal then you don’t really like football…

Football rivalries, when embraced by the wrong people, can be one of the world’s most depressing sights. I’m as big a Tottenham Hotspur fan as you’ll meet, but when I was at Wembley last year and sat behind four coked up-up, middle-aged, Stone Island clad monkeys who spent the entire game screaming at the Chelsea fans sitting 500 off metres away, punctuating every other sentence with a ‘f***ing blue c**t’, despite the presence of kids all around, I was embarrassed to say they supported the same team as me. This wasn’t because I’m a prude, or a fair weather supporter, but because no amount of footballing rivalry justifies being an awful, xenophobic human being.

Whether or not this makes me well placed to writing a guide to Arsenal I’m not sure, but I am sure of one thing that has made many Spurs fans crow in anger.

I like Arsenal.

I like the football they play, I like the way they do their business, I like (most of) the players they buy, I like their fans more than most teams fans. I even quite like Wenger. This isn’t to say that I don’t get an extra buzz out of beating them on derby day, but that’s more because of the atmosphere at those games than any heightened personal antagonism towards them as a club. In real terms, it’s now much more exciting to beat a City or a Chelsea than an Arsenal. These are the real glorious wins- David, Goliath and all that- not beating a club who, in essence, encapsulate everything we aspire to be.

Despite operating well within their relatively-paltry means, there is a large contingent of Arsenal supporter who go up in arms and demand a new striker every time one of their strikers misses a couple of chances and that’s not to say their point of view is not understandable,especially when you consider that the most expensive low cost season ticket, priced at £1,014, but this price is surely reflective of a couple of major factors: not least that they’ve got a massive great stadium to pay off. Other than that there’s also Arsenal’s geographical location to take into account, and the profile of their average supporter; Islington is just down the road, they’re a stone’s throw from Finsbury Park and King’s Cross. These are affluent areas full of (reasonably) comfortable people.

As a Spurs fan who sweated through the grey 90s, I’ve started to come to think of us Spurs fans as being spoilt. In recent years I came to expect glorious comebacks and Gareth Bale hat-tricks. Therefore, it’s understandable that when you are an Arsenal supporter who experienced the Invincibles, it must be hard to recalibrate your expectations, especially when you know you have money on the bank. But what Arsenal are doing is behaving the way that the rest of the world should. And with even more financial fair play regulations about to come in, it seems that eventually the rest of the world will catch up with them, except by then Arsenal will be two steps ahead.

Whether or not Wenger will still be at the helm them is another question altogether. In real terms the man should have enough credit in the bank to stay for as long as he can walk, especially with the future looking promising and the potential levelling of the financial playing field. But are they happy to put up with perhaps yet another year without a trophy? It seems nonsensical to talk about getting rid of someone when all they’ve done is continue to make you competitive in a world that is doing everything in its power to make you uncompetitive, but you sense it might be one season too far.

Regardless, I gave up the ghost on hating Wenger years ago. Without him the Premier League would have been a much sadder place, and United would have had a lot more titles: His three title winning teams, unbeaten seasons, the development of Thierry Henry and later Robin Van Persie into possibly the two best (certainly the classiest) strikers the Premier League has seen, the continual (occasionally misplaced) dedication to youth, the refusal to compromise principles of football as entertainment, the 80 odd minutes in the Stade de France where it looked like Lehmann might somehow emerge forgiven and victorious, that Adams goal. These are all moments and instances that any fan of football should revel in, regardless of geographical rivalry.

One final note: The chants of ‘stand up if you hate Arsenal’ are now much less regular at Spurs and this has been in direct correlation with us (almost) catching them up. I always thought it was a inane one at the best of times, but when it used to get chanted at teams other than Arsenal it was another time that I felt Spurs fans didn’t do themselves justice. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to get myself a ticket at Ashburton Grove any time soon, but I can’t help but think that if you hate Arsenal then you don’t really like football. ‪”

A guest post from Tim @foreverheady

A few random thoughts about where we are: mainly talking to myself, but thought I would share them.

We are out of form because our collective timing is out of key: miss-hit passes that fail to find their mark have been replaced with passes which though accurate are delivered slowly because each player is too anxious to get it right. The handbrake is on because all drivers are too careful, and when passes do arrive the opportunities have gone. Repeat ad nauseam until all the opposition is behind the ball, and there is literally nowhere to go. Add to this mix anxious players not wanting to excite the opprobrium of crowd, pundits, team mates or manager and you have no one willing to make themselves available to break the deadlock until they are absolutely certain that the goal is open – by which time it isn’t any more.

Ramsey and Ozil have yet to fully recover from the hamstring injuries they suffered last year and their play this season (and during the World Cup) has been typical. It is a major explosive muscle and perhaps more than anything affects a player’s confidence to run at full pace: psychologically you hold something back. As a result, both players who often float effortlessly past players have not been doing so: killer pace is gone and with it the space they normally make for themselves. As arguably the two key players in last season’s run of form that saw Arsenal top of the league for an extended period, it is no wonder that the whole side has suffered. It is not coincidental that both players have succumbed to further injury this season in their attempt to force themselves back to their best.

Which brings us on to the whole injury and unavailability issue. If I were to pick my best 16 players from the current squad I would choose: Szczesny, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Arteta, Gibbs, Ramsey, Wilshere, Ozil, Walcott, Sanchez, Cazorla, Welbeck, Giroud, Chambers, Gnabry. Of that 16, eleven have been unavailable for at least three matches since the start of the season, many for considerably more.  It is a massive testimony to the strength of the squad, the resilience of the players and the ingenuity and tactical acumen of the manager to have reached this stage of the season in such reasonable shape: 5^th place in the table but poised to mount a proper challenge, qualification to the final 16 of the Champions League all but assured. The reasons for such a potentially crippling series of unfortunate injuries is unclear: the pitch, lack of rotation, training methods and the strength of our players have all been under scrutiny, as have the unwanted attentions of opposition players, seemingly given carte blanche, as opposed to carte jaune or rouge, by the referees to do as they please. Whether it is some or all of these things together remains open to debate, but the fact remains that any appraisal of Arsenal’s current form or lack of it that seeks to underplay the effect of injury is probably not worth considering.

If opposition players seem legitimised to dish out rough treatment to The Arsenal, then it is worth thinking about the role of the men in black. Long story short rotational fouling seems to go unpunished, career threatening tackles waived away as just part of the English game, yellow cards dished out easily to The Arsenal, cardless tickings-off the norm for the rest. Penalties for? Not often, but in fairness not often against either. There are better bloggers than me with statistics to hand to prove or disprove institutional bias against The Arsenal, but already there have been too many game-changing decisions that have gone against us for it not to be discounted in any discussion about the side’s current position. Just for once I would like to see some of our more vocal critics acknowledge that refereeing does play a significant part in a side’s form – and it would, of course, do wonders for the integrity of the game as a whole if there were to be a proper and transparent investigation into the performance of the referees over the season as a whole.

The manager of course must come under some scrutiny when assessing a side’s form, and it would be strange not to wonder whether the team selection is always correct, whether substitutions are used to the best effect, whether game preparation is as scientific and assiduous as it might be, whether some times our tactics are too offensively minded. But it is also worth remembering that getting your tactics right often means second guessing your opponent, of successfully predicting an outcome to a future event – and then using your available resources to the best effect. Passing the ball sideways and maintaining possession goallessly for 70 minutes, but in the process tiring out the opposition before exploiting gaps and scoring two in the last 20 is just as much a legitimate tactic as conceding possession, parking the bus and then hoping to score on the counter. To my untrained eye we have tried both those tactics in our two Champions League away games this season: one worked, one didn’t – but in both cases the margins between success and failure were slim. I think it is reasonable to say that managers will also have runs of form, times when every decision seems to bear fruit, others where however carefully thought out the plan the cards just don’t fall right. With so many players unavailable due to injury many of the manager’s options have been denied, and the lack of tactical reinforcements coming off the bench has cost us more than many appreciate. I happen to think that our manager gets it right far more often than most – but that strangely when he does it is seen as nothing to do with him.

Do we always buy the right players, and does the manager have his finger on the market’s pulse these days? Not every purchase is a success, but I like to think that in recent years we have been more hit than miss, especially now as there is a little more money available to spend: quite a lot more, in fact, but still not as much as the three UK clubs we hope to compete with. The cry goes out that we are too full of small skilful players, but perhaps the truth is that these days big skilful players are out of most clubs’ price range – and that a decision was made a few years ago that small and skilful will still beat big and unskilled more often than not. It is also hard to have top, top quality players content to act as understudies for any length of time, which perhaps explains why our current shortage in defence was always intended to be covered by younger players like Chambers, Bellerin and Hayden: there are only so many injuries that can be planned and paid for, after all. Do we need more players in January then? Probably, given the way things have turned out. I like to think that we were chasing a specific target all summer who would have given us a bit more physical and skilful presence, but for reasons I do not know he was not available, and there wasn’t time or inclination to go with a plan B at the last minute. I think that plan B will have been identified now and that we also might need another defender too, given the injuries to both first-choice full backs and to a central defender too. Will the signings happen? Only if the right players are available at a price we want to afford and whose wages will sit comfortably with our current structure. As ever, we will probably be the last to know who we are going for, although the papers already tell me that signings are as good as done. I shan’t hold my breath, mainly because I feel certain that should key players return to fitness we will find that the squad is a lot, lot better than it is currently given credit for.

Are most fans happy with the way things are going? Not if you read Twitter or listen to the louder pundits, but empty vessels often make the most noise and The Emirates still seems fuller than most grounds every week. I think most are unwavering in their support, but inevitably have their views coloured by results and pundits. Weekends like this last one do help of course: suddenly a pedestrian away win against Sunderland doesn’t seem too bad in the light of other results, especially as it has seen a movement up the table. Tottenham slipped badly, as did City.  Liverpool continued to misfire and Chelsea suddenly looked all too vincible when key men were unavailable and cards were correctly given.  Perhaps it is dawning on a few that the season is anything but a forlorn hope for The Arsenal after all, and that is certainly how it looks to me. There are important matches coming up, but at last the players and management have a week to rest and prepare properly, with no distractions from International breaks, European travel or essentially meaningless cups. I hope they use it wisely and if they are half the players I think they are I am sure they will.

A guest post from Tim @foreverheady

A few random thoughts about where we are: mainly talking to myself, but thought I would share them.

We are out of form because our collective timing is out of key: miss-hit passes that fail to find their mark have been replaced with passes which though accurate are delivered slowly because each player is too anxious to get it right. The handbrake is on because all drivers are too careful, and when passes do arrive the opportunities have gone. Repeat ad nauseam until all the opposition is behind the ball, and there is literally nowhere to go. Add to this mix anxious players not wanting to excite the opprobrium of crowd, pundits, team mates or manager and you have no one willing to make themselves available to break the deadlock until they are absolutely certain that the goal is open – by which time it isn’t any more.

Ramsey and Ozil have yet to fully recover from the hamstring injuries they suffered last year and their play this season (and during the World Cup) has been typical. It is a major explosive muscle and perhaps more than anything affects a player’s confidence to run at full pace: psychologically you hold something back. As a result, both players who often float effortlessly past players have not been doing so: killer pace is gone and with it the space they normally make for themselves. As arguably the two key players in last season’s run of form that saw Arsenal top of the league for an extended period, it is no wonder that the whole side has suffered. It is not coincidental that both players have succumbed to further injury this season in their attempt to force themselves back to their best.

Which brings us on to the whole injury and unavailability issue. If I were to pick my best 16 players from the current squad I would choose: Szczesny, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Arteta, Gibbs, Ramsey, Wilshere, Ozil, Walcott, Sanchez, Cazorla, Welbeck, Giroud, Chambers, Gnabry. Of that 16, eleven have been unavailable for at least three matches since the start of the season, many for considerably more.  It is a massive testimony to the strength of the squad, the resilience of the players and the ingenuity and tactical acumen of the manager to have reached this stage of the season in such reasonable shape: 5^th place in the table but poised to mount a proper challenge, qualification to the final 16 of the Champions League all but assured. The reasons for such a potentially crippling series of unfortunate injuries is unclear: the pitch, lack of rotation, training methods and the strength of our players have all been under scrutiny, as have the unwanted attentions of opposition players, seemingly given carte blanche, as opposed to carte jaune or rouge, by the referees to do as they please. Whether it is some or all of these things together remains open to debate, but the fact remains that any appraisal of Arsenal’s current form or lack of it that seeks to underplay the effect of injury is probably not worth considering.

If opposition players seem legitimised to dish out rough treatment to The Arsenal, then it is worth thinking about the role of the men in black. Long story short rotational fouling seems to go unpunished, career threatening tackles waived away as just part of the English game, yellow cards dished out easily to The Arsenal, cardless tickings-off the norm for the rest. Penalties for? Not often, but in fairness not often against either. There are better bloggers than me with statistics to hand to prove or disprove institutional bias against The Arsenal, but already there have been too many game-changing decisions that have gone against us for it not to be discounted in any discussion about the side’s current position. Just for once I would like to see some of our more vocal critics acknowledge that refereeing does play a significant part in a side’s form – and it would, of course, do wonders for the integrity of the game as a whole if there were to be a proper and transparent investigation into the performance of the referees over the season as a whole.

The manager of course must come under some scrutiny when assessing a side’s form, and it would be strange not to wonder whether the team selection is always correct, whether substitutions are used to the best effect, whether game preparation is as scientific and assiduous as it might be, whether some times our tactics are too offensively minded. But it is also worth remembering that getting your tactics right often means second guessing your opponent, of successfully predicting an outcome to a future event – and then using your available resources to the best effect. Passing the ball sideways and maintaining possession goallessly for 70 minutes, but in the process tiring out the opposition before exploiting gaps and scoring two in the last 20 is just as much a legitimate tactic as conceding possession, parking the bus and then hoping to score on the counter. To my untrained eye we have tried both those tactics in our two Champions League away games this season: one worked, one didn’t – but in both cases the margins between success and failure were slim. I think it is reasonable to say that managers will also have runs of form, times when every decision seems to bear fruit, others where however carefully thought out the plan the cards just don’t fall right. With so many players unavailable due to injury many of the manager’s options have been denied, and the lack of tactical reinforcements coming off the bench has cost us more than many appreciate. I happen to think that our manager gets it right far more often than most – but that strangely when he does it is seen as nothing to do with him.

Do we always buy the right players, and does the manager have his finger on the market’s pulse these days? Not every purchase is a success, but I like to think that in recent years we have been more hit than miss, especially now as there is a little more money available to spend: quite a lot more, in fact, but still not as much as the three UK clubs we hope to compete with. The cry goes out that we are too full of small skilful players, but perhaps the truth is that these days big skilful players are out of most clubs’ price range – and that a decision was made a few years ago that small and skilful will still beat big and unskilled more often than not. It is also hard to have top, top quality players content to act as understudies for any length of time, which perhaps explains why our current shortage in defence was always intended to be covered by younger players like Chambers, Bellerin and Hayden: there are only so many injuries that can be planned and paid for, after all. Do we need more players in January then? Probably, given the way things have turned out. I like to think that we were chasing a specific target all summer who would have given us a bit more physical and skilful presence, but for reasons I do not know he was not available, and there wasn’t time or inclination to go with a plan B at the last minute. I think that plan B will have been identified now and that we also might need another defender too, given the injuries to both first-choice full backs and to a central defender too. Will the signings happen? Only if the right players are available at a price we want to afford and whose wages will sit comfortably with our current structure. As ever, we will probably be the last to know who we are going for, although the papers already tell me that signings are as good as done. I shan’t hold my breath, mainly because I feel certain that should key players return to fitness we will find that the squad is a lot, lot better than it is currently given credit for.

Are most fans happy with the way things are going? Not if you read Twitter or listen to the louder pundits, but empty vessels often make the most noise and The Emirates still seems fuller than most grounds every week. I think most are unwavering in their support, but inevitably have their views