Good morning Positive Arsenal,

A third straight win despite a number of changes in the starting line up, tiredness among the players and dogged opponents hell bent on leaving with a point. Perhaps the most striking point of the evening was Leicester’s approach. League champions last season, their trophy deserved, and dangerous opponents on their last visit to the Ems. This season an entirely negative, nine men at the back all evening, barely willing to move the ball over the half way line. Even Vardy seemed half hearted. Just one serious effort on goal (and an excellent save from Cech required). Was this mob really standing toe to toe with Athletico Madrid in the QF on the Champions League last week ? Entirely fitting that they should be undone by an own goal.

With regard to the Arsenal starting line-up it raised a few eyebrows, mine included. As I said yesterday we have a strong squad so changing players in itself was not unexpected after the hard afternoon at Wembley but Nacho as a third centre back, Gibbs as a wingback, Theo in from the cold, and no start for Danny or Larry ? I admit those selections puzzled me.

I heard someone say that maybe Arsene was using the game to assess those players whose future at the club after the Summer is in doubt. Speculative given the importance of the game to our final PL position but not entirely implausible.

Of the game itself we played “alright” in the first half. We had a lot of possession, stood up to the Foxes’ aggression, and moved the ball well to the edge of the visitors’ box. Beyond that point we seemed to seize up. Our attackers seemed reluctant to run at opponents into their penalty area with the ball. The ball was passed sideways and backwards across the final third. Corner came and went. We rarely had more than one player actually in the box to inflect any damage from open play. Sanchez dropped deeper and deeper to evade the Leicester centre backs. Theo flickered in and out to no obvious effect. It was only in the final 10 minutes of the first half that Mesut came to life. We never seemed to pull Leicester apart and we did not look like scoring.

As is our usual approach second half we stepped up our efforts after half time  but it was not until the full complement of substitutes were on after 75 minutes that Arsenal began to crack the Leicester shell. Huth and Benalouane, having enjoyed an easy night swatting Sanchez away like an annoying bluebottle all night, suddenly faced the muscle of Giroud. Sanchez and Danny concentrated on the wings, and Aaron played further forward than le Coq. When Kosc went down writhing I had a bad moment but, much to everyone’s surprise, he was back up and playing within a couple of minutes. We became urgent in our efforts. The volume in the ground went up.

The pressure built, the Leicester defending became more ragged, for the first time all evening their defenders were being drawn out of position and gaps were opening. The goal when it came was scruffy, two deflections and no chance for the keeper.

After that decisive goal a strange few minutes. The referee and Sanchez both seemed to lose their heads for no obvious reason. What had been a fairly mild contest degenerated into a fracas with Cech and Schmeichel both leaving their goals to get involved in a row. Cech, to his credit, was telling Sanchez to control himself. Fuchs was already on a card and an idiot for slinging the ball at Alexis. The Austrian should have been off. Alexis, sore lip or not, should not have flung himself down. More concerning immediately after that incident Sanchez crashed into another Leicester player (Drinkwater ? ) in front of Arsene’s technical area and went down clutching his face again, for no obvious reason. If Jones has seen what I had seen then we would have been one Chilean short on Sunday for the NLD. The man had lost it. We all like a bit of passion and fight but even so …….I shall put it down to his exhaustion after two testing games in four  days.

Very much a difficult job completed successfully. Three points nearer the opposition and the Manchester derby tonight to add a little more incentive to our chase. Fingers cross for the Ox and for Kosc this weekend and that they are both fit.

Enjoy Thursday.

Good evening Positive people.

What an afternoon!! It is games like this that remind me why I find it so easy to love football. An excellent contest between two attacking teams, decided by the narrowest of margins. We matched and bettered City in every department, including being “professional” in our conduct, and misconduct, on the pitch. I am delighted that we have earned a place in the FA Cup Final. Fair to say that in the first 45, our sky blue opponents held the initiative. After half time however the force was with us. They were rattled, they cracked. Nevertheless I genuinely extend my sympathy to City and their entourage who missed out after 120 minutes of impressive struggle.

I hardly need to mention to anyone reading this piece that the victory was not easy. Good grief no, and the tension was notching up since our win at the Riverside.

I asked (pleaded is more accurate) earlier today that Arsenal did no more than play to their “ full potential” in the semi-final.  That our players would strain every sinew and shed their last drop of sweat at Wembley between 3 and 5-ish would have been enough for me.  The result could take care of itself, win or lose, for today the draw was never the option. I enter these transactional arrangements with the cosmos when I am in footballing doubt, in the same way I often become religious at 3 a.m.

And in the past six days there has been ‘doubt’ in my Arsenal soul, there is no use my denying it.

I admit I have made this contract with FOOTBALLING FATE before, and in recent seasons I have felt that the goddess has treated me cruelly, dealing me neither satisfaction in the team’s unstinting effort, nor the advantage of an occasional lucky result. It is a large pitch, and the biggest stage. And Wembley is no place to be humiliated, for Arsenal Football Club, its players or managers or fans. If I was feeling hesitant in the run-up to the match I found no solace in the dismissal of Arsenal’s chances to beat City by pundit after pundit after pundit.  I know the vast majority of the Mersons, the Ferdinands and the Jenases are idiots, but could it be that every single one of them was wrong?

Well the pundits were, to a man, wrong.  My doubt was wholly misplaced.

On this day I saw our players put in a performance over 120 minutes that is among the finest I have seen over 50 years.  I saw a highly organised defensive performance in which Holding and Kosc never put a foot wrong.  As for Gabriel we saw not just what a ruthless practitioner of ball winning he is, but he is a reader of the game. Never out of position, never needed to dive in. Rarely has such subtlety been wrapped around cold-blooded intervention. Poor Silva.

As for our Man of the Match, the Ox, the 23 year old performed as the most assured man on the pitch. He was tasked with helping Gabby subdue City’s most pointed weapon Sane and he did a solid job. Sane is no mug so to keep him off the score sheet and deny him any clear shooting opportunities all afternoon is as good as it gets.  Going forward however Alex really did his best work in my opinion. He runs fast, straight and with the ball at his feet. Very few players do that any more. His transformation since that dreadful night in Munich in mid-February is remarkable.

And who told Nacho he could score goals like that with his right foot – or his left foot even? Our Chilean grabbed the decider.  Nothing spectacular about the finish by Sanchez’s standards.  The right man, on the right spot, at exactly the right moment.

Of our other lads, Aaron, Granit, Larry, Mesut, Danny, and Cech, I am sure you will have better words to cover their contributions.  As I say they all played to their full potential today.

I am about to slope off for some refreshment.

I deserve it.

Enjoy the evening.

And a good Tuesday morning to the Positive Arsenal fans,

Interesting game last night. A change of “formation” but not really much difference in the set up the side as we had the ball or when we defended as far as I could see. Defenders defended, midfield players did their box to box running, tackling and passing thing, wingers ‘winged’, mostly. Not quite sure about the striker but I will come back to that.

I thought, as I see many others did, the Ox was our stand-out player on Teesside. A genuinely dynamic influence in quickly pushing forward, ball at his feet and taking the Boro full back on, even getting his crosses in from the bye line (!). When young Alex was called on to defend while he was not elegant he was always where he should be, with his head, foot or other body part thwarting the home side’s efforts. I am sure we all shed a tear when Ox’s entirely accidental damaging of Fabio in the 17^th minute saw the Brazilian limp off. So unlucky, yet so unusual it is one of theirs rather than one of ours. AOC is just 23 years old but the post match speech he delivered was the footballing equivalent of the Gettysburg Address compared to the vast majority of claptrap spouted by footballers. This young man has a future far beyond the green square.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtCRIbWT7bU

Other good performances from Mesut, from Granit and from the current boo boys target Alexis.

Remarkable that some sad anorak wearing tosser spends their time counting the number of misplaced or intercepted passes that our players manage, then posts it on the internet for the mob to beat the worst “culprit” with. Hang, him. Sell him. He’s shit. Blah blah blah. I remember when the PA ethos was to support every player, through thick and thin. Aye happy days they were.

Rob Holding was rather good too. Not an easy task fitting into a new formation, on a wet and windy Monday night but the youngster performed more smoothly than a badger’s codpiece. Never jumped in, never flustered.

The one puzzle last night, and it has been a puzzle for the past few weeks was Giroud, and if not Olivier, Danny. We just do not seem to have strikers who are involved in the game. Are they not getting the ball ? Are they not getting the support ? Or are they getting enough ball and support but just not using it properly ? Earlier in the season OG was terrifying defences, physically dominating them, shooting, hitting the target with his head. Recently not. Arsene has some serious thinking to do before Sunday.

Our opponents ? Not very good although I thought their goal was class. Perfect cross, poacher’s finish. They need a lot more of that, and probably a bit less reliance on the ‘set-piece’ wrestling match to clamber out of the bottom three. Traore is still a handful though – In the Boro relegation clear-out I would take him to the Ems.

So three points safely gathered in. Not a convincing but enough quality shown by us, wrapped in a little steel, to take the season forward again. Clearly Wembley will be a very different stage, but some of the good qualities the players – and the fans – demonstrated last night will ensure we set out with confidence on Sunday.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

*nice picture at the top from the Telegraph of a football team enjoying a goal.

A few words from @MuppetGunner

The wheels have come off the bus. Our main focus should be to take a step back from the hysteria and vitriol and try to analyse what is going wrong. I didn’t see the Liverpool game, but saw the Chelsea, West Brom and Crystal Palace games. In between those, the Watford defeat at home on a somewhat unreliable stream.

In the past we were able to point to either injuries and absentees, usually causing an imbalance in an area of the team. If 5 or 6 key players were missing, it was understandable why there was a home or away defeat. Our best players would return, and consistency would be restored. Yes, in the last 13 years it was a top 4 kind of consistency, but I suspect that would be welcome now. What is happening now is difficult to fathom. The naysayers will say this was always on the cards. However, it is surprising to me that after bolstering the squad with the £84 million spend in the summer, we are currently in 7th. We have come 3rd or 4th with savagely derided players, including Bendtner, Denilson, Flamini. We add Mustafi, Xhaka and Lucas, and we appear to have gone backwards.

To consider the new players, it cannot be Lucas that is the problem, as he has hardly played. Xhaka and Mustafi? Could it be that these 2 have weakened the team significantly? It is interesting that when we had an 18 match unbeaten run before Xmas, the fans were purring – Xhaka was the next Petit or Vieira, depending on who you read, and Mustafi was a class acquisition. After the injury to Mustafi, the turning point was in the 1st game he was absent, the 2-1 defeat at Everton, which would seem to point to a need for the player. But in recent matches, there have been fingers pointed.

Could it be more down to the overall squad? It is worth pointing out that around Xmas time fans were generally positive. Usually, prior to the January transfer window, there are demands for new signings. Apart from one or two blogs, these calls were quiet. The 18 match unbeaten run and new players from the summer pointed to general optimism. We were well stocked in all positions, particularly in attack. One significant absentee though, was Santi Cazorla, his last game on October 19th. The absence of Cazorla since late January has been plain to see. A Wengerball continuity player, who excels in tight spaces, is effective in defence, and is able to link well to Ozil and Sanchez. In his absence, our midfield has suffered. Too slow at times, caught out at Watford and at Liverpool and Chelsea largely bypassed.

So given the optimism about the squad, in Cazorla’s absence we should have been able to turn to others – Ox, Ramsey, Xhaka, Coquelin and El Nenny. It is here that we have to pause for thought. How many of these players fit the traditional mould of a Wengerball midfielder, who is able to accelerate at defences and operate in tight spaces? I think maybe Ox, and maybe Ramsey, but Xhaka, Coquelin and El Nenny have different attributes.

Xhaka is a good distributor of the ball, but has suffered particularly in the absence of Cazorla. He has been partnered by Coquelin, Ramsey and El Nenny, but there is still uncertainty about who his regular partner should be.

Ramsey has a great engine, but has had injury problems this season and has been inconsistent.

El Nenny is a good continuity player, but seems to lack cutting edge at the highest level to be an attacking threat. But he offers reasonable defensive solidity.

Ox can take on players, but despite some good performances, has not been able to cement a place in centre midfield, as seen by the recent inclusion of Xhaka and El Nenny. Overall, none of these are yet to compensate for Cazorla, and we miss Wilshere and Rosicky as well, for these players would be more suitable replacements to partner Xhaka. Ox and Ramsey would probably be the best partners out of the previous crop, but it just hasn’t worked out so far. Ramsey has made just 7 starts, with 14 overall appearances. This is frustrating, as we could have done with the reprisal of his partnership with Arteta in 2014, this time with Xhaka.

The midfield imbalance leads us to a team that is largely unrecognisable to any of the great teams Wenger has created in the past. We have seen Ozil drop deeper, for example in the West Ham game, to make a 4-3-3, and some see this as a way of patching up the disparity of the no 6 and no 8.

Going back to Xhaka and Mustafi, if they are in transition, we can almost say the same of Welbeck. He hasn’t really looked sharp since his return, and it looks like he needs matches to achieve a cutting edge. Monreal looks to have waned, and Bellerin seems to be suffering from an ankle injury sustained in January.

Given all of these issues, the imbalance in the midfield, the lack of consistency and underperformance of certain players, the inevitable conclusion amongst a section of fans is to scream “Wenger Out”. They see him as being the man who made the signings, and therefore should take responsibility and go. We haven’t made a serious title challenge in 13 years they say, and this is the last straw, with the Leicester title win pouring fuel on to the fire. I think this is where perspective is needed. We look to finish out of the top 4 for the first time in 20 years. To me, there is a lack of appreciation in some quarters that top 4 was achieved every year, particularly when our transfer budget in the wake of the stadium move was limited. Wenger overachieved many times during those years; in terms of wages, Wenger has only been below par twice in 20 years. History will judge this as a fantastic achievement, and in terms of longevity, it will be peerless. So why is it, that the moment Wenger is below par, all of those fans have deserted him?

The reason is of course that the coveted prize is the Premiership. In 13 years we have not made a really serious challenge. Yes, we finished 2nd last year and in 2004/5, but we were not close to winning it then, or in the intervening years. We know the history, we moved to the Emirates in 2006 and we were severely restricted in budget until the 2011/12 season. The purse strings were then loosened, and we started to spend. Since the recruitment of Mesut Ozil and since the 2013-2014 our net spend has been £216.4m. As an aside, incredibly, Wenger’s net spend from 1996 to 2013 was just £26.6m. How is it that Wenger was able to win two doubles, 4 FA Cups and go unbeaten with such a meagre net spend? Yet, in the period of 2013-2016, we have not mounted a serious challenge, but have won 2 FA Cups. Could it be that other clubs have distorted the market? For example, since Sheikh Mansour took over Man City in 2008, the club have a total net spend of more than £800m. We have surpassed Chelsea when it comes to net spend since 2013, but one has to take into account that they sold players for almost £300m. Manchester United’s net spend since 2013 is £377m, City’s is £408.8m. By any rational analysis, it is hard to see how we are expected to win the title based on these numbers. Statistically, there could be an argument, that we could be among one of 3 or 4 clubs, who would expect a title every 4 to 5 years, but when two clubs outspend us in the transfer by market by 2 to 1, and other clubs are able to attract players who previously would have come to us, I would not even expect to win a title in 10 years. That is not me personally mitigating our ambition, it is just a back of a cigarette packet assessment of our chances. There are 3 other clubs who outspend us by almost 2 to 1 in the transfer market. There is one other who are on par with us in terms of ambition – Liverpool, despite spending £800m on players in 25 years, have no premiership title and have suffered a similar fate to us in 13 years.

The naysayers that scream “Wenger Out” assume that another manager will do significantly better, and we will challenge. In my view that is a laughable assessment, unless there are serious incursions in the transfer market. What those fans are saying in fact, is they want a manager to significantly overachieve. Recent appointments of Klopp, Mourinho and Guardiola are showing that even with huge transfer spending (the latter 2), their clubs are not overachieving. Yes, Conte is a recent appointment and Chelsea are winning the league; but in my view a donkey could stand in the changing room and they would still be winning the league. The argument that a management change precedes a title win is disproved heavily by Liverpool.

The focus among other fans is to criticise the board and accuse them of profit making. They may have a point, but I don’t have the numbers to hand. Is the argument that the board are pocketing money that that we should be using for transfers ? Our cash reserves in 2016 were £226.5m. So if we spend that money that would leave us matching half the net spend of City since 2008.

I personally hope that Wenger will sign a 2 year extension. I have faith that he is the person best placed to fix some of the problems mentioned above, and that there are reasons for optimism. We have a core of some very good young players that I still believe in, and we don’t have to sell them, and we know that the current bad run cannot last forever.