From Goodplaya at the Emirates

The banner for Aaron Ramsey…
Looked great, (even if the man himself looked a tad post orgasm in his pose!) A house move limited me to just one post Stoke post and so I largely watched from afar as the whole furore unfolded. While I can understand (though not agree with) those who argue the tackle was not particularly bad, it does seem very strange that a player who has broken two legs and put Adebayor out for six weeks with a wretched off the pitch ankle rake by the age of just 22 does not see it necessary to at least reflect on his approach. I don’t blame Shawcross himself, more those who make such a lack of introspection apparently acceptable.

So, onto Burnley and was it was same old profligate Arsenal, then?
Well that would be the easy narrative. But while we were undoubtedly profligate, it’s hard to say that has exactly been a feature of our season. Go back and look at the dropped points and you can’t really argue we’ve been guilty of glaring misses.

The team line-up was…
The right one. For games like this Eboue over Sagna really is the right choice. Nasri likes playing centrally so was unfussed being moved into the middle and sorry to bang on about it again, but with the trickery and craft of Cesc, Nasri and Rosicky, Bendtner gave welcome height and Theo welcome pace.

The start was…
Far better I thought than some of the recent fare at the Emirates. To my mind we looked hungry and determined. And also a bit like we might end up having one of those days.

When the goal came…
Around 10,000 people were telling Nasri to shoot. He didn’t and instead chipped it for Cesc who slotted in number goal number 17 of a quite wonderful season.

Then he went off…
And we took a little time to readjust. But Abou Diaby (his replacement) has not had a bad game for quite a while and this was no exception.

Then in the second half we missed chances…
A lot of them.

The story with Bendtner was…
That when he missed his first couple of chances the typical Bendtner baiters got their usual cheap thrill, revelling in his failure to score. Seriously, there are people at the ground so full of self loathing for Arsenal it’s unbelievable. It’s as if they predicted failure at the start of the season and would rather be proved right than wrong.

But then…
The rest of us thought that actually those people could go f**k themselves and so the rest of us sang Bendtner’s name, he acknowledged the support and the idiots had lost. It’s one thing to let a player with a bad attitude know what you think of him but another to get on the back of someone simply having a nightmare day in front of goal. And anyway, in the back of my mind I kept thinking back to Stoke and just how crucial that equaliser was.

They equalised…
It was a bit of a weird one really. On the defence, two left footed centre-backs didn’t really work very well, though Vermaelen was generally excellent.

Then Theo…
Stepped up to the plate. Like Clichy, it either happens instinctively for Theo or it doesn’t happen. And as he set off on the run from which he scored, a little part of me thought that I fancied him to do something soon. And he did. Not just a beautiful finish, but exactly the kind of shot Jensen in the Burnley goal was always going to struggle to get down to. On Chris Waddle’s comments, I’d be an utter hypocrite were I to slam him for them. I’ve thought and pretty said at times that when not playing well Theo looks like he has something footballistically missing. Yesterday, he played very well, was impossible to live with and appeared to be lacking nothing brain wise.

And from then on…
We proceeded to miss countless more chances, before for the fourth time in three games, we netted in stoppage time. I’ve said it before and it’s never been more true that this is a team with great stamina. Almost a quarter of all our goals (23 out of 94) have come in either the five minutes before half-time or the last five minutes. Admittedly the statistics also show that the period 85-90 minutes is the five minutes when we are most susceptible to concede, though I believe I’m right in saying that other than the draw at AZ Alkmaar, none of those seven goals have been particularly crucial.

All in all…
It was exciting. It’s March and we’re still hunting the league title and that’s a nice feeling. People are realising we have a real chance and with that came a great deal of nervousness yesterday, both in the stands and on the pitch. People will say it wasn’t a great performance, but I saw a lot of good things. Crucially, I saw real desire, real hunger to make sure it didn’t turn into one of those days. That really pleased me.

And…
A couple of players showed signs they may be finding form at the right moment. Samir Nasri added to a couple of decent performances of late with his best for a long while. And Theo Walcott had as good a game as he’s had for a while. This is the time when the likes of them need to come good and make their name. You think back to 2002 and it was really in a 10 or so game run at this stage of the season that Freddie Ljungberg went from a flattering to deceive dribbler who spent half his life on the floor to the man who inspired thousands of red mohicans.

Add to that…
That we were able to call on Diaby, Eduardo and Arshavin from the bench suggested that just maybe our injuries are beginning to ease a little.

The thing about Arsenal this season…
Is that ours has not been your typical title tilt. Firstly, injuries have severely limited the number of players who can be said to have been consistently excellent, which is usually a sign of a team with title aspirations. I’d say Vermaelen, Gallas, Song and Cesc have been. Many others, including pretty much the entire attack, have missed significant chunks through injury.

The other thing…
Is that perhaps understandably, people can’t see past our results against United and Chelsea. I’ve argued before that far worse Arsenal teams than this one have taken far more points off United and Chelsea in a season and that in one sense there is almost something freaky that we should have lost all four games to them. As an example, the 06-07 team who amassed just seven more points than this team have with nine games to go beat United home and away.

But the point is that other than those results, we’ve been remarkably consistent. We’ve won 19 and drawn four of our other 25 games, which is 61 out of 75 points. And excluding the Chelsea and United games, the nearest we’ve had to a bad run has been drawing at West Ham, beating Spurs and Wolves and then losing at Sunderland. So two wins and a draw from four games. Of course you can’t exclude the United and Chelsea games but somewhere along the line you have to acknowledge that a team renowned for coming a cropper against the lesser lights has actually achieved great consistency.

And so now…
I think Europe will be tough. By which I mean I have a sense we might go out. The good news is I also had a sense Burnley would make it 2-2 yesterday.

And player ratings…
Almunia (6.5) was fine, Eboue (7) flew before the break but was more restrained after it, which is no criticism because Theo was seeing more than enough of it. Clichy (6.5) stuttered early on but had a good second half, Silvestre (6.5) didn’t do a whole lot wrong but nonetheless aged me around six months in 90 minutes in the usual fashion. Vermaelen (8) was awesome and in spite of being part of a defence that has shipped goals, is a worthy candidate for footballer of the year. If William Gallas could be made club captain after a year, then surely the armband could have gone the Verminator’s way when Cesc went off? Then again, he doesn’t really need it.

Denilson (6.5) was a mix. There were some nice passes and at the end he looked really committed to keeping the lead. But equally there were moments when he seemed to be passed too easily and before the Denilsonistas start having a go, I don’t think I’m the only one who thought that. Cesc (7) was fine and took his goal very well, Nasri (8) revelled in the central role, Diaby (7.5) offered great physical presence at times, Rosicky (7) oiled us nicely, Theo (8.5) ripped em to shreads, Bendtner (5.5) offered a lot but had a nightmare in front of goal, Arshavin (6.5) struggled to get into the swing of things before scoring and Eduardo (6.5) did fine.

Stoke City 1 Arsenal 3

The joys of moving house this weekend have left me denied both
technologically and time wise, hence the lateness of this report. I’m
going to go through it chronologically.

The team…
Was the right one really. While the goalkeeper and midfield more or less picked themselves, I was pleased to see Ramsey had kept out Denilson and in Nasri, Eboue and Bendtner we had the nice combination of trickery, pace and height I’ve been banging about for ages.

The Stoke goal…
Was so, so annoying. Not because I object to their throw in
techniques. Indeed I don’t think it overly sympathetic to our defence
to say the initial throw was a nightmare to defend and not
surprisingly ended up on a Stoke head. But it was what followed that
infuriated me. A man standing totally free, a yard out. Unforgivable.

It all made it…
Very difficult for a while. But we were patient and as we cranked up
the pressure, it became harder and harder for Stoke to maintain their
own very impressive high pressure game. And our improvement saw our
captain drop deep to collect a throw in and for just about the first
time in the game have space to cross. Great cross and a great header
from Bendtner. Terrific response.

From then on…
We really had a go and clearly wanted the three points. That said,
like the FA Cup encounter the game was nicely poised. But whereas on
that day I had Stoke 60-40 to score the winner, on Saturday I think
the odds were at least reserved.

Ramsey should have…
Had a penalty. I’m staggered by the way it has now become necessary
almost to assault the opponent before a referee gives a penalty
against you while at the same time the flimsiest of handballs can
elicit a spot-kick. Certainly, I thought the penalty we did get
yesterday was easily the softest of our three claims. The other two
(on Ramsey and Bendtner) looked nailed on.

And now we get to…
That horrible moment. First things first, best of luck to Aaron.

What about Shawcross?
His supporters will say he didn’t mean it. But frankly that’s the age
old trick of issuing a denial for something other than the real question. Of course he didn’t “mean” it.

The real question is…
Was it just a complete fluke? Well, the first thing I think worth
noting is Shawcross’ (I’m almost certain it was he) reaction in the
first half when he was pretty cleanly tackled by Cesc. Shawcross went
properly mad about it in the frankly embarrassing way some of our
players do occasionally when they’ve been legitimately dispossessed. I just couldn’t fathom frankly what on earth he was so wound up about.

And I mention that because perhaps it offers us some insight into his
psyche at the time of the Ramsey challenge. A cool, in control,
customer he certainly didn’t appear to be earlier in the game.

Stoke are actually…
Not a dirty team and have never been dirty against us to the best of
my recollection. And nor do I think they set out to be dirty on
Saturday.

But these questions need answering:
Why, every time a player gets a really bad injury, do the pundits
decide it’s an accident? When was the last time an agreed really bad
tackle caused that kind of damage? Are we focusing on the wrong
incidents? Why has the club who notoriously ‘don’t like it up em’ seem
to have suffered these injuries disproportionately.

On which note, it’s not three incidents…
Everybody has been citing the Diaby and Eduardo incidents alongside
the Ramsey one, but less we forget one of our other great British
hopes is currently out long term. Kieran Gibbs did not have his leg
broken in the same way, but was nonetheless the victim of a quite
ridiculous tackle from a Standard Liege player that has put him out for many, many months.

My own view…
Is that football needs to ask itself why so many Arsenal players seem
to fall victim to these injuries. Is it really a fluke? Or is it that
getting in amongst Arsenal has become such a norm in the game that
these things are happening?

It began with the indulgence of Allardyce…
Bolton used to (and still sometimes do) try to kick Arsenal off the
pitch. They were frequently well out of order and very dangerous and
yet they were lauded for it. Guys like Martin Taylor and Shawcross are
not sent out to injure like Allardyce used to tell his charges to. But
they are the products of an era that says “it’s good to get in Arsenal’s faces.”

On which note…
Why do I never read how it is now well over a year and well over 60
games since Emmanuel Eboue was sent-off at White Hart Lane, our last red card.

For Arsene however…
There is a danger in reacting too strongly. While my hunch is that our
run of injuries is no accident, it is true that sometimes these
injuries can be flukes. So I just fear for the Arsenal player who one
day causes serious injury with a bad tackle. I’m not saying we’re a
dirty team for a second, but both Abou Diaby and Nicklas Bendtner have seen red for frankly very poor challenges that were totally out of
character. So irrespective of what previous Shawcross may have,
instead of victimising the perpetrator, I’d rather the whole issue
were looked at.

The scenario…
Was spookily similar to Birmingham two years previously. That was the
27th game of the season, Saturday was the 28th. It was weird watching it because a little bit of me felt guilty about caring about the game following the personal anguish we’d just witnessed. Another part of me felt that if any team knew how to handle such a strange situation, it was us.

As it happens…We didn’t play particularly well after the injury. You can hardly blame the players for that.

But then…
We got the penalty. You think back to St Andrews and the one we
conceded in the final minute and you’re reminded how fine the margins
are in football.

But from the moment the penalty was given…
We were very professional. On first glance it looked like Sorenson
would save the spot-kick. But seen again, you realised that to do so
was almost impossible. Cesc had put it in the part of the goal where
it’s essentially impossible to save. And then what little surprise it
was Thomas Vermaelen was there to bundle in a third.

Poor old Song…
Will miss two games for essentially being a defensive midfielder. I
thought he did nothing wrong for the yellow card, though I can
understand why the referee got it wrong. As one correspondent
mentioned, at least he made sure his man didn’t get past him. Take
note Denilson.

So…
Ten games to go and we’re three off Chelsea and two off United.
Despite usually being an arch pessimist, I’m in no way surprised that
we’re still in it. Around three weeks ago I was maintaining that even
defeat at Chelsea wouldn’t be the end and hell, I’ve been proved
right. I’m not saying and I’ve never said we will win it, but the
players deserve great credit for still being in it at this stage. On
Saturday they showed great bottle to recover firstly from going a goal
down and then from the sight of another team-mate having his leg
snapped in two.

As for the argument that we’re only up there because United and
Chelsea are weak, yawn frankly.

Everyone usually goes on about our feebleness against the smaller
sides. Well in 24 games against anyone other than our fellow title
challengers, I make it we’ve taken 58 points from a possible 72. Not
to shabby at all.

It would be equally logical to argue United and Chelsea are only still
in it because they were lucky enough to chance upon us at our very
worst this season. Had the current crop done as well against United
and Chelsea as last season’s fairly average team managed, we’d now be on 65 points, United would be on 55 and Chelsea on 58.

Which I think is proof, if any were needed that actually we haven’t so
badly thus far.

Arsenal 2 Sunderland 0
From Goodplaya at the Emirates

The team selection was notable for…
Ramsey ahead of Denilson and amen to that. Too often Arsene’s team selections and substitutions feel very hierarchical to me and it’s as if nobody ever really gets dropped. But on this occasion Arsene went for it and even more pleasingly, Ramsey wasn’t the default first player to be withdrawn. Indeed, he played the full 90 minutes and enjoyed a far better game than in the return fixture.

And also…
Eboue at right-back in exactly the kind of game he should start. His defending wasn’t at all bad, but Sunderland at home is the kind of afternoon where you can sacrifice the extra solidity Sagna brings in favour of the extra pace and power of Eboue. He really was excellent by any standards. Garrincha he may not quite yet be but as someone who couldn’t stand the sight of the man a year or so ago, I can only offer positives here. He simply drove at Sunderland and fittingly set up the opener for Bendtner.

Sunderland…
Played with three strikers, which was possibly a first for a visiting side at the Emirates.

Can anyone explain…
Their fans. They came in huge, almost cup tie numbers. They seemed to be continually fighting each other. Loads of them left their seats after 35 minutes and quite a few didn’t appear for the second half. What was going on?!

Silvestre v Sol…
The thing with Sol is that the bad moments simply induce a lot less stress on my heart than Silvestre’s do. Sol gets done for pace – fine, I can handle that. But every time a ball gets played over the top and Silvestre gives chase, I think I lose about three weeks off my lifespan. Seriously, my heart just leaps.

Our general approach…
Was quite good really. We had a balanced look about us, with height up front, pace on one wing, trickery on the other, an enforcer in midfield and a marauding full-back etc etc. And we were pretty disciplined throughout. We went for the second goal after the break without being cavalier.

Cesc…
Didn’t have his best game but still got us the penalty and scored it. His pumping of the fists to himself after scoring reminded me a little of the way I celebrate our goals and I liked that.

Alex Song…
Was excellent, particularly in the second half. He was in the right place time and time again.

Theo…
Had a bit of a nightmare at times, crowned by two crosses that should have curled but instead ballooned, the kind of skill most footballers learn age about 8. But then I guess Theo wasn’t playing football at 8. That said, he had a couple of good runs and the second he went off, we suddenly looked a lot less dangerous and Sunderland had a lot less to worry about.

Other than that…
There is not all that much to say. The United result was a reminder to all the pessimists that for all our failings against United and Chelsea this season, we’ve been more consistent than United and as consistent as Chelsea against the rest. And while this year people say you can’t win the league without beating your closest competitors, so in seasons gone by they’ve said you can’t win it unless you can win the bread and butter fixtures.

Next week at Stoke…
Is absolutely huge. It’s a real bellwether game. Lose it and it will be hard to see us pushing on. Win it and it’s go, go, go.

And finally…
The playa ratings: Almunia 7, Eboue 9, Clichy 7, Silvestre 6, Vermaelen 7, Song 7.5, Cesc 6.5, Ramsey 7, Nasri 7.5, Theo 6.5, Bendtner 7. Subs: Rosicky 6.5, Sagna, 6.5, Denilson NA.

WORK commitments interrupted my viewing of last night’s game so I’ll keep this short and sweet.

The cross/shot for the first goal…
Was the kind all keepers must hate. But even so, Fabianski had more than made up the ground and quite why he couldn’t divert the ball away from goal is beyond me. It is true that goalkeeping in general this season hasn’t been great, but I really think our lack of a top class one has cost us this season, which is a great shame.

The game…
Was hugely open but in a game where you’re the away side, that’s not always a bad thing. We fought back well and deserved our equaliser.

How can it be acceptable…
For penalty decisions such as the one on Rosicky to be given?

And if the pass back rule is for “deliberate” pass-backs…
What could possibly be deliberate about what Sol did? Should never have been a free-kick and the referee should never have been so proactive in helping Porto take it.

That said…
What were we doing. You can forgive the initial screw-up. But then the defenders should have been on their toes and Fabianski should have booted the ball downfield and just taken the booking. Unsporting, but hey.

We’re always told Diaby is not like Vieira…
But what is it about his current positioning that differs from the once great man? It’s a compliment by the way. He’s playing really well at the moment. Unlike Denilson.

And that’s yer lot. I’ve got to be back in at work very shortly.