Blogging on Arsenal since 2004

latest tweets

  • Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:44

    @Jay_A_ yes. can you email me at the following address(without the bits in caps) goodplayablogNOTTHISBIT@gmail.com and i will send details

  • Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:25

    Arsenal v Blackburn on Sat is sold out but I have a spare at £35 cost price. Near singing section. Row 5. Interested?

  • Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:28

    @submole look at my replies and you'll see I'm not the only one!

  • Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:26

    @ianlatham quite agree. is just unusual for me to take a less proArsenal view than the neutrals on tv so was curious what others thought

  • Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:23

    @BriggySmalls no quite.

This Arsenal weekend cuts to the chase

THIS is one of those weekends where you might learn a fair bit about our season.

Whereas reading too much into Liverpool (somewhere no team can go and expect to win) and Blackpool (a game where victory was essential) would have been unwise, Ewood Park could prove to be a true bellwether game.

Surrender, like we did in the same fixture a few months back during the “can’t be f***ed” phase and you worry that lessons haven’t been learned. Come through it with three points and it has been a very good start to the season.

It is, of course, simplistic to subscribe to the view that we are universally woeful away when the going gets tough: victory at Stoke last season was hardly an isolated event. But any added belief we can give ourselves will be no bad thing, not least for our captain, whose programme notes last week conspicuously did not devote a single word to what he thought our chances were this season.

When I look at the signing of Squillaci I really do wonder what exactly there is to argue about. Imagine we had signed Matthew Upson. I think we’d be reasonably happy. Well this guy is also third or fourth choice centre back for his national side but he is a year younger than Upson and has Champions League experience. I really am quite pleasantly pleased.

It means we have a genuine whiff of competition at the back. We have three guys who will all realistically think they should be filling one place and Vermaelen will know that while his place is secure, he certainly can’t become complacent.

On the keeper front, I’d dearly love to see someone arrive. Arsene protesting all of a sudden that he has four great keepers and all this talk is unfair on them seems a little rich!

But overall I’m impressed by his signings. For the first time in quite a few summers it does not feel as though the squad has been weakened.

Of course, the two new signings at the back are just that and we will have to see how they do. But it is great to have a proper complement of centre-backs. Four is enough frankly: a senior player who is happy as fifth choice at the back is rarely going to be much good anyway. Barring a season long injury, what should now happen is that the four centre-backs will exclusively fill the position, with the exception of maybe one or two games over the season where injuries and suspensions will coincide and Song will be asked to drop back. That’s no biggy.

And that is just about your lot.

More after the game tomorrow.

6 Responses to “This Arsenal weekend cuts to the chase”

  1. Sound a bad news buy anyway Arsenal will get through it.

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