Christmas wishes

Will he deliver what Arsenal want and need?

So here we are again, my annual Christmas Eve post - something I really don't want to miss out on writing. Thankfully I'm not working again until  31st December so I have a few minutes in which to get this down before handing my computer back to the kids to track Father Christmas on Norad. 

Given that there have been close to only half as many posts in the last 12 months there have been 67,000 (1.129 million since I started it) hits on the site in 2016 - that's significantly up, on average, compared to the last couple of years. Maybe the fewer postings has led to more people wanting to read something on a site they don't see too much of. Whatever the reason I am, as ever, delighted to see that anyone takes the time to read the nonsense I write. I've put out a couple of posts during the year in which I've explained the reasons for a decreased output and things will not change in 2017. The site is also part of the Highbury Library though posts getting on to the feed there are a bit hit and miss at the moment - I need to sort that if I can though I'm not remotely IT savvy.

Looking back at this time last year we were flying high in the table having just beaten Manchester City. This year we are probably feeling as though we're looking in the opposite direction having just lost to them. The fact is that it's not been a vintage year for Arsenal. We've had no trophy, obviously, but also the performances have been of a poor standard more often than not. The second half of last season was a car wreck for five months, lifted briefly by the win against Leicester and the last day capitulation of Spurs to make us runners-up in the Premier League once more. We then endured another typical summer transfer window, only to end up spending £70m+ but actually not making a star signing. Mustafi has played most out of the new signings but I'm still not convinced by him, while Xhaka is not the player we might have hoped and Lucas Perez hasn't been given his opportunity.

If I was picking my favourite moment from the year it has to be Danny Welbeck getting the winner against Leicester. The nature of the goal, coming in injury-time, sent the whole stadium in to pandemonium. Goals like that are the kind of things we live for as a football supporter. The noise, the people going mad, bodies flying everywhere, just amazing. At that point nobody cares about anything for a few seconds as football has lifted you to a different level of happiness. The lowest point was a week later at Old Trafford when Wenger and his players threw away the chance they'd given themselves by turning in the sort of performance that has become far too familiar in recent times.

My player of 2016 isn't easy to choose. The obvious person would be, I'm sure, Alexis but his form after Christmas last season was not good at all. So actually my player of 2016 for Arsenal is Laurent Koscielny. Given our lack of defensive nous that might seem a strange choice but, for me, without Koscielny we'd have been knackered well and truly. He has gone from strength to strength really and he is one of our most important players. If he was in a defence that was actually organised to play properly he would be considered as one of the finest central defenders in the game today.

All that remains now is for me to wish you all a very Happy Christmas. I hope Father Christmas delivers all that you want tonight and, for Arsenal, that things can change sufficiently both on and off the pitch for us to be where we should be with the players at our disposal. Have a great time.

Happy Christmas

Knowing our luck Ozil will sign a contract

I wouldn't blame him if he just kept walking

Top of the league to nine points adrift in eight days. Only Arsenal could do that. And they did. Two defeats, both having taken an early lead and been in a position to go on and put the game away. There was no spirit, no fight, no bottle, no desire - all with the notable exceptions of (for me) Alexis, Coquelin and Gabriel. There was one point in the second half yesterday where Alexis ran from one defender, to another, to another in order to close down high up the pitch. When the ball got shifted on to a fourth defender Ozil was stood no more than fifteen yards away, and there he stayed. Sanchez threw his arms up in frustration and disgust. Ozil then had the temerity to start waving his arms at everyone else behind him. 

I don't care how good Mesut Ozil is at football. He is lazy, cowardly, disinterested, frightened and refusing of responsibility. He makes Arshavin look like someone who gave 100% every week. I hope now more people are coming round to seeing the problem with Ozil as they have with Arsene Wenger. It is easy to realise, with the benefit of a few years hindsight, why Real Madrid didn't mind seeing the back of him. He currently has his agent getting Arsenal to bid for him to sign a new contract. I don't want to see him sign a new contract. I want to see him shown the door for as much money as we can rob from Paris St Germain (no German side would touch him) and get him out of the door as soon as possible. Maybe PSG might take him and Wenger as a job-lot.

Alexis was pictured towards the end yesterday crouching and looking beaten down. I don't think you needed to be a master of body-language to see what he felt. I don't know how any professional footballer possessing of just a little personal pride could watch that guy work his backside off all alone yesterday, yet not feel they should be doing the same. It was only when Coquelin would step forward doing likewise that he got any support. Walcott, Iwobi, Xhaka, Bellerin, Monreal, Ozil - where were they? If you were Alexis Sanchez and Real Madrid or Bayern Munich (or Manchester City or Chelsea) came in for you offering the big bucks, would you stay at Arsenal? He isn't a fan, he has no reason to be "loyal" when he sees his mates failing to back up his efforts against a team we are supposed to be rivalling for the Title this season. I wouldn't blame him at all if he left Arsenal.

Our players reaction to the Manchester City equaliser summed up their lack of passion. The goal was offside, simple as that. If Monreal was offside (which he was) for Iwobi's disallowed goal just before half-time then so was Sane for City's first. Yet there was no reaction from the Arsenal players. There was no proper offside appeal. And then when the goal was given there was not one outraged reaction towards the officials. Adams, Keown, Bould, Dixon and Winterburn would have first of all got the decision anyway because the linesman would have known from their arms being up that the guy was offside - make the decision for him as he clearly isn't capable of making it himself. And if by some unfortunate miracle he hadn't put his flag up then their reaction towards him and the referee would have made damn sure he put it up every time the opposition went forward from then on - not least for the second goal where the linesman could have no idea whether De Bruyne was in Cech's eyeline or not. And there's another thing, what was Monreal doing there? My eldest son is 11 and I hammer him for letting people in like that and not making a challenge, yet Monreal is an international full-back, apparently showing a dangerous striker on to the inside in the penalty area! Then Cech was beaten at his near-post having spent the whole game seemingly kicking for touch like a rugby fly-half.

At 1-1 Wenger and Bould just sat there. City were coming forward totally unchecked, just like Man Utd did until they scored at Old Trafford against us. It was as clear as day to anyone watching the game that change was needed. Giroud had to come on for Ozil to give us an outlet up front. Fine, change Iwobi for Oxlade-Chamberlain, but maybe Ox would have been better in place of Xhaka (albeit he went off injured just like at Sheffield Wednesday last year within minutes of coming on - if he didn't warm up properly again then he should also be heading towards the exit door). Then, when Ox went off at 2-1 down, with Lucas Perez on the bench, Wenger brought on the latter day Ray Wilkins in the shape of Elneny. Tactical genius to bring on a defensive midfielder when you're losing. And still we played with just one up front. Still, with Ozil playing the invisible man role we didn't exactly have 11 on the pitch anyway.

I suppose it sounds like I'm picking on Ozil and blaming him for yesterday. I'm not. I totally blame Wenger for it all. However, I expect a "star" player with the ability he has to take this kind of game and win it for us. Bergkamp, Henry, Pires, even Overmars or Vieira used to do just that. Even if Bergkamp was having a bad game you didn't really feel that he was hiding, and he certainly never came across as being scared on a football pitch. Ozil needs the Keown treatment in training that Henry got when he first arrived in order to toughen him up. It's too late for that now. It's also too late for our league season which has come to an abrupt end before we even reach Christmas. 

We shouldn't be that surprised by what has happened at Everton and Man City. First of all it's been happening to Wenger's bottlers for the last ten years. I hated it when the likes of Shearer and Neville banged on about our lack of "leaders" and how we were "flat track bullies". I hate it even more that they are right. Even the unbeaten run this season was pock-marked with awful results like the 0-0 at home to Middlesbrough in a game we should have lost, or lucky last minute goals to beat Burnley and Southampton. Like I say, why should anyone be surprised? With maybe four or five exceptions Arsenal's performances this season have been woeful. It's going to be this way for a long time to come. Even when Wenger finally goes it will take a new manager (and the next one won't get long enough to make the difference) years to clear out the awful mentality that pervades our pampered superstars. If only they all had grown up in a village in Chile where they had nothing - then maybe they'd understand why Alexis Sanchez and his effort is so well appreciated by the supporters. And yet there are still idiots out there singing about Mesut Ozil instead.

Beware the wounded Koeman

A repeat of this will do tonight

Last year at Christmas Arsenal travelled to Southampton who were in a terrible run of form. What followed was a four goal thrashing for our lot in a game that could have been double figures, we were that bad. Now tonight, twelve days from Christmas again, we face Ronald Koeman's new team Everton who are in a similar run that Saints were this time last year. We have to hope that Arsenal treat this fixture with a little more respect and commitment than we saw at St Mary's last Boxing Day. Our form going in to this game is also comparable to last year - we went to Southampton less than a week after beating Manchester City at home. Over the last ten days the team has put in three superb displays in beating West Ham, Basel and Stoke RFC. I don't like the omens ahead of tonight.

I've been a bit surprised by the lack of success Koeman has had so far at Goodison Park. Having said that, I was also surprised at how little was spent by Everton and their new owner back in the Summer. I think he will turn things round given the opportunity as he proved at Southampton he has the ability to get the best out of a very difficult situation. In Lukaku he has a player who can be unstoppable on his day, and can be a very "streaky" goalscorer in the mould of Kevin Campbell - the fact he scored on Saturday ought to have our defenders on their guard ahead of tonight.

Obviously Arsenal are missing Mustafi tonight following his injury at the weekend. Bellerin being back is a massive boost going towards the Christmas schedule, but Gabriel has never been truly convincing alongside Koscielny. I actually thought he did really well filling in for Bellerin, Debuchy and Jenkinson at full-back and maybe the confidence of a run in the side will serve him well as he will play a good few games in the next few weeks. I don't see too many other changes being made to the Arsenal team. We might see Gibbs come in for Monreal, I suppose, but there's really no point messing about too much given how well they played at the weekend - there is plenty of time between tonight and Sunday afternoon for recovery ahead of the trip to Manchester City.

Four points from the next two difficult matches, both away from home, has to be the realistic target. Winning at Everton would put us in a very decent position to achieve that aim. We have a decent record at Goodison Park, probably much better than most over recent years. There haven't been too many defeats up there, and a good few wins - some of them very convincing. Last season we went there straight after the Barcelona away defeat and put in one of our best performances of the season, with Iwobi and Welbeck to the fore. 

The fact is that Arsenal must go out there this evening and play on the front foot once again. Do our pressing high up the pitch and win the ball in the Everton half. We must put pressure on their midfield as Gareth Barry will not be able to handle that. This is an Everton team that is struggling and we must back them up towards their own penalty area as much as possible. Create that pressure and the chances will come. Then it's up to our front four to exploit that and get us the win. It could be a very big week in our Title challenge.

Arsenal swatting the dross, Avoid the published nonsense

These four were superb in Switzerland

It's been a really good week since we lost to Southampton in the League Cup. The performances at West Ham and Basel have been as good as anything we've seen from Arsenal all season. There's been movement, passing with a purpose, even shots at goal. What there has also been, particularly at West Ham, is pressing higher up the pitch. Winning the ball back in the opposition half, as Coquelin did for the opening goal on Saturday, makes the whole job of beating opponents so much easier. Over the last few years our best performances and results have all been when we've played our football at the right end of the pitch. If our centre-halves aren't seeing too much of the ball when Arsenal are in possession then it means the team is playing well. Five goals on Saturday and another four last night have made for a perfect few days on the road. The opposition haven't been up to much, it must be said, but that hasn't always been reflected by Arsenal hammering them. In the last two games they've got it right and we have to hope that, unlike after Chelsea and Basel a couple of months ago, they keep it up now and get the results in December that we need if we are to challenge at the top.

Winning our group in the Champions League was an added bonus last night. It was totally unexpected after the game at home to Paris St Germain and you have to give credit where it is due. At the start of the campaign the objective had to be to win the group and that's been achieved. If it means we still get unlucky enough to draw Bayern Munich or whoever then there's nothing we can do about that. And if you can't enjoy Arsenal winning 4-1 away from home in Europe then that's your problem.

The way the goals came last night was also very satisfying. A couple of tap-ins for Lucas Perez showed that he might have some of the poachers instinct, followed by a nice right-foot finish across the goalkeeper to give him his hat-trick. After a slow start in terms of his playing time, and coming back from an injury, he will surely get a real boost from scoring his goals. He now has five goals and two assists from his limited appearances for Arsenal, and the hat-trick last night came from playing out of position on the right-wing. The fourth goal, however, is the one that will live in the memory. Ozil made a superb run in behind the defence (he was excellent last night) and the pass chipped over the top by Alexis was incredible. From there Ozil somehow knew exactly where Alex Iwobi was and presented him with a nice easy finish that hopefully gives him some confidence too - Iwobi's performance last night was also one of his better displays this season. All in all it was a very enjoyable way to spend a December night and followed on nicely from the exceptional Alexis-show on Saturday. That, in itself, was one of the best hat-tricks you will ever see and Arsenal must get him to sign a new contract as soon as possible.

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