Let’s learn from Spurs’ mistake and keep the pressure on

Everton 0 Arsenal 1

Let us cast our minds back a mere 40 days to Saturday, February 11. The North East sides suffered a North London double whammy – while we managed to grab a late winner at Sunderland, a couple of hours later our nearest and dearest rivals swept Newcastle aside 5-0 to restore a 10-point advantage over us.

Spurs were flying high; being led by a manager who had just had the shadow of tax evasion charges lifted and someone who was ready to be chosen as the next England boss, one defeat in 11 (to Man City too), a mere five points from the top of the league. Things were easy. Life couldn’t get much better for them…

Exactly, it couldn’t.

Forty days, four games and one point later, the Tottenham garden is looking far less rosy. More poison ivy, in fact. Meanwhile down the road, the Arse have managed to pull out six wins on the bounce, including a demolition of the aforementioned Tottenham, and now we find ourselves a point ahead of them.

Why do I offer this précis of the past few weeks? Quite simply to show how quickly and inexplicably the football world can change.

My only theory about why Spurs have suffered such a drop in form is that they thought their Champions League place was neatly sewn up and took their foot off their gas. I don’t study their squad list closely but I’m not aware of any major injury problems or suspensions; the speculation about Redknapp getting the England job may have contributed to the problems but, even then, it can’t be the full reason for taking one point from a possible 12.

I don’t really care what the explanation is, the important point is that we now find ourselves in a similar, if not quite as comfortable, position as Spurs did on February 11.

Everything is going right for us, including last night’s dogged 1-0 win at Everton coinciding with a defeat for Chelsea and a home draw for Spurs.

Our displays have improved, confidence is growing and we’re definitely earning whatever luck we’ve enjoyed (such as the Drenthe on/offside decision) to help us claw our place into third position.

But we can’t afford to think the hardest part is over. However much I want to believe the team has hit a hot streak because it is tougher or less willing to lose, in the back of my mind is the sense we remain only one defeat from a meltdown.

The evidence against that, of course, is how we didn’t collapse after the Milan/Sunderland double defeat. Keeping a settled side, especially in defence with Vermaelen restored to the heart of it, has paid off and maybe not suffering from injuries is the key to our fortunes. But part of me just feels like we’re continuing to do what we’ve done all season, it’s just paying off more often at the moment. I hope I’m wrong, and the longer our streak continues the more convinced I’ll be that we’re a genuinely new team. Whatever we do, we can’t think we’re in for an easy ride.

Get well soon, Fabrice
I’ve not posted anything since our last match a week ago during which time Fabrice Muamba suffered his shocking heart failure. It goes without I wish him all the best for his recovery, particularly given his Arsenal roots.

Let me give a special mention to the Tottenham fans at the match when he collapsed (apologies for spending more time writing about Spurs than Arsenal in this post, normal service will be resumed next time). I’ve always considered them to be a few DNA strands short of the normal human species but they acted with compassion and genuine good grace so we should give credit where’s it due – well played.

It’s a lot easier to pay Spurs a compliment now they’re back below us in the table...

From ‘one of those nights’ to ‘one of those goals’

Arsenal 2 Newcastle United 1

We’ve earned some very satisfying last minute wins this season. To a list featuring a smash-and-grab job in Marseille, a deserved comeback at Sunderland and a rather fortunate victory at Anfield, we can now add Newcastle, when a night of frustration became one of ecstasy in the length of time it took Thomas Vermaelen to sprint from one box to another and smash in the winner.

‘Frustration’ is a recurring theme when you look back at the game. We’d dominated from the outset but had never been able to turn the overwhelming possession into shots on the Newcastle goal. The stats suggested we had 20-odd chances but this wasn’t an evening when Tim Krul pulled out a performance of a lifetime to deny us in the same way Wayne Hennessy did for Wolves earlier in the season.

Instead it felt we were fated to have ‘one of those nights’ regardless of how well we played up to the final third. Although Newcastle offered little in attack, they defended solidly and did enough to feel they would take a point back home.

You couldn’t argue with them if they had, but how annoying it would have been to let Spurs off the hook after their defeat to Everton. Here was our chance to really put the pressure on our neighbours and make the final 10 games of the campaign just that little bit more interesting.

And then came Vermaelen. Theo’s ball into the box was exactly what was required in the circumstances and you know the rest. A moment to remember.

Wenger reckoned it was Walcott’s best ever performance which seems a bit over the top to me. His crossing was definitely more reliable than usual (including creating the two goals) but his close control and ability to hold the ball up was, well, frustrating. Perhaps the manager thinks Theo’s confidence needs a boost – or maybe it will help in the contract discussions.

And frustrating is the best description for RVP’s performance too. Even though he scored, he must have thought his luck was out as the ball bounced off his knee or skewed off his foot rather than being at his usual beck and call.

It goes to show how reliant we are on him for goals, or even goal threat – defences are more than happy to let a midfield of Song, Arteta and Rosicky advance on them because they know they won’t back themselves to shoot. How we could do with one of those or our wingers to hit a Ljungberg-like hot streak in the run-in.

But let’s worry about that another day. Last night was a result to savour and keeps the pressure on. After the season threatened to succumb to another collapse and more introspection, it’s nice to just keep the momentum going.

Fine effort, but not sure that counts as honour restored

Arsenal 3 Milan 0

It was a valiant display by the boys last night and they went far closer to reversing the disastrous first left result than I expected. The general reaction has been one of ‘heroic failure’ or ‘honour restored despite defeat’. I might be being churlish but I’m not sure about that conclusion.

We played well for 45 minutes of a tie that lasted 180. Milan were befuddled by the frenzy with which we went about our task but it could only be sustained for the first half. Robin’s near miss chip-shot was our only effort of note after the interval so, really, while I applaud us for getting to within a goal of parity, we missed a great opportunity to press home the advantage fully – including injury time there was 50 odd minutes to grab a fourth.

In fact, even before fatigue set in and despite scoring three goals there were passages of our play where the passing was poor and other openings were spurned. That just got worse in the second half where for long spells we struggled to even get the ball off Milan.

But what really makes me dubious that honour was restored is the first leg performance. It just gets worse and worse the more I think about it.

There were three differences between the XIs we faced – including Prince Boateng and Seedorf who were missing last night – but that’s no excuse for the woeful showing in Italy. Nor was the fact that our pitch was made of grass while the San Siro is predominantly mud and lumps – both teams shared the same turf and they seemed to cope just fine. A good 45 minutes has not repaired the damage that was done three weeks ago.

The brightest spot again was the quality of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Until he appeared to pull his hamstring early in the second half he had shown terrific confidence and quality. He has an air of assurance about him that suggests he’ll make the right decision and pick the right pass. He looked very much at home in a central position and the prospect of him teaming up with Jack Wilshere once he returns is an exciting one.

I said before the first leg that I thought Milan were there for the taking and our first half last night showed why. We could have gone a lot further in this competition with a favourable draw (ie avoiding Barcelona and Real Madrid) but we just didn’t turn up for the first leg. It wasn’t merely our defending or attacking that was at fault but our attitude to that game that cost us. That we put so much effort into what was essentially always a hopeless task last night makes it even more painful.

Back to the positives…
At least the possibility we will be back in the competition next season is looking stronger. I didn’t write about Saturday’s win at Liverpool at the time but, in short, we rode our luck but got a very valuable win.

It kept the positive form of the Spurs game going and the win last night – plus a very welcome clean sheet, however fortunate it was – builds on that. In the league, we have ticked off two of the toughest challenges we faced in our run-in. Chelsea have sacked their manager and replaced him with an even more inexperienced stand-in; Spurs have hit a sticky spell. Lady luck is working in our favour at the moment and the last ‘end is nigh’ crisis period after the Milan and Sunderland defeats seems a while ago.

There are some tricky fixtures to come, including a couple of uncomfortable away trips, but if we show the attitude of the last few matches until the end of the season we can ask no more in the short-term.

The Arsenal 'brand' must focus on winning

There’s been three stories this week that, when threaded together, offer a clear insight into where Arsenal finds itself at the moment and why we’re not getting any closer to winning silverware.

This article in the Guardian emphasised how the marketing men at Ashburton Grove have been surprised by how the ‘Arsenal way’ of conducting its business and playing attractive football outweighs short-term trophy wins in drawing supporters overseas to support us.

I accept it is right to define our USP compared to our rivals. Running a football club is a competitive global business. We’re not just looking to appeal to potential supporters in North London or England as we once did, we need a profile in every corner of the world – if we don’t, we risk losing potential fans to other teams and consequently damaging our chances on the pitch.

But if winning is third – or maybe even further down – on the list of priorities behind our style and the way we conduct ourselves then we risk undermining the whole point of the club.

Football is a sport and the aim of sport is to win. Yes, you should win with style and by acting honourably but ultimately the aim must be to win. If you don’t hold that as your ‘raison d’etre’ how can you expect people to buy in to what they are seeing every match? While I want to be entertained if I’m paying £1,000 a season ticket, I also want to know what I am watching is pure competition, not a spectacle that puts style before substance.

Is money being spent the right way? Podolski transfer would prove it isn’t
The bottom line is the bottom line, of course, and this week’s interim financial results show we remain a very wealthy club but one that sells before it buys.

There was an interesting debate on Radio 5 Live this week involving four of the main characters in the drama that is football – the businessman (Christian Purslow, former MD of Liverpool); the player (Martin Keown); the supporter (Nigel Phillips of the Arsenal Supporters Trust) and the journalist (Jeremy Wilson from the Telegraph and seemingly Stan Kroenke’s favoured reporter).

It is definitely worth listening to while it’s still available (six days and counting) as it highlights the conflicting ways you can interpret Arsenal’s and Wenger’s situation. Purslow and Keown showed support for the current set-up because the club’s books are generally very healthy and Wenger has kept the team among the elite during the huge stadium-building effort. Meanwhile Phillips questioned the efficiency of our spending.

My reading of the accounts echoes Phillips’ and is reflected in the final of the three stories this week.

A manager lives and dies by the transfers he makes and Wenger’s record is increasingly poor. It doesn’t look like improving considering speculation about Lukas Podolski being our major summer signing is getting more and more intense. I expect this is similar to the Chamakh transfer where it just became an open secret that he was becoming an Arsenal player.

As I’ve said before, I don’t think Podolski would improve our team. He is typical of the sort of signings Wenger has made in recent years – a highly technical player who is a safe bet because you know what to expect from him. He represents a ‘good investment’; he will produce consistently six- or seven-out-of-ten performances, but won’t offer anything to push the team to the next level yet will retain his value on the transfer market.

At the same time, he’ll also be very, very handsomely paid. Perhaps not among the world’s highest earners, but for the talent he has he’ll be more than adequately recompensed.

And so we complete the circle of stories by returning to the Arsenal ‘brand’ – the signing of Podolski will be done in the right way (including paying him very generously), he’ll no doubt help to produce ‘attractive’ football on the pitch and will be a good asset on the balance sheet.

But it won’t help us win things.

And that's what the Arsenal brand should be about – there’s no better way of attracting new supporters and keeping existing ones happy.