The standard is set in a brilliant derby win

Arsenal 5 Spurs 2

I’m glad I don’t bet on Arsenal. When you expect them to step up against Milan they shrink away and collapse. When you think there will be a reaction to that horror show they produce an insipid performance and slip out of the cup. And when you fear things will only go from bad to worse against an in-form Spurs… they produce their best display of the season and steam-roller their way to victory.

Oh, how Spurs must have thought the points were in the bag at 2-0. Our defence had produced heart-in-the -mouth moments whenever it was called into action and, although we’d looked threatening going forwards, it seemed to be because we were committing all 11 players over the half-way line judging by how vulnerable we looked on the counter.

No-one would have been surprised if we’d completely collapsed at that stage but instead the pace went up higher, the effort pushed further and Spurs (justifiably the third best team in the land, remember) couldn’t cope. Sagna’s header was the least we deserved and Robin’s equaliser capped a mini-comeback with pure class.

So often in these situations it is us on the receiving end of a turnaround score and switches in personnel that exploit our weaknesses further. But half-time brought changes by Redknapp to flood the midfield which rather than stemming the tide just handed even more of the initiative to us.

Any fear the break would disrupt our rhythm were groundless and we picked up where we left off, Rosicky’s goal just rewards for a brilliant performance. Cue Theo. In some ways he typifies the scizophrenic nature of this team. At times he looked truly awful – at one stage he seemed to sub-consciously accept his pass would inevitably land where it shouldn’t so he just saved everyone the effort and kicked it a yard to a group of three Spurs players.

And yet then he comes up with a cool and calm finish for the fourth – even managing to recover his own mis-control in the same movement – and capped another slick counter attack with his second and our fifth.

When I saw the starting line up I was surprised to see Theo start rather than the Ox or Gervinho and in his post-match comments Wenger acknowledged the grief Walcott was getting from the crowd. But credit to the manager for sticking with him and Theo himself for rising above the criticism to deliver the goods when it mattered most.

More of the same, please...
Overall this was far better than I hoped for even in my most optimistic daydreams. The poor early defending aside (let’s be generous and put that down to Koscielny finding his feet after injury and Vermaelen re-adjusting to his normal position), we were tenacious and determined, the movement in attack was far greater than we’ve come to expect and we closed the game down well. A three-goal cushion helps in that regard but we’ve let bigger winning margins slip before.

Despite my glee at the result, part of me can’t help but wonder why this level of performance is the exception rather than the rule. You can’t put it down to rising to the occasion considering we’ve floundered on big stages already this year. Wenger supposedly threw his nut at the training ground before last weekend’s loss so it wasn’t a response to that and it certainly isn’t because we’re in confident mood. Maybe it was just the sunshine and the lush playing surface.

Whatever, we’ve now got 12 league games remaining and need to use this performance as the benchmark for what this team can produce when it puts its mind to it. Let’s try to leave the questions about the fundamental flaws of the squad and set-up until the end of the season when we can really do something about it. Now we just need to repeat the level of commitment, effort and will-to-win shown today until the final whistle blows on the campaign. Doing that will earn us a Champions League position.

Farewell, Arshavin, the idol that never was

So Andrei Arshavin has left after all. The quirky (horrible word, but it sums him up) little chubster who should have stepped into the shoes of Freddie Ljungberg to become our next cult hero but whose time at Arsenal turned into a case of what might have been.

Wenger’s role in killing off his Arsenal career through one of his strangest selection choices should not be overlooked.

The FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea in 2009 was our biggest game of the season at that stage. Arshavin was a player on form who had come in January and helped to kickstart our flagging season. But he was left on the bench, we lost the game and the chance to make it clear he was a key part of our team was lost. Yes, days later Arshavin scored four at Anfield so it might not appear to have been such a big deal but the real impact was long-term – the message it gave was Wenger didn’t trust him on the bigger stage.

People will say Arshavin never showed enough effort or work ethic to overcome whatever obstacles Wenger put in his path. He never looked willing to get his weight down enough to pull off a shirt twirling goal celebration and was indulged too much. But he played as a central striker at times without complaint and has he ever not been carrying too much timber in his career? We knew what we were getting when we signed him – we didn’t handle him well enough to make him reach the heights he should have. Think back to his performances at Euro 2008 and, although there might have been a touch of ‘one tournament wonder’, ask why we couldn’t get him to reproduce the same form.

As Arseblog sums up neatly today, it’s another odd piece of transfer business by the club coming at a very odd moment in our season. I say transfer business but, of course, it isn’t – it’s loan business. Which is increasingly becoming our favoured, perhaps only, route of shifting out players who no longer fit into Wenger’s plans. Following in the footsteps of Bendtner, Denilson and Vela this season, Arshavin is now plying his trade with another club while we have no money to show for it beyond, presumably, the saving of wages. He may go in the summer and that would be the first time we could use the income anyway but why can’t we convince people to buy our players?

Then again, perhaps it’s part of a cunning ploy – maybe they’ll be returning in the summer while Wenger is exiting.

Tell us the plan, Stan / derby depression

With a board meeting held yesterday, I was hoping we’d hear something direct from the owner. But no, Silent Stan has so far lived up to his moniker and stayed in the shadows despite a timely trip to London.

I can’t imagine anything worse than having Arsenal represented by a self-publicist like Mohammed Al Fayed and wholeheartedly agree that staying out of the limelight is the best approach for directors.

But when you’ve heard nothing of substance from the man who controls the majority of the club since he took control, it leads to inevitable questions about what the grand plan is.

We’re currently going through another period of scrutiny and criticism that is becoming more and more regular as we struggle to regain the form of Wenger’s pre-Ashburton years.

The crisis of confidence shown by the players during these slumps is reflected in supporters. We don’t know what we’re aiming for or how we’re going to get there. Is the way we’re doing business at the moment – which seems to involve selling our best players every summer and paying grand sums to a lot of mediocre squad players – going to continue? Is that what the club now takes as success if it means we remain financially self-sufficient?

Whether it is from Kroenke’s mouth or Ivan Gazidis’, now would be the perfect opportunity to set out the ‘vision’. It could come at the end of season but we need clarity, or at least a reason to think brighter days are ahead, now. The announcement yesterday on season ticket prices being frozen is welcome enough but the masses need more than that to keep (or regain) the faith. We should be aiming at being the best club in England, Europe, the world. We have the potential but who knows if that’s even the ambition.

Derby depression
I can’t remember going into a North London derby with less confidence than Sunday’s match. It’s bizarre to think children getting into football now will find it surprising that Spurs have finished behind us for the last, erm, million years.

Following the misery in Milan, last week’s defeat at Sunderland was typical of our usually inability to thrive in adversity and use a big loss or psychological blow as inspiration. Even Arsene supposedly trying his own version of the hairdryer at the training ground failed to do the trick.

A spanking at the weekend to Spurs may be a signal that our dip will only get deeper and we won’t be able to recover until fourth spot is out of sight. The performances of each team so far this season suggest there is only one winner. My main source of hope is that Spurs start believing the hype and think the game is won before it’s even kicked off.

If it gets embarrassing, it’s probably best Stan stays silent and tries to slip away unnoticed.

Do you trust this board more than Wenger?

Milan 4 Arsenal 0

Wow, I wasn’t expecting that. Having described Milan as ‘very beatable’ in my post yesterday afternoon, our dismal performance proved me totally wrong.

Judging by verdicts passed by supporters and media after the game, I was in a minority and quite a few people were not surprised by the defeat. They saw it as the very definition of chickens coming home to roost after years of continually selling players and picking inferior replacements.

I agree it turned out to be a match that, had it been played on a computer, you would have paused and pressed restart.

After an opening 10 minutes that was steady at worst, Sagna played a pass to nobody, seemed to shrug at Walcott who was only barely nearby and then showed zero interest in recovering the situation.

It was a precursor to 80 more minutes where the effort was lacking throughout the side, the invention was non-existent and the will to win was nowhere. To make matters worse, there can be no excuse in missing key players – Wilshere apart, this was as strong as it gets.

But our form over the past month has been reasonable and didn’t offer any suggestion we would put such an abject display, so you can argue it was a freak result.

Plus, let’s remember we’ve done better than other favoured sides to reach this far in the competition. Compared to Man U, for example, we had a far stronger group to contend with and did the job required so our European campaign has not been a total disaster.

But it doesn’t escape the fact that, season by season, our team is declining and our targets get lower and lower.

What happens next?
Looking back on my posts from the end of last season my view was that Wenger should have been replaced given the years of repeated mistakes, his unwillingness to consider new ideas and that more players were getting worse than getting better under his guidance.

In some ways, ignoring my fury at the Blackburn debacle, my verdict has soothed somewhat this season despite everyone else’s ire increasing as results have barely improved.

Doubtless another collapse like last season’s March meltdown might re-strengthen my resolve that Wenger should go.

But what has changed is my view of the board. While in the past I thought their aspirations were being held back by the untouchable Wenger, now they appear just as clueless and unwilling to stop the rot.

I do look forward to the day Wenger is replaced. If nothing else, it will make supporting Arsenal a lot more interesting than the all-too predictable season we currently go through. But when there are no obvious candidates to fill his shoes, and when we have an American owner who remains silent in the shadows, removing him would lead to hope rather than expectation that we’d improve.

I don’t trust the board’s judgement more than I trust Wenger’s so who is to say they would pick a better manager than the one we already have?