Newcastle v Arsenal Preview : One Last Effort

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Alan Pardew, Arsenal, Francis Coquelin, Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta, Newcastle, Steve Harper

Yes Theo, a little bit more

That’s what this game is all about. The last game of the season before the boys head off for their holidays and us on the other side of the white line, scour the inter-web in hope that we’ve signed someone spectacular. One last effort is needed for the boys. Our record since the 2nd week of March stands at 8 wins and 2 draws in all competitions. Make it 9 wins and I’m sure we can all be reasonably happy with the way we’ve ended this campaign.

Let’s make one thing very clear. I said above – “reasonably happy with the way we ended this campaign”. It doesn’t mean I’m happy on the overall manner in which we have competed in all competitions this season. If you can’t differentiate that, then you might as well give the rest of this blog a miss. “Reasonably” is used because it would take 11 consecutive wins to make it bloody magnificent.

Our target remains to qualify for the Champions League, all we need tomorrow is a win. Given our coefficient points in UEFA, 3rd or 4th doesn’t really matter in terms of who we might potentially face in the play-off (not for 3rd in Premier League, the other one). It just means that the players will have shorter holidays and the only ones not happy with that will be the travel agents and national team coaches who will be going to the World Cup in Brazil.

I said prior to the Tuesday match against Wigan, that we currently have the fittest squad available for the longest time. Therefore, I take full responsibility for Mikel Arteta becoming a worry and picking up an injury in that match. Unbelievable but yes, Arsenal players are susceptible to jinxes. The question remains very much, who to replace the vice captain, should he not recover fully.

My hope is that, the candidate won’t be Jack Wilshere. We’ve heard about his fitness concern and that he’s not at a 100%. He will need surgery immediately after the end of this season and while it may be a small procedure, he is rightly considered not to be in his best condition to play. I wonder if anyone thinks that – “this is the last game of the season, so what if we risk him and he gets injured in this game”. That’s a very short-term thought.

Arteta may not be the example coaches use when they are trying to describe a defensive midfielder to any aspiring footballers, but it’s hard to argue that he has done the job to the best of his capabilities. His experience and reading of the game has helped him to no end, in trying to acclimatise to this new role. For a game as important as this Newcastle one, if we need a replacement, it shouldn’t be someone who’s a specialist in this role.

That means, Francis Coquelin. Used for only 2 minutes in the win at The Hawthorns, Coquelin last played a full game in that FA Cup defeat to Blackburn. He may have suffered niggling injuries since then but if memory serves, has been relatively fit. The fact that he’s unused is puzzling to me. I rate the boy but perhaps Wenger doesn’t and that’s why Coquelin is not used even when Arteta looks increasingly tired.

For tomorrow though, I’d rather start with him. Not least because it will mean that we have 3 substitutions we can make, instead of 2. If we start with Wilshere, it means we only have 2 chances to make changes to the game because Wilshere will be planned not to play the full 90 minutes.

The floodgates may have opened in the last game against Wigan but I sure am glad to see Olivier Giroud returning to the side. Without question, he has to start tomorrow. Lukas Podolski got 2 goals in the last game but I’m still yet to be impressed with him in the central role. That doesn’t mean that the big returning Frenchman is a world beater, it’s just that he’s the better of the 2 choices. The rest of the side should remain the same as the previous matches.

Lying in wait for us at Sports Direct Arena / St James Park will be Newcastle. After they secured another season in the Premier League with that win over QPR last weekend, I’m not quite sure which side will turn up. They have been dire since the turn of the year, surprisingly since the influx of Ligue 1 talents. It’s not hard to imagine that they want to give their fans a proper sending off in the last game of the season. It is also not hard to imagine that they will have tremendous pressure lifted off their should when they beat the relegation.

Lest we forget, they have beaten Chelsea at home and that showed that when the starts aligned, Alan Pardew can rouse his men to put up a fight against the better sides in the league. That said, Pardew is also likely to go the sentimental route and give Steve Harper the job between the sticks.

Sentimental because Harper has been at the club for a very long time and will leave Newcastle at the end of the season. Apart from the last few minutes at Loftus Road, Harper last played in October last year. Surely we can find a way to benefit against a keeper that hasn’t played for a very long time.

We must not and should not worry about what’s happening at the other game. It is about us and what we do tomorrow. The mathematics (without going into all permutations) is simple. Win and we achieve the minimum target for the season. Anything else and we will be hoping for a surprise elsewhere. Let’s keep destiny in our own hands.

For the last time this season, Up The Arsenal!

Santi The Supplier

Tags

Arsenal, Laurent Koscielny, Lukas Podolski, Roberto Martinez, Santi Cazorla, Shaun Maloney, Theo Walcott, Wigan

I want to fly like a bird.

Just one more to go then.

The last home game of the season ended on a very positive note and any win is a good way to repay the fans for providing the support throughout the entire 10 months. The win left us holding on to 4th spot as the battle for the Champions League goes down to the wire. Unless Chelsea lose their final game of the season by a million goals, there is no way that Sp*rs could overtake them.

The placing at the end of the Sunday might be different but the final 2 spots for the Champions League will go to Chelsea and either one from us or Sp*rs. An interesting scenario has since come up and that’s the idea of a 39th game. One which could happen if certain score permutation happens with Chelsea drawing and us winning on Sunday. I like the idea but we should only have Newcastle to worry about now.

Last night was the crucial game for us. With the other two teams winning their respective games at the weekend, we had a few more days of pressure building up. Which sometimes can be detrimental to a team. It is easier to set the tone than to live up to increased expectation. Except for the change at left back, Arsene Wenger called upon the same side to send the home fans off. Kieran Gibbs was used because of Callum McManaman’s pace (who says Wenger doesn’t do tactics, pfftt)

We did start well, scoring in the 11th minute as Wigan’s defence went to sleep during a corner. Lukas Podolski’s first as a starting central striker for us. However, that did nothing to calm the nerves. In fact, Wigan took the cue from that to boss the game. They eventually finished with a higher ball possession percentage than us, indicative of how much we allowed them back into the game.

Roberto Martinez’s side are still riding on the wave of their FA Cup triumph on Saturday and capitalised on continuous poor passing from our team. It’s easy to criticise the wall for not jumping or Wojciech Szczesny for not putting a stronger hand to palm the ball away. But take nothing away from the incredibly well-struck freekick from Shaun Maloney. The little playmaker continued to be the creative hub of the away side.

At that time, I feared for the 2nd half. I feared that the longer the game went on and we don’t find the 2nd goal, that heads will drop. However, the fears quickly went away. Not before Szczesny produced a fantastic stop to prevent Wigan from taking the lead. After that though, it was all us as Wigan began to feel the effects of their hard fought win over Manchester City over the weekend. It was obvious that they were tiring and when that happens, concentration goes out of the window.

We still need to capitalise on that and that we did. Santi Cazorla was the star for us yesterday. It was his corner which Podolski headed in and the magical Spaniard supplied 3 more assists in the second half as we romped away to a 4-1 win. The inch perfect cross for Theo Walcott to break his 20 goals barrier, was the pick of the assists. A look back on this season after it all ends and we will all appreciate what a wonderful player Cazorla is and just how crucial he has been to us.

How many tweets, facebook posts or messages have you got about Aaron Ramsey scoring and someone famous dies? It’s getting boring, isn’t it. Yes, he scored yesterday and instead of trying to find which famous person has passed away, I rather focus on the goal. He had Podolski free, with a chance to grab a hattrick but chose to shoot himself. I wonder how the German would react, had Ramsey missed that chance.

Ramsey didn’t and it was just reward for his performance in recent months. The Welsh midfielder has come through a lot this season. Much criticised in the earlier part of the season, despite being judged in an unaccustomed position he was asked to fill, the criticism certainly has died down in recent weeks. The high energy and all action display from Ramsey earns a lot of praise in my books and I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t end up as the player to have covered the most ground.

It’s hard to legislate for the freekick goal but apart from that, I thought that once again, our defence did well. The injury to Mikel Arteta is a worry but shouldn’t take anything away from another solid defensive performance from the team. It is also no surprise that Laurent Koscielny once again caught the eye. His high clearance when Szczesny got a rush of blood to the head, the highlight of his performance. Thomas Vermaelen talked in the match programme that he’s looking forward to next season as he wants to reclaimed his spot back but on the evidence of current performance, it will take an injury to either centre backs for that to happen.

So, all focus on Newcastle. They have nothing to play for other than to produce one more good showing for their fans. The fact that we are The Arsenal, is also likely to make them more motivated to play better. On their day, they do have the players who can hurt us. Good job done on the home front, next is the away front.

Now, let’s hope Arteta makes it.

QPR 0 Arsenal 1 : One Nil To The Arsenal

Tags

Andros Townsend, Arsenal, Lukas Podolski, Mikel Arteta, QPR, Theo Walcott

Struggling on two separate counts

Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea. No, I’m not singing their song but that’s how many times we will keep a look out for the results of their matches before we play our next one. It all became more important after last night’s results. Both us and Sp*rs won our respective matches and it keeps up with the intensity of the chase for the last 2 Champions League spots. Both were identical scores and both endured a tougher time than one would anticipate.

The similarity doesn’t just stop there, both goals were scored by former Southampton players and both played their 200th game yesterday. Gareth Bale lived up to his player of the year awards and scored a quite sublime goal. Credit has to be given when its due. They were struggling and Southampton was having a stormer only to be denied by poor finishing and Lloris’ brilliance. I really thought they would drop 2 points but what happened, happened.

As for us, Theo Walcott was the hero and for the other 93 minutes (including extra time), no producer have to ask for the score to be changed. The other 93 minutes were as nervy as they come. QPR didn’t hammer us as much or as well as Southampton did in their game but because of our past, it still made for a very tense finish to the game.

The run to the finish line hasn’t been the easiest despite what is perceived as the easiest of run-ins compared to Chelsea’s and Sp*rs’. We’ve struggled for fluency in most parts of matches but probably have done the required minimum to get all 3 points. We haven’t created much in the last few matches but we’ve certainly increased our clinical-ness. We’ve always said that we have to convert our chances and we are doing exactly that. It’s hard to complain.

To add to that, 3 clean sheets in the last 4 matches. We’ve also found some steel and resoluteness to our defending. As was highlighted in yesterday’s piece, we are not far off compared to what is thought as the best in the league. Yesterday’s QPR match will be added to the list of evidence that supports that. Monreal struggled with the pace and trickery of Townsend but otherwise, I thought we defended very well.

The continued pairing of Mertesacker and Koscielny has been justified and while it was hard for Wenger to keep his captain on the bench, Vermaelen is unlikely to find good reasons to ask to be reinstalled. The German-French axis have built up a good understanding of each other’s game and we can see that they continues to cover and protect each other. Long may that continue.

In midfield Mikel Arteta stood out for me. I have criticised him this season as I’ve felt that he hampers the way we play in the attacking sense but again, credit given when its due. He pick his challenges well and rarely was found in the wrong position. His reading of the game is probably second to none in the team and it is probably nurtured because he knows he lacks pace. I would have him as the man of the match yesterday.

The other 2 in midfield though, looks tired. Cazorla and Ramsey deserves a lot of praise for their work this season but they looked to be running low on fuel at the moment. What is hard is to keep them out despite realising this fact. The reasons ranges from not having any replacements to replacements that are in poor form. Hopefully the 8 days in between from this match to the next game at Wigan, will help recharge their batteries.

It’ll be one more match till we see the return of Giroud and on the evidence of the last few matches, it can’t come any sooner. Podolski looked lost up front yet again. Granted, it’s always hard and unfair to judge after only 2 games (or 3 if you count the one earlier this season), but there’s little indication that he could work there. I hope I’m proven wrong but somehow I don’t expect this to work. Surrounded by defenders tight on him and playing with his back to goal, will not make him produce his best attributes.

It was tough but we hung on in the end. Not good for the health of any Arsenal supporter but 3 points was all that matters. Now, I’m going to go figure out what result I want for the next 3 Chelsea matches.

How Does Our Centre Backs Rank

Tags

Arsenal, Jan Vertonghen, Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker, Rio Ferdinand, Thomas Vermaelen

Defensive unit working as a team

If you take a look at the goals conceded column in the league table, you will be able to see that we third best in the league in that regard. Only 5 goals separates us from Manchester City, who have the tightest defence in the entire league thus far. Compare that to 2011/12 season in which we had the 8th best defensive record. Even Sunderland and yes, Sp*rs did better than us last season.

We have to talk in relation. By that I mean comparatively to how others are doing within the same season. We currently have conceded the same number of goals as champions Manchester United. The big difference is in terms of the number of goals scored, in which they have 13 more than us at 79 goals. We scored 74 goals last season, not hard to imagine that if the improved defensive resilience was paired with a maintained attacking force, we could have been much closer to the champions.

I’m not going to focus on the attacking side here but rather on the “improved” defensive performances that we’ve done this season. We’ve even cut down on the own goals, none this season compared to 5 in the league last season. Thanks to @Chiefinho and @audreytal for that. The numbers are there to be seen but we remember the criticism all season about how our individual defensive errors are costing us points and wins.

It’s hard not to see the improvement that we’ve made since winning at Bayern Munich. However, it would be a failing not to see an overall improvement in the team compared to last season. When a defence is good or not, generally the consensus depends on whether the centre backs are playing well. The midfielders and strikers also perform their defensive duties, as does the full backs but it’s the centre backs who form the cornerstone of any defence.

Here’s how ours compare.

The graph below shows the defensive attributes of Koscielny, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Ferdinand and Vertonghen. Immediately, it’s obvious that Koscielny and Mertesacker mirrors that of Ferdinand while the two former Ajax players have similar traits. The latter duo likes to nip in early and this is reflected by their high interception rates. Also, on the negative side, both are also more likely to be dribbled past and commits higher number of fouls because they don’t always time the interceptions right.

As for Koscielny, Mertesacker and Ferdinand; the graph shows that they are similar in a lot of ways. All 3 indicates that they pick and time their interception well and are less likely to conceded fouls. Though Koscielny do sometimes get caught out because he gets a little overzealous with his challenges. For Mertesacker, his lack of pace exposed his frailties when getting run at, leaving him with the highest number of times he was dribbled against, amongst the trio.

What we clearly lack behind the other two would be in the area of picking the right defending positions or reacting to passages of play. The latter, inclusive of play where the centre back might be at fault for creating the danger in the first place. Ferdinand and Vertonghen doing more clearances than all 3 of our centre backs combined. All training ground work, to improve on this. We’ve heard about how George Graham worked his defenders to death and got each one of them to automatically know where to best position themselves. Steve Bould was part of that unit and it’s up to him to ensure the same efficiency exist within the current squad.

For the modern game, the defenders can at times be pivotal to the attacking side of the game as well. However, these part of the game could impact on the defensive side of things. Vertonghen’s tendency to support the attack, very telling in the above graph. He does most of the forward play well but it is also because of his cavalier nature, that he gets dispossessed a lot and gives the opponent the chance for a quick break. In the above aspect, our trio of centre backs comes off really well. Koscielny and Mertesacker seldom drive forward and thus doesn’t lose possession of the ball. Our improvement could be tied down to them being selected as the partnership and ensuring that we don’t get exposed on the counter attack with our centre backs in off positions.

Last but not least, we come to compare their passing. Retention of possession when successful and possibility of being attacked when unsuccessful. It’s an important component of the game. If the accuracy of the passing is off or the choice between going short or long is wrong, we are only going to surrender possession and give the opposite side the chance to put our defence under pressure. It is obvious that we should resort to minimise long balls whenever we can until such times that our accuracy in that regard has improved. As for the short passes, the numbers doesn’t show whether those are forward, sideways or back passes. Koscielny and Vermaelen needs to pick and choose the right pass to as not to put ourselves under pressure.

In summary, I don’t think there’s a huge discrepancy between the quality of our centre backs against what is perceived widely as the best centre backs in the league this season. That’s not to say we’ve got nothing to improve. Defensive positioning for one, is an area where the coaches could look at. Like I said earlier, defending is not only for 2 players, the other 9 will have to do their job well also. However, I believe we’ve got the right tools and player to become a resolute team on the defensive aspect. Hopefully the standards will only improve next season.

(All data from the wonderful WhoScored website)

 

 

Arsenal 1 Manchester United 1 : Spent Force

Tags

Arsenal, Bacary Sagna, Manchester United, Robin Van Persie, Theo Walcott

The pass and movement that made our goal

It won’t be the most opportune of timings to write this match report today. With the amount of news, articles and blogs out there; what has and needed to be said should have already been available. If you’re not sick of it yet, appreciate your continuation interest in this piece.

Given 2 days of reflection, a draw is probably a fair result on the basis of both sides’ performances. We’ve denied them the chance to achieve a new record points haul in the Premier League – well done us. We continued our unbeaten run in the league – well done us. We matched Sp*rs’ result from the weekend, albeit against tougher opposition – well done us.

Yet, having been pleased with the result, it’s hard to hide the disappointment (not love) about it. We had an incredible start to the match, got the early goal but couldn’t build on it. Combination of poor finishing and poor choice of passing, meant that we could not capitalise on the dominance that we displayed. That would later come back to haunt us as we conceded a very silly goal. Sluggishness proceeded afterwards and we could never quite gain a foothold back into the game.

We did produce a fantastic high energy start to the game. Whether this was because we had to give them the guard of honour, only the players know. I suspect there’s a little from there, the fact that we are playing Manchester United and because we are still chasing that Champions League spot. One could certainly add the confidence gained from our unbeaten run as another possible reason.

It was probably the best football we’ve played this season, in that first 35 to 40 minutes of the match. We were pressing high up on the pitch and it felt like almost 90% possession during that period. The early goal looked offside on replay but it was tight and while the assistant referee failed to spot it, it would be harsh to blame him as it happened in split seconds. I will only chastise the officials if those decisions are clear cut.

In the past, Theo Walcott would probably have missed that chance. However, he has added a clinical-ness to his finishing and from that tight angle; it was as good a finish as any. Tomas Rosicky’s part in that move could not be underappreciated. Turning and getting away from his marker, all without touching the ball, enabled us to gain that split second time advantage.

In a game between clubs of higher than average quality, the chances will be few and far between. When one does come and we don’t take it, it does change the face of the game. There was a counter after the 1^st goal when we had a 3 v 2 situation. When the pass went to Lukas Podolski instead of Walcott, the chance was lost. Not because Podolski is a worse player than Walcott but because the latter was in a better position, coming in from the blind side.

Had we score there, it would have been 2-0 (yes, just simple maths) and we could have shaken United’s belief as half time approached. It would have been easier in the 2^nd half to just soak a little bit of pressure and play on the counter. Or that United players could think that they might not want to force the issue, considering that the title have already been secured.

From the opportunity to increase the lead, we go the other way around and shoot ourselves in the foot. All throughout the season, we’ve had problem with individual errors leading to the concession of goals. For this particular time, it was two mistakes for the same goal. In some ways, at least it wasn’t two separate goals!

Bacary Sagna was the culprit this time. First, he under-hit a back pass that was gobbled up by who else but the returning traitor. Then, when Sagna raced back and caught up with the traitor, he slid in and tackled when there was no need to. Our right back could have just shepherd him wide or concede the throw in but perhaps was trying a little too hard to retrieve a situation that was created by him. It was sloppy and poor. He deserved a lot of criticism for it, not abuse.

Unfortunately for us, conceding that goal stung our confidence and stopped our momentum. We never recovered from it for most parts of the second half. We did upped our game towards the last 10 minutes of the half but it wasn’t good enough to find the winning goal. To be fair, United even had chances to win it. They were extremely dangerous on the break and we can thank Szczesny’s reflexes for maintaining the score.

Maybe it’s the end of the season and we have a lot of players that have played a lot of matches this season. Perhaps that is why they were unable to raise their game in the 2^nd 45 minutes after the high energy first half. But when we take into account that we’re only playing league matches and no cup games, surely there’s more than enough recovery time in between matches. Or just maybe, the players are a little timid in facing United and got worried after we conceded the equaliser. That subconsciously, we wanted to sit and be more compact.

Either case, it doesn’t reflect well on the players, except for Laurent Koscielny who was magnificent. More on him tomorrow.

Only 3 games left to be played. The season can’t end soon enough (I anticipate around middle of June before I say, the new season can’t start fast enough). The team needs fixing and I hope we can do that while still playing in the Champions League. 3 games left to ensure that.