Arsene @ 67 As Middlesbrough Comes To Town

A weekend of footy-celebration beckons as we move from the euphoric high of trouncing Ludogorets for six unreplied  back to the EPL plus Arsene Wenger turns 67 on Saturday. Hey lets keep the champagne on ice just yet......first another 3 points in the bag, then we can celebrate. The team from Bulgaria will definitely feel hard done by the football gods for not rewarding their “effort” when they look at the final score but that’s football, eat or be eating is the name of the game most of the time. Arsenal’s run of six wins in a row will be examined by Aitor Karanka's men from the riverside this weekend at the Emirates.

    Middlesbrough haven’t particularly had a run of good form with only one win in 7 EPL games for them against Sunderland FC way back in august. That seems like a long distant memory in this league where things can take a turn for the better or worse in so short a time, while we seem unplayable at the moment based on our hot form. Nicely poised for a potential banana skin here if you ask me so lets not get too cocky. After our champions league win on Wednesday the Boss recognized the way we seem to lose concentration after establishing some sort of lead thereby giving the opposing team a look-in …..Swansea game in mind here. Stronger teams would probably have punished us more even against Ludogorets when they had that spell of good possession. Wenger alluded to it at his press conference when he kind of admitted the need for a “relentless attitude”;

“First by analysing the games and noticing that you have periods where you are not as relentless as you would like to be,” he replied. “You also do it by reminding yourself that the game is never won, even at 2-0 up in the Premier League.

“Teams fight hard to come back and we’ve had lots of experience of that. You learn from your experiences and we learned against Swansea because we could have been punished. Hopefully we have learnt from that without suffering any damage.”

Its good when you believe in your ability which, Wenger is almost guilty of blindly overestimating, but it’s also nice to see that the boss recognizes that this is a tough league [not the best …sorry] with teams that fight to the dearth. I would expect this to be communicated down to the players well, if we wanna really challenge on all fronts against the very best.

       Like I said, Middleborough haven’t exactly had a good start to the season but will by no means be a pushover. They have a couple decent players in Negredo, Ramirez, their highest goal score so far…Stuani and our own Calum Chambers who is on loan thus won’t be eligible to play against the gunners in this match. They have the third best defence currently in number of goals conceded, losing only one match by more than a goal margin against Everton. The biggest problem has been their lack of goals. Its telling of a team when Calum Chambers currently stands as joint second top scorer for them with one goal. Here is hoping his absence upsets the balance of their defence and the gunners do capitalize on it. Middlesbrough’s main threat is from crosses into the box by Stuart Downing and Ramires as they have Negredo who can hold up play quite comfortably. Mustafi and Koscielny would have to remain organized and switched on always to thwart any threats especially aerial threats from them.

    Our team selection will probably see a few tweaks Cech back in goal, Monreal should still be thrusted back into the left back berth, Carzola remains doubtful after picking up that ankle Knock on Wednesday, Xhaka is serving his red card suspension. The front four should remain the same even though I would like to see Perez start with Sanchez or maybe Walcott rested a bit. Having said all that Wenger knows so, why predicted line up will look like this.

Subs: Ospina, Gibbs, Oxlade, Elneny , Perez, Rene Adelaide, Gabriel.

Courtesy The Guardian Uk.

Like his 20^th anniversary, I hope the boiz are reved up enough to get a good win and a clean sheet to add as well. Anyway that’s it from  the team, heres to a very happy birthday celebration with a win for you Arsene,  enjoy the game wherever you are..…Ciaooo

The Wizard Of Özil Show

       Another match another 3 points in the bag in another competition. 6 unreplied goals, still top of Group A......please whats not to like? Arsenal continued to show they were taking no prisoners as Ludogorets was well  an truly beaten on a fine night at the emirates, what should have been a possible banana  skin turned out to be an Özil show and boy did we enjoy it, his volleys are becoming like a routine which is good for him but i particularly like the first goal from him, from start to finish that was the best goal for me. The early exchanges saw arsenal try to impose themselves on the game being the home side but Walcott spurned the chance.....then Sanchez got it all started in the 12th minute with a a nice run that beat the offside high-line Ludogorets was playing, he cut into d box twisted Moti a "show me ya numba" that left the defender sliding to the ad-boards before deftly chipping the keeper for the 1st of the night. The visiting Team responded with a fight, with the tricky triumvirate of Wanderson  Cafu and especially Misidjan calling Ospina to action, reminding the gunners not to doze off. Credit to Ospina's turn around in form (from last seasons fiasco) as he kept arsenal in the game while Ludogorets for a spell, tried to turn the tide in chasing an equalizer but it was not to be. Özil reminded us of his beneath the surface skills when he from wide left found Walcott in space, who finished with a curling shot into the net. That was Özil's first assist for the season and Walcotts 8th goal in 10 matches so far, he definitely is on something and whatever it is, loooooonnnngggg may it continue. 

     Arsenal went into the break with the 2-0 lead. The second half show was the wizard of of Özil after Oxlade kicked things off  less than a minute into the start of the second half for 3-0. I liked the way he calmly stroked the ball into the far corner from a loose ball. He is one player with lots of promise but yet to deliver, i hope he makes it here at Arsenal but thats talk for another. Özil decide to make good his birthday wish of a "hunger for more goals" by scoring a second half hat trick, his first in his career. The volleys are gradually becoming a norm now but my pick of the bunch was the 1st goal, from the tackle by koscielny to the exquisite pass from deep in our half by Santi Carzola, boy was that pure vision....still yet, the best part of it was that silk touch that Özil killed the lobbed pass with all in his stride......Pure genius!! i just wonder how come he doesn't score more often with all that bundle of skill. This season he has 6 goals already in 9 games can he get into double digits in both goals and assist for the gunners this season?? Good question that he alone can answer. It must be said that his goal returns in Arsenal colours are looking good and should better his Madrid stats in Less number matches. He is just one goal away from equaling his haul of 19  goals for Real Madrid in 105 appearances. Arsenal went on to add two more goals by ozil to reflect their 80% dominance in the match yet you could tell the team still had a couple of gears they could crank up to if necessary.

      So whats to read into this goal fest of a performance, i wouldnt get ahead of fan worship here, we beat the opposition in front of us as expected but the quality of the opposition was a few rungs below European heavyweight,  has to be said but job done. Our play wasnt the best we've seen in recent times, but it it was more than good enough. So for now we try to keep the momentum for a better lenght of the season than we have had in the past cuz tougher tests lie ahead of the boiz. Ludogorets did also cause the gunners a few nervous moments but Ospina did what he is paid to do, bail the team out when all else failed with the frontmen at 1-0 up. Its nice to see that he's kept his head in the team despite last seasons horrors ....Olympiakos at the emirates comes to mind. This shows he's got the mental strength to overcome such poor showings, which is very good. Squad depth is helping the Team too as we made four changes without any significant drop in quality as compared to the normal starting 11, ad the injusries we currently have then you appreciate what that means. I just hope Wenger continues to rotate appropriately, giving game time to squad players while pressuring the starting 11 with their competition. No one likes changing a winning Team is the argument, but you also wanna make sure your players remain as fresh and raring to go so its wengers job to find the right balance in those extremes. I still believe Elneny and  Perez should be getting more gametime and that arguement was vindicated yesternight by the latter's impactful performance with two lovely Assists, his goals will come looking at the quality of our midfield. Wenger has a headache on his hands with a fully fit squad,( Ramsey, Giroud, Wellbz Still Out) lucky enough, the injury gods never seem to oblige him this. Maybe this season I guess. Anyway thats it from me, see u on the other side of Middlesbrough preview, till then help critique, like comment and share .....Cioaaaa

Swans @Sea but Only Just & Ludogorets Preview

Perspective is a funny thing depending on whose view it is, it’s a 6 ….no it’s a 9. Super Monday or Red Monday turned out to be nothing more than a notch interesting above a borefest. There was that dipping Coutinho shot which only God knows how De Gea kept out, spectacular doesn’t describe it enough and then the other palmed away shot from Emery Can, add Zlatan's miss from a teasing cross by Pogba and there you have it, all the highlights from the match summed up in those moments. Pretty much dozed off through the duration,  funny thing is Jose Mourinho’s Man United is 2 points worse of  14points than Van Gaals Man United after the same number of matches…….now that’s interesting init.

On to Arsenal now (I keep saying this aint a man U blog).

  3points in the bag.....Check

  6^th win in a row....Check

  Ozil to score....Check

 Keep the momentum....Check

Self-destruct button press....Check

 Do it the hardway...... Check no go back double CHECK!!

That’s where the check stops. We made an Omelette alright but my oh my did we almost make a harsh of it with number of eggs we had to break. What should have been a lot easier win turned out to be heading towards lucky escape. I wouldn’t sound like a glass half empty guy as we were in cruise mode for most parts of the game but why is Swansea at the Emirates such a difficult fixture to navigate? Some argue that they are our new bogey Team, like Bolton Wanderers under Sam Allardyce back then. Anyway 3 points is 3 points but I fear the Team needs to maintain proper 101% focus like we did against Chelsea. Let’s move away from negativity and spot the positives. Walcott, who missed two chances for his hat trick seems to be having a purple patch right now. This can only be good for the team considering we have been without Wellbz and the mysteriously injured Olivier Giroud in strike force while Perez has been in the store room we hid Park Ki Sung back then. I just wonder why Wenger will spend 17 Million pounds on a player and choose to keep him in a cold room, especially one who has shown he can mix it in with those up there. Alexis Sanchez on the other hand seems to have taken up the role of Mr Assist you as he leads our assist charts currently while Mesut Ozil has gone AWOL in that regard. One could refer to perspective and say it’s a good thing, the squad is better since we have been able to cope without these players thus far.…. but squad rotation is essential to players form and freshness. It also staves off complacency when you know there is competition for your spot. I would not a little bit more before these players start losing form while those NOT playing keep getting rusty. Which brings me to Granit Xhaka’s red card. To say the least it was dumb stupid red card to concede, making the game a real tough one for us. I would rather not say more, I just hope he learns from it. Wenger called it a “Dark Yellow” whatever that means but I beg to differ, Red Card no questions asked. If we had lost the game maybe he would have been more critical of him, who knows.

 

Arsene Wenger speaking prior to Arsenal's Champions League tie against Ludogorets

Unto Europe's Premier Competition, tonight we entertain Ludogorets Razgrad in the first of the Champions League double header at the Emirates. Frankly speaking I can’t say I know much about the Bulgarian side. Maybe a few clips here n there since their entrance into this competition this year. They had a chance against PSG at 2-1 down when they got that penalty but Moti missed from the spot and PSG went on to kill the game. They have a few tricky players and one to note is their number 10, the brazilian called Marcelinho who is at the center of their creative nous. In a nutshell I hope the boiz remain focused and secure all 3 Points. If we are harboring any hopes of topping the group then we can’t afford to draw the game let’s not even imagine a loss, no disrespect to Ludogorets. Mustafi knows and he said that much earlier on. 

“I don’t know a lot about them, but if a team plays in the champions League then they have quality, we have to understand that and be prepared for a game which is going to be really intense. It’s a home game so we obviously want to take the game into our oen hands and keep up the good run that we’ve had over the last few games”

I do hope they all keyed in like that. Lets see that focus on the pitch by picking another 3 points. My predicted Line up will be as seen below but a bit of rotation will be good though….lets see.

Subs: Cech, Gabriel, Gibbs, Perez, Giroud, Xhaka (No red), Oxlade, Elneny.

That should prove too much for Ludogorets.....i hope. Get the goals earlier so we can give game time to the likes of Perez and Elneny if thy cant get a start. Thats it from me, sorry for another late post, do enjoy the game wherever you are......ciao