Bournemouth Preview: Time to Stop The Rutt

    Black Friday has come and gone, so I hope you got good bargains like me who didn’t, there was that odd flash sale but before I said Jack Wilshere Robinson what you get with a click is “sold out” or ya internet connection chooses that very moment to slow down. Anyway Cyber Monday is just around the corner so you never know. Speaking of things Wilshere, Arsenal welcome Bournemouth to the emirates in a Sunday afternoon kickoff. Nobody needs to tell Arsene and the Boiz that this has become a must win match. No disrespect to Eddie Howe and his crew but these are games we should be and have to win. Simple!! It seems I keep saying that every match is a must win but considering our hitherto run of consecutive draws, any further slips by way of a draw or loss would give a severe dent to whatever glimmer of title aspirations we may be harboring. The gunners just can’t afford anymore dropped points especially at home where we really need to improve by putting teams to the sword thus making the Emirates a fortress. Its important the boiz get back to proper organized defending, clean sheets I keep saying give you a better chance at winning, sometimes even when you don’t score….Arsenal V PSG at nil nil would have seen us maintain leadership of Group A in the Champions league, just saying ooo but I am sure you catch ma drift.           

Jenkinson at right back is still suspect to me although I must say he has been improving but by bit. Nacho Monreal has not been his usual consistent self which is strange, in the middle of the park will either Play Ramsey in the double pivot central midfield, paired with Xhaka, maybe further ahead with Özil on the bench…I know I know. No Ramsey on the wings, it’s painful to watch Arsene, spare us the misery please.

As you know Jack Wilshire will be absent from this encounter for obvious reasons. Benik Afobe will probably fancy a start against his football alma mater in Arsenal Fc. No love lost though as he has found a nice place nest at the vitality stadium but on this day Arsenal will have to Keep Him Stanislaus Wilson and co very quiet.  Boss the midfield and give ourselves a chance to score. Without Jack, the Bournemouth midfield lacks a bit of drive as the few games of theirs I have seen he seems to have steadily become influential in their play. Eddie Howe is praised for being one of the few small team coaches who lets his team play expansive football and on their day they could hurt even big teams besides they don’t seat in 10^th position for nothing, at the same time it could be their undoing against the Gunners. Games like this could be a potential banana skin so the team has to watch it, we haven’t been playing well so complacency may not be an issue here just our ability to move up a notch in gears if need be. On a much better note, Oliver Giroud is beginning to fire them in which is good for his confidence, also news is Hector Bellerin has signed an extension to his contract, could we get messers Özil and Sanchez to please not dally on putting pen to paper. Arsenal should better give them what they desire. My Team sheet will look like this

Subs: Ospina, Chamberlain, Iwobi, Jeff, Coquelin, El Neny.

A win and nothing less will assuage a lot of nerves, especially with Man City and Liverpool winning this evening lets get it boiz. Note i never mentioned novemberI leave you with this piece, 

“The United States will come talk to us when it has a black president and the world has a Latin American pope,” Fidel Castro supposedly told the world in 1973, a joke or prophecy that predicted the rise of Obama, Pope Francis and the work to bring the US and Cuba together again.....Hate him or Love Him, we say RIP Fidel Castro.

2nd Again, Familiar Failings....?

    A 20 minute spell of spirited come back seemed like the best response we could show in this BIG game to make the statement Arsene asked for……close but no cigar. Still have a sour taste from the kick in the teeth feeling no matter how much as I would love to spin it positively, and there were positives. Yes we remain unbeaten in all competions since our day 1 loss to liverpool, yes we are showing resilience by fighting back and overturn deficits, Yes Kostafi central defensive partnership looks good, Ramsey played better in the Middle (who knew) Giroud got his deserved start & Yes we are more clinical in front of goal by scoring more from lesser number of created chances, the stats article here. That as far as the positives go. Against PSG we looked like we were tested by a team that knew what needed to be done, calm coordinated and deadly. It was no surprise we conceded by  the 18^th minute, what was surprising was the way our defence was easily split for that pass to Matuidi, once he skipped past Jenks and Mustafi a and curled the ball across to wards the far post, there was no mistaking the preying Cavani off Koscielny’s  shoulder. For me it was a basic silly goal to to concede early in the game but full credit to PSG, they deserved to be ahead at that time.

0-1  to PSG

We did respond though, with a bit more purpose but lacking the necessary incision in the final 3^rd. As the 1^st half wore on toward its end, Ozil conjured a moment of magic with a ‘So-junu” pass to Sanchez who was playing on the right wing this time while Iwobi occupied his trademark left wing. Sanchez did a shimmy dance into the box did a cut back and left his leg trailing for the defender to nick….Penalty! Giroud stepped up ad sent Areola the wrong way for the leveler. Arsenal was lucky here again to go into the break honors even but I’ll take it.

1-1 all square.

    After the break the gunners came out like a house on fire, we pressed and harried leaving PSG running around in chasing packs, the second gall duly came in the 60^th minute although through a stroke lucky ping pong with the ball finally going in off the shin of Verratti following a mishit shot from Ramsey. Arsenal were on the ascendency so it seemed but the team gradually relinquished control and PSG started piling the pressure. Arsenal were living on the edge of danger. Again the PSG equalizer came some through an own goal. From a corner kick floated in deep Lucas Moura was allowed to volley goal wards, Ospina was left flat footed after Iwobi made a weak attempt to clear from the right post. You could tell he was very much gutted, as he got substituted immediately, I don’t wanna believe he was being blamed but I am sure he blames himself. Tough luck but that’s the game and he should learn from the experience as long as he doesn’t allow it affect his confidence. PSG went on to boss the rest of the game with Cavani missing some gilt edge chances, I wish Arsenal made them rue those misses but the gunners had  surrendered the initiative to PSG. 2 -2 it ended. PSG now on top via head 2 head and we are now 2nd in the group...…sounds familiar??

   Again we nicked a point where we were very much 2^nd best. I worry about this current trend and taking Arsene’s comments before the game, he must be really worried. 3 Draws on the bounce in all competitions since our win against Ludogorets. I don’t want to state the obvious but we really need to pick up our form. We remain unbeaten since the only loss but we are dropping too many points along the way. Time to get back to winning against Bournemouth away especially with Man City around the corner. Our away form is a bit better than our home form. We need those 3 points if Arsenal is serious about any tittle challenge. Win that, start building the momentum into the hectic Christmas schedule hopefully who knows, Wellbz & Perez coming back from injury…maybe, just maybe we might get that luck to make this title push but we need to stopp shipping in goals, get back to those early season clean sheets, a clean sheet always gives you a chance at winning cuz all you need is a goal. Anyway that’s it from us here see you on the other side of the Bournemouth preview……Ciao

The Special 1 Point & PSG Preview.

    Okay Okay……. Lets all calm down even though that was bad, no that was horrible in terms of an Arsenal performance. Arsenals wretched winless streak in the league at Old Trafford continued for the 10^th year running gunning, our last win over there came way back in 2006……in the league ooo. That definitely wasn’t the Arsenal we have been watching this season and even our performance in Paris against PSG was better than that, at least the second half was….Init?? For once I concur with Mourinho when he said we Arsenal were the lucky ones. We were totally out gunned (We should be doing the gunning) and out matched by a more purposeful Man United. Seeing Jenkinson start in place of Bellerin gave me a lot of cause for concern initially but I never knew that would be the least of our worries on that early afternoon. Why because Man United never really took advantage of his weakness in our backline preferring to attack down their right instead, with Valencia Vs Monereal (No.. it wasnt a Penalty). It does beg the question what’s so bad about “Debauchy”? it must be really really  be very bad for him not to get a sniff at their team. Jenkinson did perform better than expected, that’s because my expectations are quite low. How the score line ended at 1-1 is a bit of a mystery but Cech had a lot to do with whatever was that mystical element. He was that piece of the gunners’ ensemble that came to the concert, saving when called upon as the busier of both keepers. It is quite telling that De Gea never had a save to make all through the match….POOR ARSENAL. Man U thoroughly deserved that lead having being the one in control, keeping Arsenal under the kosh for much of the play.  Özil, Walcott especially had one of those games to forget with Sanchez being the only one trying to make something happen but was seeing very little of the ball in areas where he could do damage to Man Utd. He kept dropping deeper and deeper to receive the ball. As for Ramsey on the wings….the left wing for that matter, which needs to stop Arsene. I hate using the word useless for players no matter how bad they play but Ramsey was this close to that, not his fault though. Arsene wants to play him with Özil in d same team by force but not the same spot. Özil is our #10 Ramsey isn’t when Özil is around period.

    This brings us to the flipside of the coin, as there are always two sides to one. Arsenal defended quite well up until that goal in the 68^th minute from Mata even though the gunners offered little or no threat going forward.  The team should also be praised for not panicking after going a goal down because they were still in it somehow. The problem with 1-0 leads is, as long as the game is still on the other team can get a goal. We were the other team, Arsene made his customary 70-80 minute substitutions, on came Giroud Ox and Xhaka. In one of our few ventures well forward Ox skipped past Rashford and put in a good cross. There was Giroud towering over Koscielny and Rojo to thump in an equalizer. Like I said credit to the boiz for snatching that point from Mourinho which made the draw sweeter. Our 1^st goal against him in the league since 2009…..progress? Naaah!! Whats progress is the fight back put up by the gunners, they say you can’t play well all the time but you must find a way to eke out points especially when you don’t play well, that’s what wins you trophies! Arsene’s boiz did that to become “the lucky ones” in Mourinho’s words. I worry about our November form though….Just one win in 3 Matches. Not too bad but definitely not good enough.

    PSG comes to town on Wednesday night for a champion’s league day 5 encounter. I made reference to our performance in Paris being the nadir of our performance this season, we just topped that with the leggy performance at Old Trafford. I wouldn’t go into any detail preview but the team needs to respond. Snap out of it and get the focus back. Topping the group is number one priority, which means beating PSG at home. Stamp on the better head to head record against them. A draw wouldn’t really cut it cuz that still puts on the pressure to win at Switzerland and we could do well to avoid that. The French champions are now back in their groove after their early season yo-yo form. 4 wins and a draw in their last 5 league matches, up to 3^rd on the Ligue Un table just 3points adrift of the surprise team of the League so far…Nice. The gunners have to step it up a few notches, we can’t soley depend on luck all the time, you have to make yours sometimes. Arsene shares this view as well talking about the need to show we can win against a Big team he said

“We had created a momentum up to beginning of November but we have been stuttering recently cuz we haven’t been winning games. We want to build that momentum again. We need to show we can win against a big team, so it’s more important for us to do the job. It would send out a statement.”

I couldn’t agree more, it’s what we have being saying about our performance in recent games and I am glad the manager is calling it out. I hope we go on to heed this by staying compact all round stiffle PSG and give ourselves a chance to win. My preferred line up will be this:

Subs: Sanchez, Adelaide, Gibbs,Chambers, Cech, Ramsey, El Neny

I will be giving Sanchez a bit of rest, he needs it and i worry about that hamstring he has a band aid over, plus Giroud has been banging on the door for a start. Iwobi starts over Ramsey please and Xhaka comes in for Neny. I can't wait for Santi to come back from injury, he gives us something very special. Anyway that's it from us, here's to a clean sheet in the win...... Ciao