Preston Escape & Swansea Preview

     Nina Simone is one old school act you should listen to, she “puts a spell on you” and you don’t know it or cant explain it but like birds flying high “I am feeelin good”. Anyway its going to be a quick one here guys so bear with me. I am feeling good not because Arsenal just bought Suarez, Modeste or Unai or  Belloti from their various clubs……naaaah! 

We all know our dear Arsenal don’t come close to doing things like that on the fly in the summer transfer window talk less of the January window, not a chance. We went to the North end of Preston to do a job and we did it however the performance was anything but captivating as we know we should. Arsenal was this close to being dumped out of the FA cup as we were stretched by the lower league team in ways I would rather not describe. An away game is always a difficult one no matter how much lower than the rungs of league football the opposition team may be but, if you wanna win a trophy, any trophy at all….you shouldn’t be playing like Arsenal did against Preston. The win aside, I look at the opportunities in the first half Preston had to finish Arsenal off for a big upset even though they have a much better head to head record on us. Preston didn’t and Arsenal got their B minus game on a bit in the second half, got a goal back early in the second half and Giroud continued his goal run of form by scoring the winner late into the second half. I would not want to disparage what the lads had done, after all Liverpool with a second string side couldn’t beat Plymouth at the KOP right? Wrong! We were lucky to win that FA cup game last weekend on the balance of it all, plain and simple!

     The weekend is upon us as the gunners travel this time to keep a date at the Liberty stadium as we play Swansea. With Arsenal currently in 5^th position o the log, I don’t need to tell you how important a win is here as any more dropped points ………. Look at it this way. Man United play Liverpool, Man City travel to Everton , Chelsea who lost their first league game in that record equaling run of wins, visit Leicester. We can see the opportunity here and I need not tell you how important it is to grab this by winning. If all goes well, I mean a big If, Arsenal could leapfrog all and sundry and perch in 2^nd Place by Monday, now that is a very BIG IF. Be that as it may, its still a chance to pile the heat on the other teams in the Top 6. The onus is on the gunners to win their game first and that’s where it becomes dicey, one which Arsenal would to stand up. Swansea on the other hand gives a bit of relief from concern [I hope I haven’t jinxed it], Second from bottom of the log, wretched run of form, recently sacked Bob Bradley for the new guy Paul Clement, what can I say? It’s a set up for us to slip against chasing the contenders right? I hope you are wrong. While our recent performances have been slow and leggy, the good news is, Welbz is coming back gradually  Özil Sanchez Welbeck Giroud Iwobi and Ox on “paper” should be more than enough ammo for the Swans even with Walcotts threat upfront still missing, if not then we really need to ask Wenger,  what we are hunting for this season? My "predicted" line up should be like this:  

Subs: Ospina, Martínez, Holding, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Reine-Adélaïde, Pérez, Welbeck

Image Credit: The UK Guardian Online

There you go, a solid looking team on Paper, now lets see what they can do.....Win or Burst. DO enjoy the game wherever you are..........Ciao