Now this is a pet hate of mine. It has been something that has bugged me for a while now. A number of players such as Arshavin and Szczesny have spoken about the team working hard this summer on set pieces (which was going very well until Blackburn) and implementing a pressing game. It looked crystal clear during the Asia tour. When not in possession we have the defensive line pushed up the wide

A merry afternoon to you,

Well at least so far. It is funny I say that because above these current ramblings, on this very page lies an unfinished blog post that I obviously didn’t finish and the start of said blog was far less merry, but time won the race and I didn’t get to complete the article. I do hate when that happens, but perhaps I will come back to those points another day.

Today I draw open the curtains and the sun is placed in a slightly different position, there are a different number of cars racing around than yesterday and the world of Arsenal has moved on.

I must say, my heart skipped a beat with the rumours of Sir Dennis of Bergkamp returning to Arsenal as part of the coaching staff. It is just a rumour as far as I know but I would absolutely love Bergkamp back home. The last thing I heard was that Dennis was having contractual problems at Ajax and I haven’t heard anything since, I am also too lazy to do my research to find that information out.

I would find it pretty amusing that every man and his dog are asking for a defensive coach for Wenger to shove two fingers in the air at his critics and bring in a forward as part of the coaching staff.

I remember reading a piece from Bergy about finishing, lobbing and physical condition and I was mesmerised, I didn’t want the article to end. I would love the likes of Benik Afobe (poor lad), Joel Campbell, Theo Walcott to the more senior forwards Robin, Chamakh and Ju Park. Has there ever been a better professional in the game? Not talking talent but professionalism. I doubt it.

I will avoid jumping the gun though until something actually happens officially.

Arsene Wenger served up part of his weekly portion of quotes about the previous games and the Bolton game coming up. Two things stood out for me.

Firstly he was talking about why he reverted to 4-4-2 against Shrewsbury Town and contrary to popular belief he changed to suit the personnel we had on the night which is often criticism levelled against him for not doing. He also said that his two wide men were also able to do the job of midfielders which is not always the case. That is very true, when you have players like Gervinho, Andrey Arshavin and Theo Walcott who regularly play in the first team, it would give you issues playing them in a deeper wide position.

Then I guess comes the argument of Theo Walcott playing as a striker in a 4-4-2.I guess this would work wonderfully well if every week we faced opponents who played a high line as high as Blackpool did against us last season at their gaff and no pressure was put on our ball players.

Off Theo would spin into the lush spaces of green ahead of him and Arshavin could waltz inside and slide through passes into his path, the defenders red in the face trying desperately to make up impossible ground before the central defender lifts his head to see how far away this ridiculously nippy number 14 is, Theo has already picked his spot, wide of the keepers outstretched arm into the inside side netting for his 23rd goal in 26 games.

What’s that term for being as overly pessimistic as possible? Ah yeah, I’m a realist.

The more likely story will be that Theo is faced week after week with two banks of four which we already face on a regular basis today without Theo’s gifted pace in central areas. The ball will be fizzed into his feet with his back to goal more often than not and either the ball bounces off him or he turns into a crowd of players. He tends to do this a little too often when he is faced with one full back, perhaps even a doubling left winger. So imagine the congestion of two central defenders, at least one midfielder and perhaps a covering full back.

This new shouting Theo will turn into even more shouting Theo. But Theo is not a winger I hear you cry and that is the truth, even if you are not crying I still agree. His role has never been to twinkle toe past four players and bend it like Beckham onto Van Persie’s head. If that was the case then he would be a success in a 4-4-2 on the right wing. He is actually playing in a less restricted forward role than van Persie’s. The position that he keeps banging on about. His role is supposed to be about timing about making diagonal runs off the back of the full back and central defenders. He has scored so many goals for Arsenal by doing his job correctly. He wouldn’t have scored many of those goals from center forward.

So my non expert advice to Theo would be to button it and keep getting into goalscoring positions from the position given to you. Plus Arsene Wenger has changed players positions more than most other managers, surely he would have moved him centrally by now if he had what it took. Surely?

How on earth did I get onto this topic? I have taken a wrong turning somewhere along the blog motorway.

Ah yes, Wenger’s quotes.

Speaking about the teams defending Wenger said:

“The modern game is a team sport more than ever because everybody has to defend completely. All the big teams do it. You do not get away with just seven or eight and the rest watching”

Now this is a pet hate of mine. It has been something that has bugged me for a while now. A number of players such as Arshavin and Szczesny have spoken about the team working hard this summer on set pieces (which was going very well until Blackburn) and implementing a pressing game. It looked crystal clear during the Asia tour. When not in possession we have the defensive line pushed up the wide forwards drop back and our midfielders and attackers hunt the ball down and win it back quickly, we were then able to make quick, sharp forward passes to turn defence into attack. Since the season has started this has vanished into a puff of smoke.

Yes, we have brought in new personnel and it could take them time to adjust to it but to be fair, only really Mikel Arteta would have needed to hit the ground running in that area as it is not Mertesacker’s job to chase people around the pitch trying to put pressure on them to lose the ball in the center circle.

As the very good Arsenal Report have stated many times, we have a habit of half heartedly jogging after the opposition and not really doing much to win it back. When we are at our aggressive best we can beat anyone.

It is no surprise that when we faced Barcelona, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea we gave.. to coin a Wenger phrase.. ‘absolutely everything’

Perhaps two games a week doesn’t allow us to do that, perhaps the new satellite navigation vests tells Wenger that it is a no no. I do not know the answer but I find it frustrating knowing that we do not always get the best out of our talent because for whatever reason we are not working as hard as we can.

Are you telling me that we would have lost at home last season to West Brom and Newcastle United if we had approached the game as we did against Barcelona? Not on your Nelson Vivas mate.

I would rather we rotated the squad more and ran our arses off in every game regardless of the opposition. This is of course from a view that isn’t able to see the facts and evidence so ignore me, I am just moaning like a realist.

I read the Oxlade-Chamberlain interview and he really is as impressive off the pitch as he is on it. Feet on the ground, well spoken and humble.

With the early season boo’s at the ground I found these quotes interesting from the player

“The fans helped because they were positive towards me and that helped. It does help when you have got the fans and the manager behind you. It does help your confidence.”

Arsene has also thanked the fans for being behind the team at the Carling Cup. The only way we can help the squad is to get behind them and it is pleasing to hear that from our fans.

Mixed news on the injury front it seems. Aaron Ramsey and Bacary Sagna will be back for tomorrow which is great. Abou Diaby and Thomas Vermaelen will be back after the International break and if they can both stay fit then they will be massive players for us, especially Vermaelen.

Yossi Benayoun and Johan Djourou have picked up muscular injuries and will not play a part against Bolton tomorrow. Sebastian Squillaci is a week away from return *cue the jokes*

I just hope that Squillaci is ying to Djourou’s yang which means we could witness the rebirth of a modern day Tony Adams mixed with the grace of Dennis Bergkamp. On a serious note though, we could see Miquel take a seat on the Arsenal bench as Djourou will be unavailable. I like the lad.

Anyhoo, my stomach is begging me to stop writing and pay it a little bit of attention, so I am going to do just that.

Back tomorrow