Alex Song has been providing passes like his former captain ever since Cesc jumped ship. I recently asked the question as to whether Alex Song could contribute more to the team further forward and the general consensuses was that he would be or in fact is more effective from a deeper position and that may well be the case. Song has more time and space to pick

Happy Friday to you all,

I guess you are all excited or anxiously awaiting tomorrow’s clash with QPR. Not playing in midweek almost feels like a long international week interrupted occasionally by the odd Arsenal game here and there. I am certainly used to our team playing twice a week and we have had to handle that schedule for many years now. It is no surprise that we are doing so well now that we can think of one competition at a time, I mean we are men after all.

As there isn’t a great deal to natter about today, I had a subject in mind but I have changed to our midfield after reading Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain talk about his future role in that position and the passing of Alex Song.

Chamberlain described his team mates passing ability of a former Arsenal midfielder, After a mini scoff at the idea, I glanced my eyes to the reflection side of my brain and thought back to our game against Blackpool away last season. Blackpool had played a high defensive line and van Persie’s movement along with Cesc’s cutting passing just ripped the home side to pieces.

Alex Song has been providing passes like his former captain ever since Cesc jumped ship last summer. I recently asked the question as to whether Alex Song could contribute more to the team further forward and the general consensuses was that he would be or in fact is more effective from a deeper position and that may well be the case. Song has more time and space to pick his moments and find the pass without having a man closer to him whenever he receives the ball.

In some ways it makes it even more remarkable that Song has produced so many assists from what is a rotating midfield with Arteta and either Ramsey or Rosicky this season.

Cesc Fabregas was afforded a free role, he was given the ball to more than most and it was Cesc Fabregas’ job to get into positions to make the final pass. That job has been converted into a job share between all the midfield players, a change that had taken Arsenal a little time to adjust to.

I remember on the first day of this season against Newcastle, the midfield and forward three looked 50 yards apart and the understanding of who would go and who would stay seemed nonexistent. Since then Mikel Arteta has added some super strong glue to our midfield and Rosicky has been presented with his first run of games for some time.

I have a terrible habit of delaying going to sleep even though my eyes are burning and taking advantage of Mrs Lean being fast asleep by browsing through late night videos. Yes obviously I meant Arsenal videos.

In the early hours of this morning I stumbled across footage of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s central midfield performance against AC Milan and it reminded me of how outstanding he was on the night. Had he remained on the pitch, I wonder what might have happened in the end.

With an all round display like that, I wonder what exactly Arsene means when he says that he has plenty to learn. Then on my right of that You Tube clip I came across a Jack Wilshere compilation and it really is a shame that he has had to miss practically a whole season of development not only that but we have missed his contribution to the team.

I had almost forgotten about how good he is and that he gives the team something different to the likes of Mikel Arteta. His slalom skiing runs that allow him to glide away from opposition challenges but what I enjoyed watching almost as much was his passion and desire to go into tackles. Given the way we have pressed to win the ball early in recent weeks, Wilshere would have been superb in this team also because of our more direct playing style.

Picture it now, Koscielny fizzing a ball into Wilshere who lets the ball run across his body whilst taking out an opposition midfielder in the process, Wilshere then skips past another player to his left with a defender pushing out to close down the space that Wilshere has created then Walcott / Podolski / Gervinho or Chamberlain make that diagonal run from wide to center and Wilshere pokes the ball through the gap. Bang! 1-0. In your face.

You can replace Wilshere for Diaby and that move could work just as well, perhaps at a quicker speed considering the large strides of Diaby in full flow.

Rosicky has a different style to that of Wilshere and Diaby but you can see how much his driving runs has helped the forwards create space that wouldn’t have been there previously.

As good as Song, Arteta and Ramsey are they do not have that same offensive drive and often have to rely on their passing alone to break down teams, this for me is where we will make a big difference mainly next season but Diaby is now fit (Don’t even say it) and Wilshere is apparently about two weeks away from returning to the Arsenal squad.

We have an enormous amount of quality in that area of the pitch, in fact I think it is by far our strongest area in the squad. I am also desperate for Francis Coquelin to get a place in the team at some stage not for his neat and tidy passing but mainly for his energy and fight. Qualities that we have proved is invaluable in a squad.

It will be very intriguing to see who Arsene plumps for post pre season when the slate has been wiped clean and the manager wants to build his team for next season.

Given that all games from here on in are of the utmost importance, I wonder how much game time our midfielders returning from injury will get. I suspect that Tomas Rosicky would be the one making way late in games to keep him fresh, it certainly gives us plenty of tasty options that we haven’t been able to dip into this season.

Mikel Arteta is a good chap isn’t he? He is happy at Arsenal and wants to end his career here which is great news. You can see how happy he is by 1) his performances and 2) his relationship with the likes of van Persie and Thomas Vermaelen. Which I might add is another reason why I believe the man who scores when he wants will sign on the dotted line at some point.

I am enjoying Arteta more and more and he has quickly become a part of the teams foundation. Wilshere and Song had a very good partnership last season, one that probably had more room for improvement but Arteta has surely claimed that spot as his own and perhaps Jack will have to battle it out for the third and last midfield spot.

All in all we should have some exciting times ahead in that engine room. In other news Barcelona have officially complained about the state of the AC Milan pitch. Blinking bloomers, they should have given it a go when we played against them. It was far, far worse.

I haven’t heard a peep of Barcelona moaning or that AC Milan also had to play on that same pitch. Both were directed at Arsene Wenger when he raised the point. Ah well, spilt milk, complaining and all that.

Ok, that is that for now. Arsene Wenger has the usual press conference later where I guess he will be asked once more about Lukas Podolski and probably give the same answer about letting us know if a signing is made. We will also know more about Laurent Koscielny. Fingers crossed that the Kobra is ready to strike once more.

Jack ‘The boy’ Wilshere

King Abou Diaby

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Francis Le-Coq Coquelin

Mikel ‘Slick Hair’ Arteta

Alex ‘Songinho’ Song

Aaron ‘Rambo’ Ramsey

There really is some top talent in there isn’t there? All three have started less than 5 games in total.

Match preview up tomorrow at some pointage.

’till then.