What is quite incredible about Jack Wilshere is his remarkable consistency for a player his age. Remember the post Carling Cup final team in 2010/2011, the team fell apart, we were poor after that and had some shocking performances. The one player who seemed to continue his form was Jack Wilshere. When we lost away to Stoke City during that run, Jack was the only player battling for the
I re-watched the Arsenal vs Stoke City game last night, well most of it and it struck me how much Theo Walcott has matured as a player. How he is no longer the error ridden, predictable kid that would always try and beat his full back to their left and all they had to do was Andre Santos style stick out a leg and come away with the ball. He used to be the kid who would vanish from games, stuck on the touchline in home games where the opposition sat deep and was pretty much nullified. I am sure he went through a bad run where he didn't score at home matches, mainly because the space he needed
Arsene Wenger has been warming to rotation a little more in recent weeks and it was Cazorla and Podolski's turn to sit on the bench. Abou Diaby's return was expected but Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's start was more of a surprise. Mikel Arteta replaced the recently impressive Aaron Ramsey in the side and I had almost forgotten just how good Arteta is at keeping the ball and keeping the play moving.
Arsenal have signed a new left back which coincides with the news that Kieran Gibbs is facing 6 weeks out due to bruck up thigh syndrome or something. I will restrain from doing Nacho jokes, they have been done to death already and it is worse when you turn up late with a blog only to repeat them over again. Mr Monreal sounds a little like the Santi Cazorla of left backs, same club, in the Spanish squad but just beneath the first team and has all the qualities to combine Spanish flair and English grit. I haven't seen
It is difficult to understand why goals like this come about and how they can be stopped or indeed why they happen to Arsenal so often. Individual mistakes have been a thorn in our side for far too long now. The finger will most likely be pointed at our manager and coaching staff but the fact is that both Sagna and Vermaelen were in the right positions to deal with the situation, we had at least two
Thomas Vermaelen returns to the side tonight and while it has not always worked, I would select Koscielny as his partner over Per Mertesacker who has been our most consistent center back this season but looked out of sorts at Brighton. Perhaps the mobility of the Vermielny or Kosmaelen partnership may be the order of the day facing the wriggling Suarez, Sterling and perhaps Sturridge
Going back to Aaron Ramsey I am intriged to know how he gets on in his new role. He has now played offensive midfield, left attack, right attack and now defensive midfield. Will his time on the flanks help him cover for full backs out of position previously having to track wingers to protect either Kieran Gibbs or Bacary Sagna. When he goes forward, Abou Diaby should know when to sit in because
Firstly I think this has been totally blown up out of proportion but my feeling is that there is some truth to the story. If I was to join in the conjecture then my take is this, Steve Bould had full control or close to that of the defenders, about where they should be positioned etc and the result of this was
Arsenal defenders. Credit to Brighton though, they did show great character to get back into the game twice and they played some good football doing so. These are the types of team I want in the Premier League. Arsene wanted to inject some drive and goal threat into the game so he introduced Wilshere and Walcott for Rosicky and Chamberlain. Wilshere actually gave the ball away on a number of occasions when he came on but added bite and drive to the midfield. Walcott is influencing games much more these
The first half could have been different even with our lack of urgency to win the ball back. Giroud was presented with a great chance, on his stronger left side clean through in fact it was very similar to his chance against Coventry where he lifted the ball over the legs of the keeper, instead Giroud blasted wide. If you want to win tough games, you have to take those chances. For their second goal, it was Abou Diaby who dwelt on the ball for too long against Ramires who has been exceptional in pretty much every game he has played against us. I would go as far as to say that had we had Ramires then we would have won that game and that is not just down to the part he played in the goals. His work off the ball is what you want from every player in your side.