Roger Johnson’s follow through is far more dangerous and should be the talking point today. In a day where the pre match talk is often about which soft players are wearing snoods and gloves, sadly I do

Wednesday’s draw at Wigan all of a sudden looks somewhat more healthy now doesn’t it? I have not had the time to talk much about the Wigan game but these runs of games around this busy Christmas schedule can almost be seen as a sequence of matches.

In my opinion Arsene Wenger was absolutely correct to make as many changes as he did on Wednesday. Eleven players would find it extremely difficult to play at the tempo they did against Chelsea, pressing all over the pitch for 90+ minutes and then travel to Wigan repeat the same 48 hours later. If those players didn’t pick up injuries against Wigan then they almost certainly would have last night at Birmingham City.

Arsene Wenger has a degree in medical science and he has a team of sports medics who know how long a player needs to recover after a hard fought match at the top level.

Understandably that team lacked cohesion and fluency and we struggled to convert our passing into clear cut chances. Emmanuel Eboue only played at left back because Gael Clichy took a whack on his thigh against Kalou I believe and struggled to shake it off. Had Kieran Gibbs been fit then he would have played and perhaps prevented the non penalty early in the game.

As it was we did not manage to keep our 2-1 lead until the end but a draw away at any ground after resting so many tired legs is not an awful result. A Manchester United team with similar changes were destroyed 4-0 by West Ham in the Carling Cup and Chelsea would not even be able to put out a side with eight changes.

The high energy team that buzzed, snapped and sparkled against the Champions were back at St Andrews on a dodgy pitch. It has been a difficult ground for us in recent seasons, a place that has given Wenger and his troops a few too many bad memories. But as we did last Monday, we started quickly and aggressively.

The players did not allow Birmingham any time and space to attempt to play football. It was lacking at Wigan but with the players returning the high pressure pressing also returned.

Roger Johnson should have been dismissed for his horrific lunge into Cesc Fabregas early in the game. It was wrapped up in a ‘I was going for the ball’ disguise packaging. Johnson intentionally forced his foot through the ball to catch Cesc on his ankle and was very similar to the Martin Taylor lunge a few years ago.

Cesc Fabregas is very lucky to be walking around today and the brushing under the carpet by many pundits and journalists has left me fuming.

All the focus is on Lee Bowyer and his deliberate stamp on Bacary Sagna and he should rightly be punished for his act of violence but in my opinion Roger Johnson’s follow through is far more dangerous and should be the talking point today. In a day where the pre match talk is often about which soft players are wearing snoods and gloves, sadly I do not see that happening anytime soon in this country.

Those two incidents were not the only two. Koscielny, Djourou and I think Walcott were victim to spiteful and painful assaults designed to cause harm.

It doesn’t take a genius to guess what the Birmingham City manager said to his players before the game. The pitch was turned into a mess, turned up turf all over the pitch. Show these foreigners what English football is all about, get in their faces and leave your studs in.

We overcame all of that with hard work and excellent combination football.

Van Persie played for the foul but he was pulled back. If you don’t want to concede then do not pull the player, that is not in the laws of the game as far as I am aware.

Van Persie’s first of the season deflected off Lee Bowyer and past their helpless goalkeeper.

We dominated the game after the goal and carved open a Birmingham side who had only lost once at St Andrews all season. They had beaten Chelsea and drawn against Manchester United. It was in fact the same team that held the league leaders only a few days ago. Perhaps that is further proof that keeping the same intensity in a short space of time is very difficult.

My one complaint on the night is my usual complaint. I can accept our team being a little bit open at times due to our system but I can only accept it if we are clinical in front of goal.

We play high up the pitch, play in the opposition half, home or away and we have so many players that can create space for others but we are so wasteful, that side of our game reared its ugly head again.

Robin Van Persie was the main culprit but you have to put much of that down to lack of sharpness and games. The Van Persie of early last season would have scored a hat trick last night. Against sides like Manchester City, United and Barcelona we will have to sharpen up and bury our chances because they are likely to be less frequent.

Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie are the offensive players that we need to keep fit and playing together. The understanding between them is just exceptional and this is with two of those players not yet at their brilliant best.

Some of the movement and awareness between Cesc and Nasri would have left Xavi and Iniesta applauding.

Samir Nasri’s goal was exceptional. The one-two between Cesc and Nasri with such limited space was almost telepathic, Cesc’s instant return to Nasri allowed the man on form to turn and fire a wonderful side footed finish into the corner of the net.

The duo combined again for the third. Cesc’s slipped pass into Nasri who sneaked around the back door, then Nasri’s awareness to know where Cesc was going to be was the result of two talented creative players who have been working together for years. The deflection off Johnson via Dann was the icing on the cake.

Karma clearly wanted to get in on the act following Bowyer’s deflected opener.

For anyone who assumes that Cesc doesn’t care and that his head is already in Barcelona should take a look at his celebration for the second goal.

The own goal was hugely underrated. Alex Song and Van Persie chased the Birmingham players in their own half to win the ball back and 15 passes later, Cesc had his shot deflected into the net. Some of the interplay was once again breathtaking.

The Laurent Koscielny and Johan Djourou partnership is looking very good. Unlike Squillaci and Koscielny the pair compliment each other very well. Djourou wins headers and is calm in possession whilst Koscielny remains one of the best defenders in Europe on the deck. They seem to have a good understanding. Lukasz Fabianski cannot be ignored either, yet another outstanding display from the Pole in goal.

His first half save from a Larsson free kick was fantastic. He punched well and controlled his penalty box all game. Whilst he struggles to shift his labelling of last season, he just continues to do his job, and do it well. Only a few weeks ago I read that his shots to save ratio was only second to Petr Cech.

Conclusion

On December 17th, I wrote a piece about how I would like our team to look against Barcelona. I explained that we needed to drop Arshavin and work harder as a team. We needed technique, hard work and belief.

The line up I chose was this.

A few weeks later against Chelsea we see a similar version that has scored 6 goals and conceded 1 in their last two games (Chelsea & Birmingham)
Wenger may well have found his strongest side minus Thomas Vermaelen perhaps. Although with the form and compatibility of Djourou and Koscielny I don’t think that needs to be broken up anytime soon unless Vermaelen plays his way into the team via the training ground. He will need time to get up to speed, in the meantime our current two are doing a good job.

I think Wenger may have just found his strongest team and lets hope serious injury does not take that away from him. Is it so amazing that we have beaten Chelsea after so long and now beaten a Birmingham team convincingly, that have caused us problems at St Andrews in the last few years?

I don’t think so. For the first time in a long while we are in a very healthy state. We usually have an injury list consisting of 5-10 first team squad players. This time we have two.

I have been ridiculed in the past for making excuses about our performances because of injuries and it is everyone’s right to accept it or not but I struggle to accept that any team can fulfil their potential when they have their best players out of their match day squads. Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen, Bacary Sagna, Samir Nasri and Alex Song are our best players and now we almost have all of them available.

I expect Arsene’s rotation to slowly calm down in the second half of the season, at least for the league and European matches. He has managed Robin Van Persie and Johan Djourou wonderfully well. Has kept them ticking over, hopefully to be ready for the home straight in the next few months.

7 points from 10 so far is fine thank you very much, now lets knock the money men off their perch on Wednesday. We can win this league, let’s continue to work and prove it.

Birmingham City Ratings

Fabianski (8)
Sagna (7.5)
Koscielny (7.5)
Djourou (7.5)
Clichy (7.5)
Song (7.5)
Wilshere (7)
Cesc (8)
Walcott (6.5)
Van Persie (7)
Nasri (8)

Wigan Ratings

Fabianski (6.5)
Sagna (7)
Squillaci (5)
Koscielny (6)
Eboue (5)
Denilson (6)
Diaby (6.5)
Rosicky (6)
Bendtner (5.5)
Chamakh (5.5)
Arshavin (6)

Please note that ratings are only my interpretations of the game and that others will have differing opinions