He seemed like the exact type of player we could have used at City. I didn't expect him to start that game because he started in Naples a few days earlier but switching Wilshere for Rosicky should have had a positive impact but you never can quite tell. Forget buying a striker in January we should invest the cash into a body duplication machine and give Tomas a new Ramsey body for Christmas. I guess all our players would require the Ramsey 2.0 wouldn't they such is the Welshman's insane engine. But that is not possible and I am being very childish once more.
The Bacary Sagna situation is still up in the air. After some positive comments by Arsene last week, Bac has followed them up with more cagey utterances to the French media. Bacary has plenty to give and once again this campaign he has shown his class, consistency and professionalism. For a few months now Gooners have been shouting from the roof tops to offer Bac a new contract. I am pretty sure we would have been on the case for a while now but we do not know what the players preferences are right now. Hopefully Bac will opt to extend his deal with us and continue to be one of the best defensive right back's around should he want to dip his toe into new footballing waters then perhaps we can use this as a time to evolve and buy a right back that can make the difference in the final third given that our right back is often the spare attacking outlet.
When Manchester United beat us 1-0 a few weeks back, they had closed the gap to five points, they were worried that defeat would leave them too far adrift. Today the Manchester United squad that won the title last season (plus Fellaini and Zaha) are a whopping 12 points behind us. If Arsenal beat Everton tomorrow (still a decent sized if) then we will be 15 points ahead of Manchester United in December. That ladies and gentlemen is ridiculous. Ridiculous how quickly two clubs can go hurtling into opposite directions. It should serve as a good lesson to all of us, when things seem bad maybe the solution isn't as far away as you think it is. Also when things are going well, cherish it because when you start playing the David Moyes game then well, your stack of cards call fall down very quickly.
Özil's two assists were pin point and that is why we have him, it is why we paid so much money. He has that extra bit of quality in his final pass that perhaps someone like Rosicky (as much as I love him) doesn't have. There have been complaints that he hasn't been grabbing games by the scruff of the neck and dominating matches but we already have the best midfielder in the Premier League (at least) doing that in Aaron Ramsey. Flamini's lashed strike from Özil's slid pass was enjoyable
In the 12th minute Jack Wilshere hit the far post before Boruc finally grabbed the ball. My first impression was that it was a cross gone wrong. That evening and the next day pretty much everybody else spoke about how unlucky Wilshere was. I asked if Arsenal fans thought it was intentional on Twitter that evening and 99% of responses thought that he meant to do it. I am a clear minority here and that should be more than enough to convince me that I am mistaken but I don't buy it. Wilshere would rather use the outside of his left foot to pass 7 yards. He often misses the opportunity to shoot when the ball is on his right inside the box so I am struggling believing that as the ball kicked off the surface he thought he would chip the keeper with spin on his weaker side
It was the same for the French last night. The tempo had already been set from the first match, the mind sets from both sets of players had already been created and if France scored first and early enough then the boost for them and the deflation for the Ukraine's would swing the match in favour of the home side. It finished 3-0 to the home side. If the first leg was 0-0 then you just know it would have been a much tighter match. Great news for Laurent Koscielny who now doesn't have to take the flak and negative pressure from being partly at fault for the French defeat in the first game. Also positive news for Oliver Giroud
I'd really like Vermaelen to have a good game after what happened last year. Oh crap, Sagna has fallen quite badly and is limping. He needs to stay on for this one. 18.52 We've grown into this and the game has spread out a bit 55%/45% possession in favour of the home team. Great recovery tackle from Vermaelen on Rooney. He's taken a whack in his face for his trouble. He's ok though.
Flamini has been wonderful since he signed this summer, no doubt about it. I am certainly not going to use an argument to put down another Arsenal player because he has done nothing but good on and off the pitch but this view that Arsenal can now defend because of him is rubbish
Perhaps Arsene is forced to manage the squad physically because of injuries to players he could rotate in and out of the squad. We've done without a key component in our game for weeks now. A wide player who can get close to Giroud, who can get beyond Giroud and score goals. Walcott, Podolski and Chamberlain are all different types but all players who can function in wide areas and get close to our main striker. So it is with great interest that I look ahead to a run of difficult fixtures we have on the horizon. I don't need to go into what teams we will be playing, I am sure you've already seen the teams. Here is the thing, I look at our squad and think wow, we can beat these teams. Nobody has a better midfield than Arsenal, especially creatively. Not many have a striker playing with the belief of Giroud, we do have a couple of guys heading our way
Tomorrow's match against Borussia Dortmund should give us a real treat of quality football, certainly our biggest test of the season so far. The Arsenal team of yesteryear may have struggled against Dortmund's impressive counter attacking game, that could still yet happen but this Arsenal team are far more savvy than a couple of season's back so it will be intriguing to see how both managers approach the game. Judging by Arsene Wenger's comments, it appears that Mathieu Flamini is fit to play tomorrow but won't be risked due to the nature of his injury. That will be a blow to Arsene as I am sure he would have wanted to set up his side just as he did against Napoli. Arteta and Flamini were partnered for the first time to deal with the counter attacking qualities of the Italians and boy did it work a treat. Arteta