They have lost 5 of their last 6 games, the only point they managed was a 1-1 draw to bottom of the table Aston Villa during that sequence. They were thumped 6-1 at St Mary's on December 2nd by Liverpool and they have not recovered. So I am very much in two minds here. Part of me says we should batter them after our confidence boosting 2-1 win against Manchester City and the Saints woeful form but the worried part of my brain says that teams love to bounce back against Arsenal.
Walcott's goal moments later was a thing of absolute beauty. It's not the first time that he has taken a pass intended for someone else and then gone on to score. He did the same in our home victory last season to Aston Villa. Last weekend against Aston Villa his whipped finish into the far corner was wrongly disallowed, on Monday night he did it again so I wonder if he has been working on it behind the scenes at London Colny. At the start of the season when he was given his chance as a central striker many of his shots were very tame often quite powder-puff. I remember screaming out for a whipped effort rather than a soft curling shot that was easy to save.
I am hopeful that we can do the same to City tonight. They have a wealth of attacking quality going forward and have been suspect defensively. Perhaps the best way of stopping their offensive players will be to win the ball back before it gets to the likes of Silva, De Bruyne, et al. If we are to play that way it would be kinda helpful to have Alexis Sanchez fit and starting on the flank, Arsène has understandably kept his decision tucked away under his hat. Arsène said that Alexis was running but hadn't started ball work, but you cannot take much of what he says about the team pre match at face value.
Very happy for Oliver Giroud to continue his scoring record, this time from the spot. Although can I be a little churlish about the kick not quite finding the corner. Had Brad Guzan guessed the right way then the outcome may have been different. Unnecessary moaning? Yeah probably, apologies. So 50 Premier league goals for Giroud then? Not to be sniffed at, his scoring record has been top bracket this season
But if forced I must give it to Aaron Ramsey mostly because of his energy and effectiveness in carrying out the game plan. His tackling was spot on and always a threat to score on the counter.This was best exemplified by second goal, starting the move by dispossessing a Villa player and sprinting into the the Villa box to convert the cutback by Ozil. I would like to give a big shout-out to the ever improving Joel Campbell. He gave almost everything especially in the first half by pressing the Villa attackers on their left side and dropping back to help Bellerin. It made a hell of a difference in making Villa look toothless.
In today's Arsenal Vision Post Match Podcast: Paul (@PoznanInMyPants) and Elliot (@YankeeGunner) discuss our 1-1 draw against Norwich City at Carrow Road. Injuries, squad depth and much more in this weeks Arsenal Vision Podcast
Tough call for the boss to make today given that Joel Campbell put in his best performance in an Arsenal shirt so far against Zargreb in midweek but as I explained in my preview, Aaron Ramsey is the type of player you want to have away from home, games in which you need to wrestle the control in our favour and have another passing option in the middle of the pitch. We have missed his impact on the side so I am very pleased to have him back once more. It means that Joel Campbell drops down to the bench and that gives us some options from the bench should the need arise.
It's been a bit of a mixed bag for us so far. Hopes were high going in to the season: we have a young, confident manager and a group of players who were still riding the wave of momentum that took us all the way to our playoff final victory. Things started reasonably strongly and we continued the trend from last season of attempting to play expansive, attacking football. However, a number of poor defensive displays - particularly individual errors - have cost us dearly on several occasions, and combined with a lack of incisiveness in front of goal, the last month-and-a-half have been more difficult. Manager Alex Neil has moved towards a more defensively solid approach of late
I am hoping beyond hope that the trio of Cazorla, Alexis and Özil can continue where they left off in midweek. When those players produce that level of football you can almost allow the rest of the team to focus on being defensively stable and not making mistakes because you know one of those three will do something special during the course of 90 minutes to find a breakthrough or two. The understanding between the three was evident against Zagreb. The understanding between Cazorla and Özil seems obvious while the Özil and Alexis duo seems to be flourishing more and more. Norwich cannot be seen as pushovers though, it took a big effort from Chelsea to squeeze past the Canaries by a single goal last weekend, Norwich have really attempted to tighten up defensively ever since Newcastle stuck six past them in October so it might have to be a case of looking back at what went wrong against West Brom and sticking to what went well
In today's Arsenal Vision Post Match Podcast: James (@GoonerFanatic49) & Paul (@PoznanInMyPants) discuss our 3-0 away victory against the Swans on Saturday afternoon. Elliot manages to avoid the Campbell vs Alexis question and Bellerin is cast as the new Robin.