I still think that Theo Walcott is currently used as a blank jigsaw piece. A jigsaw piece that Arsene may have already identified outside of London Colny. Oliver Giroud may not fit that part of the puzzle if Arsene has decided to change the way the team functions going forward. But hey, that is purely conjecture and based on nothing more than a swirly whirly fantasy in my head of a speedy, two footed

Arsenal have been criticised by many (including yours truly) for not being able to get over the line when our game doesn’t work out as expected, so leaving any Premier League away ground with all three points tucked under our arms when we haven’t got our groove on is something to feel rather pleased about. That said I don’t believe that Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal take much in the way of confidence after games like the one that was played at Wigan at Saturday lunchtime.

You can imagine many a chest thumping team taking great pride from a roll up the sleeves, digging in performance and then carry that over to the next game but I am not always sure that this applies to Arsenal. We are a team that are propped up on combination football, on confidence in our pass and move rather than results. You get the feeling that our team would take more into the next game from a 3-3 draw than a 1-0 lucky victory. But beggars cannot be choosers at this stage and a quick glance at the league table rather undermines my beggars tag.

Only in football can the world be on the verge of blowing up only for everything to change a few weeks later and we are all sat holding hands wearing daisy chains sitting on fresh green grass.

A great example of football’s insane fickleness was on display at the lottery winners in Manchester. Their team were subjected to boos at half time for having the audacity to play 45 minutes without being ahead. But I guess everything is rosy again after Gareth Barry spared their blushes with a late, late winner against a team that we stuck five past a few short days ago.

I hate this expression for some reason but I shall join in the fun and games. ‘We are not as great as we could be, yet are not the worst team in history. The truth lies somewhere in the middle’

While our bad form of a few weeks ago was enough to make a man who shaves his hair, attempt to tear more out, I couldn’t forget about the early season displays at Manchester City and Liverpool. This squad whilst having obvious weaknesses had too many good players to be messing around in midtable. They were and are good enough for a run of victories and it was going to be a matter of the manager finding the correct balance to get that from the team, well in my eyes anyway.

Roberto Martinez taught Reading manager Brian McDermott an important lesson at this level. Do not allow good players time and space to do as they please. Wigan pressed us in the middle of the pitch and disrupted our game. Theo Walcott was isolated in attack and could not really get himself involved in the game. This is against Wigan at home, so games against teams of a negative persuasion at Ashburton Grove should be interesting for him. I have always had my doubts about Theo playing in that role and I will continue to do so. He may have this wonderful vision of balls being played through to him to run onto and then to tuck away his 65th goal of the season but in reality there cannot be many manager stupid enough to allow Theo Walcott to be in those situations too many times over the course of a season. Sorry Brian.

I still think that Theo Walcott is currently used as a blank jigsaw piece. A jigsaw piece that Arsene may have already identified outside of London Colny. Oliver Giroud may not fit that part of the puzzle if Arsene has decided to change the way the team functions going forward. But hey, that is purely conjecture and based on nothing more than a swirly whirly fantasy in my head of a speedy, two footed, skilful, finisher itching to sign for us when the transfer window reopens. We shall see.

Interestingly enough though, that Theo winning the penalty came from a certain position that he is probably well versed in these days. Santi Cazorla having an opposite day to his trip to Berkshire, slipped a ball in between a center back and wing back for Theo to dart into. I am convinced that most of Walcott’s career goals have come from that particular run, rather than having to take a ball with his back to goal and then try and manoeuvre his way into a goalscoring position.

Also interesting that Mr vice captain took the kick with Lukas Podolski on the pitch. Podolski was our first choice taker at the start of the season and hasn’t missed one for us. Wasn’t too convinced by Arteta’s penalty in truth, it was a savable distance from the keeper if he guessed the correct way, a little like against Fulham. I like penalty takers like Ian Wright and even *ahem* that dude with the grey hair who used to play for us. They put the ball high into corners where keepers cannot save them and they did/do that consistently.

We rode our luck overall, didn’t create anywhere near enough chances and basically didn’t have enough players on the top of their game to build our game up. The one offensive player that leaves me a little warm inside is that of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. He is stringing these performances together now, finally getting back to his best of last season. He looks very purposeful on the ball and supplied Theo and co a number of decently hit crosses into the penalty box. He is trying to score more goals now and you can see that by the number of shots he is taking.

I wonder if Arsene will or has already spoken to Alex about his game the way that he did with Samir Nasri. Nasri loved moving towards the ball and Arsene worked with him about making runs off the ball and getting into goalscoring positions. The next season when playing for a big money move he showed it for six months or so, scoring plenty of goals.
Chamberlain is similar (hopefully not in a jump ship sort of way) in the way that he likes to come to the ball and gain possession rather than do a Theo and leg it in behind when the likes of Cazorla get on the ball.

He will only start to replicate Walcott’s productivity when he starts to add that side to his game. I hope Arsene leaves him in the starting 11 for the most part now because he looks like he is on a nice upwards curve. What that means for either Giroud and Walcott I am not so sure.

The cancellation of the West Ham game could be seen as either a positive or a negative. A chance to rest niggles is good but pressing the pause button on our momentum has been a problem in the past. Post West Ham has already sent us off in a downwards tailspin, lets not have that happen again please.

Nine points off City in second after having to rebuild our attack and also going through a rough patch, funny old game isn’t it? Should be been seven but that is not our concern in truth. We must find a way of reaching the levels of Reading and perform that way for weeks and weeks at a time, if we can do that along with adding to the squad with ‘top top top top’ players then the second half of the season should be pretty exciting I reckon.

But that is way over there and I cannot see that far, let us just beat a Newcastle side who won for the first time in donkey’s years yesterday and might have their tails up a little.

Nine points from our last three league games. Let the crisis continue.

Bonus Viewing

Football has had it’s fair share of controversy in the last few years. John Terry and Anton Ferdinand, Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra and I am sure plenty more. Good friend of mine @RoxyArms who was behind ‘Sign da ting‘ has made another song, this time prompting others to Wash their mouths out’ and enjoy the game. It is a great message and he would be grateful if you passed it on to your footballing circles.

There is an exclusive, shorter cut of this video on 2012: Mashed, Channel 4 at 11:40pm on Friday 28th December. Check it out!’

Anyway, here is the video.