Watching the game on Saturday reminded me of our game against QPR away, particularly Dikhate’s goal, in other words, the absence of our midfield. In football, defending isn’t only carried out by the defenders, rather it should be done by every man on the field, from the strikers pressuring the opposition’s defenders to the goalkeeper sweeping up any balls that drop behind the defence. Saturday’s game highlighted how important it is for the midfielders in particular to carry out their defensive duties, many a time in Saturday’s game the middle of the park was vacant only for the opposition to attack, which they did, leaving us embarrassingly exposed. For the first goal, Benayoun allowed Norwich’s full back to make that

Had things been different, I probably would have chosen to be revising right about now; luckily things happened to go the right way. Sunday lunch time, and nerves begun to kick in, as the precarious standing of our position in the table sinks in, 3rd, but with a Newcastle and Spurs win we drop to 5th, it is arguably one the worst feelings in football knowing your fate lies in the hands of others, while you watch powerless, but thank God, things did go in our favour with Sp*rs drawing with an out of form Villa side and Newcastle losing.

They say “one man does not make a team” indeed so, but I’ll tell you what, one man can make a heck of a difference. Since Mikel Arteta’s injury against Wigan, we haven’t won a single game, and this raises the question; why haven’t we been able to readjust after his absence? Should it really take four games to rectify this problem?

Watching the game on Saturday reminded me of our game against QPR away, particularly Dikhate’s goal, in other words, the absence of our midfield. In football, defending isn’t only carried out by the defenders, rather it should be done by every man on the field, from the strikers pressuring the opposition’s defenders to the goalkeeper sweeping up any balls that drop behind the defence. Saturday’s game highlighted how important it is for the midfielders in particular to carry out their defensive duties, many a time in Saturday’s game the middle of the park was vacant only for the opposition to attack, which they did, leaving us embarrassingly exposed. For the first goal, Benayoun allowed Norwich’s full back to make that overlapping run which caused a 2 on 1 situation vs Gibbs, the cross made its way into the box and WJ made a real hash of saving the shot, a really sloppy goal all round. Norwich’s second goal saw a 3 on 2 situation with only Gibbs and Koscielny back, this caused by Song and Ramsey being out of position and the third was a case of Vermaelen, usually so reliable, ball-watching. In truth, Norwich’s goals came from errors which should be rectified easily, but credit to Norwich who played some decent football. Makes me happy seeing teams lower down the league not frightened to play football, unlike some over grown thugs who decide football is best played without the use of feet. Yes I am talking of Stoke, and I won’t add FC purely because I feel they aren’t a football club.

Anyhoo, for the course of the year, there’s been much talk of our CDM position and Alex Song,  and from game to game views of him fluctuate, one minute I hear “ The best CDM in the league” and the next I hear “He’s not an accomplished CDM at all”. I believe strongly that Alex Song is a natural CDM, but this season in particular is showing a lack of defensive discipline. In my opinion, the best CDM in the world is Sergio Busquets, (If you wanna skip reading this paragraph and see what the boys all about here you go  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijDdpNxPyPU ) he is intelligent, disciplined and understands the game very well, but crucially what you notice about him is his positioning. Busquets rarely joins the offensive moves, and chooses to stay deep, as a result he’s rarely caught out of position and is always in the right place at the right time mopping up, as well he carries out the duty of linking defence to attack which he does so well, reminds me a bit of a lad named Arteta.

Linking all this back to Alex Song, all too frequently he tends to wonder forward and join the attacks subsequently leaving us exposed at times and thanks to Arteta’s experience and understanding, he covers for Song most of the time. However, it should be said the team (and mostly RVP) benefit from Song’s contributions offensively or his “Hollywood pass” as they now name his trademark chip, ultimately it boils down to finding the right balance.

West Brom away I’m guessing will be tough, and we need to start strong and keep it like that throughout, but in order to do so I believe our line up needs some tweaking.

Szczesny
Coquelin Koscielny Vermaelen Gibbs
Rosicky Song
OX
Gervinho RVP Benayoun

I’m going to be very blunt here and say Ramsey should not start, and should probably not come on, he’s been shambolic of late and I’d be gutted if he started. Gervinho was looking like his old self in the second half, bright and energetic, Chamberlain looked bright coming on and even too did Chamakh. Crucial will be how our midfield performs, learning from past mistakes, keeping the intensity throughout the 90mins.

We are Arsenal FC, and we CAN beat West Brom all we need to do is turn up. NO slip ups this time, this game is crucial we need 3rd to allow this season to end on a rare good note.

COME ON YOU ARSENAL!

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Mean Lean’s Response

The difference between Sergio Busquets and Alex Song is the jobs that both players are asked to do. I think it is an unfair comparison although as much as I despise the bloke, Sergio Busquets is a quality midfielder. At Barcelona Busquets is asked to drop in between the center backs as they split and their full backs push up the pitch. He is also asked to play one touch football, keep the ball moving and pass the ball to mainly Xavi or Messi.

Alex Song is playing as part of a rotating midfield at Arsenal, he is being asked to join the attack and create chances. Effectively all our midfielders are being asked to replace Cesc Fabregas and you can see the difference in the stats. Last season Song made 4 assists and this season he has assisted 15 thus far. Huge difference and that is down to the role he is being asked to provide.

The issue for me right now is that Aaron Ramsey is not Mikel Arteta and he currently does not have that understanding with Alex Song. It is not his fault, he is playing a different position to the one he played for the first part of the season.

As for your West Brom team I would also leave out Ramsey, not because of his talent as only last week against Stoke I thought he had a good game but after the lack of understanding against Norwich I would rather see Coquelin in the center giving the back four a bit more protection. If we are defensively strong on Sunday then I think we can score goals against West Brom.

Szczesny
Jenkinson Koscielny Vermaelen Gibbs
Song Coquelin
Rosicky
Walcott/Gervinho van Persie Benayoun

The trouble is with that is that it is too many changes to the team. I suspect that Arsene will want to make as little changes as possible and Rambo might just continue. The players have a week to get it right on the training ground and while I am very nervous about the game, I am backing them to produce it when it counts.

I hope *gulp*