Another Day, Another Trophy - Now For The Big One

I keep reading it was/is a friendly or a glamorous friendly at best – I think there are 18 other teams in the league that would have LOVED to play the community shield; why? Because that means they either won the FA Cup or were champions of England.

It gave Arsenal the opportunity to go into the game at the bridge on September 19^th with a win already under our belt’s against Jose’s Chelsea. It gives Arsenal a feel good factor, it gives Arsenal the confidence to know they can compete and beat the big sides and best of all, it makes the squad photo look better!

I couldn’t help but look at our squad and think ‘wow’. The strength in depth in MOST positions is unreal.

We have two right backs and you would be happy with either playing in Bellerin and Dubuchy and again with Monreal and Gibbs at left back. Gabrial and Chambers are good cover for our two centre backs. We have plenty of midfielders, perhaps lacking quality cover in the holding role but aside from that, Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla, Rosicky, Ozil along with Arteta and Flamini give us many options. Out wide we have Alexis, the Ox, Theo, Gnabry, Welbeck who can play there and up front, Giroud and Walcott will battle it out to be number one with Welbeck perhaps supporting.

You would think Cech, Koscielny and Coquelin will always start when fit purely because the competition in their position is slightly less and you would add Alexis to the list, not because of a lack of competition but because of his class and also his willingness to always want to play (He only returned to training today yet wants to play on Saturday and has been training in his own time in his holidays!). Aside from them four, you can really rotate the others to keep them fresh and with four competitions, that will be key.

I really believe Mesut Ozil is going to have a stormer this season and I must admit, I really enjoy watching him play. He has so much elegance and when on the ball, you feel something is going to happen. Arsene Wenger has challenged him to get more goals and I think he has taken up that challenge already in pre-season and beyond.

Bring on West ham on Saturday (predicting a bit of a rout, perhaps three or four goals and I wouldn’t be surprised if Ozil is on the scoresheet – In fact, my next stop is to the bookies to put some money on it).

Let’s hope we have a long and successful season – Up the Arsenal! 

The Olivier Giroud Argument

One of the main arguments and questions I had of Olivier Giroud was his performances and goal record in the big games – before last season, he had scored at home to Liverpool and at home against Spurs and that was it.

A striker playing for Arsenal needs goals against the big teams and I was particularly keen to see how his performances would be the season just gone.

He ended the season with goals against Man United at home, Liverpool home & away and a very important goal away to Man City – he even threw in one against Monaco in Monaco which sadly didn’t result in the great escape but certainly gave us hope.

Thierry Henry caused a bit of a stir recently by saying Arsenal will not win the league with Olivier Giroud – he later went on to say when he, himself was playing, Arsenal had Wiltord, Kanu, Suker to come on and make the difference. The two comments slightly contradict each other but I believe Thierry Henry meant, with Olivier Giroud ALONE, Arsenal will not win the league and I think it’s tough to argue otherwise.

Theo Walcott showed he has goals in him in the final game of the league season and the cup final and Danny Welbeck will want to prove he too can be a central striker but both are relatively unproven playing up top for long periods of the season in a title chasing team.

I’m fully in the boat to give both a chance to be the Wiltord, Kanu and Suker and play a vital part this season rather than buy an average striker who won’t do a great deal better then what we already have. If that world class striker becomes available then I fully expect Arsenal to go for him, like they tried to do with Suarez and have been trying with Benzema for the last three years.

Buying a world class striker does not mean Olivier Giroud is surplus to requirements – it means he now has team mates who can help him and help the club go for the big competitions in England & Europe.

Olivier Giroud has a massive part to play in our future as he offers something quite different and is well suited to so many games in our league, however, he can’t do it alone.

I’ve been quite surprised with the stick he has got for staying loyal (so to speak) and sign an extension (many will argue that he won’t get this sort of arrangement elsewhere and they may well be right) – I think clubs need a collection of players and certainly need a few in every position in order to be successful.

I truly believe some of the frustration from supporters on Giroud comes from not having that world star who can turn a game in one moment, such as an Suarez or an Ageuro rather then it being anything personal on Giroud.

In my opinion, Olivier Giroud had a good season last year and regardless of if anyone comes in, I back him to have another good season and hopefully get to that 20 goal mark for our fantastic football club.

Up the Arsenal.

How Did Anyone Not Enjoy The Month Of March?

A win on Saturday will result in Arsenal only being four points behind Chelsea for a few hours at least – considering the way Arsenal started and Chelsea started (new invincibles, walking the title, quadruple etc) that sounds quite amazing.

I’m not saying for one minute that the title is within reach but it’s an incredible where we are considering how we started – now to work out how to start well and end well!

Watching Arsenal in March was a joy – I hear people say that watching Arsenal is not fun anymore and I can see where they are coming from but the person I heard someone on a podcast moan about watching Arsenal’ recently had clearly not seen our performances in March.

 Arsenal started the month with a 2-0 victory over Everton at home which was essential after the Monaco showing the game previous. We then went to QPR and had a poor first half but got much better in the second to grab another vital three points. We then went to Old Trafford in the cup and broke our winless run which feels like it has been going on for years and years and we played extremely well. We went there with this new attitude of not always having to have the ball but use it better when we have it and win the game – it worked a treat. We then kept another clean sheet at home by defeating West Ham 3-0 and despite two of the goals coming quite late, we always looked in control and no real danger of losing the game. We then went to Monaco in our annual ‘mission impossible’ and came close to winning the tie but another sense of déjà vu occurred but it was another win regardless to maintain our run which was the minimum we could do. We ended the month going to Newcastle and once again kept the run going – we had a tough second half but came through it which in a funny way, was impressive to watch too.

I appreciate there are many opinions in football and opinions are what make the game so great but how a supporter of a club that have had the month we have had not enjoy it is beyond me!

The Monaco defeat at home was painful – it really was a major slip up. Arsenal had a fantastic opportunity to progress and perhaps be a surprise package in the competition. We lacked concentration and dare I say it a bit of motivation because we thought it would be an easy tie – this should be a good warning for the FA Cup semi final (along with going to the wire in last season’s semi final).

An FA Cup and second place finish would be progression but a title challenge is a MUST for next season but for now, let’s enjoy the final straight and hopefully ending with another great weekend at the end of May.