LOSE YOURSELF: SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY vs ARSENAL

“We want the players who come in to the team to show they are able to make the squad successful, and do absolutely everything to help us win. That’s the job of a footballer. When you get the chance, you have to be ready.”- Arsene Wenger.

The manager's words reminded me of the most iconic song in the history of hip-hop:

"Look, if you had, one shot, or one opportunity,
To seize everything you ever wanted. In one moment...
Would you capture it, or just let it slip?"- Eminem.

Sometimes in football, some competitions and tournaments are won; not by the strength of your first XI, but on the strength of your bench and the quality of your reserves. In recent years Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have not had the strength in depth to rely on his second string to rise to the occasion in competitions such as the League Cup, and with over 50 games to play every season you understand the need to rotate. This goes a long way to explaining why Arsenal have never won the League Cup under Arsene Wenger. Over the last couple of seasons we have rebuilt a squad that is better-placed to challenge on all fronts, and we have seen the manager blend youth and experience, proven professionals and break-out potential, in the League Cup and the FA Cup. A manager who grew all the wiser following years of ridicule and taunt over a barren trophy cabinet was pushed to modify his philosophy of using the League Cup to blood the reserves into first-team football; and with the quality of the current crop of players certainly better than it’s been for a long time, today’s away Cup tie at Sheffield Wednesday really must be viewed as a must-win clash to give us every chance of silverware come the end of the season.

Herein lies the problem. So far this season, the manager has called on his back-up players in the Champions League and the Capital One Cup, with limited success. A North London derby win was delivered courtesy of Mathieu Flamini’s goal-scoring antics, but this was diluted with defeats to Olympiacos and Dinamo Zagreb in Europe. While the results cannot be blamed entirely on the players that came in to the team for those fixtures, none of them really took the opportunity afforded to them to really stake a claim for a first-team role. Kieran Gibbs hasn’t caught the eye when called upon, and while I certainly sympathize with Mathieu Debuchy who found himself out of the team following injury rather than a loss of form, the Frenchman is currently being kept out of the Starting XI by the fastest fullback that ever lived, Hector Bellerin. The young Spaniard is barely out of his teenage years but his performance belies his age and increasingly shows maturity beyond his years.

A look at the numbers is telling. Nacho Monreal for instance has grown into the LB role at Arsenal and has continually improved aspects of his game since he ousted Kieran Gibbs from the side midway through last season.

	Chances Created	Chances Created per game	Passing Accuracy	Take-ons	Take-ons per game	Headed Duels
2014/2015	12	0.43	85%	6/13 (46%)	0.2	77/125 (62%)
2015/2016	12	1.2	86%	6/8 (75%)	0.8	26/39 (67%)

The only parameter where Gibbs truly trumps Monreal is on take-ons per game, which is to be expected. Hector Bellerin vs Debuchy follows a similar tale, and Bellerin’s dynamism and sheer explosive pace makes him too good to ignore. Before this weekend’s round of fixtures, Bellerin had created more big chances (6) than any other player in the league, and but for the profligacy of his team-mates would certainly have had more than the solitary assist in the league this season.

Calum Chambers, meanwhile, is one that has impressed me so far. He had an iffy first half in the game against Liverpool, and has been unlucky with a couple of own goals, but has otherwise been pretty solid and great, as always, when in possession:

“Calum can play in midfield, he can play central defender. I think in the future he will certainly be a central defender, but he can also play right back. That versatility will help him in the future because he will tactically know more about the game, he will be technically better prepared and physically he will be at the top, top level.”- Arsene Wenger.

Further forward, I don’t believe we can have much cause to complain about Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini, although the latter’s positioning does concern me at times. His role in the team, you’d like to believe, is to temper the attacking prowess of our front four with defensive stability and awareness, but for him to be in positions like he was in to score the first goal against Spurs (tap-in from a rebound) perhaps is a symptom of his tactical indiscipline? Or when he was brought on against Everton, presumably to shore up affairs at the back, but nearly scores from point-blank range with a header? I know he nearly scored, which would have been great, but should he have been there in the first place? But anyway. With Arteta not fit to feature tonight, Flamini will definitely get another crack in the first team, let’s hope he takes it.

Up front, the main issue would be with Joel Campbell. The Costa Rican had a decent World Cup 2014, and a good spell with Olympiacos before that, but that aside has really failed to impress in the red and white. What counts in his favour is that the manager still places a lot of faith in his abilities and potential:

“I like Joel Campbell very much for two reasons. One is that he has outstanding individual quality, but he is also a team player. He works very hard for the team. I’m convinced he will get a chance here and that he will take it. He has another opportunity against Sheffield Wednesday and I’m hopeful that he will show that he has the quality to play for Arsenal.”-Arsene Wenger.

Overall, I’m pretty excited to watch these players come in and hopefully do a job for the team. The Emirates faithful perhaps need reminding of the qualities these guys bring to the table, just as Giroud has done in recent games. David Ospina unfortunately is still out, and Arsene has confirmed that Petr Cech will continue in goal. Reserve ‘keeper Matt Macey is clearly not ready to make the step-up just yet, but fingers crossed our only fit senior goalkeeper avoids injury tonight.

Sheffield Wednesday are going well in the Championship and are sitting pretty in ninth, with many expecting them to challenge for the play-off places as well, so tonight will be no walk in the park. Hope we enjoy the game and result!

*Quotes courtesy of the Daily Mirror*

*Image courtesy of Arsenal Media*

GIROUD AND CECH STAND TALL: ARSENAL 2-1 EVERTON

“It is very pleasing [to go top of the table]. We were in a crisis at the start of the season and nine games later no one would have predicted that because we relied on our spirit, our togetherness and our desire to do well. It worked so let’s continue with these continue with these ingredients.”- Arsene Wenger.

Of course the Manchester Derby ended 0-0 so technically we’re now second on goal difference, but well you get the manager’s point. Two goals in 100 seconds from Olivier Giroud and a first goal of the season (actually a first since January) for Laurent Koscielny were enough to see off a dogged Everton side 2-1 at the Emirates. Arsenal have gotten into this delightful habit of scoring goals in bursts, three goals in 14 first half minutes against Manchester United, then three goals in 12 second half minutes against Watford, then two goals in 16 minutes against Bayern Munich, and two goals in 100 seconds against Everton yesterday. Lovely! Arsenal have won four league games in a row now, and haven’t failed to score in a game since the 2-0 reverse at Stamford Bridge, a run stretching seven games now.

THE LINE-UP:

The starting XI featured three changes from the side that took on Bayern Munich midweek, two of them enforced-Gabriel came in for an ill Per Mertesacker, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain took his place on the right of midfield in place of Aaron Ramsey, out for four weeks with a hamstring strain. The third change, surprisingly given the norm in recent weeks, saw Giroud start his first league game since our game against Liverpool in August. Four of Giroud’s last five goals for Arsenal have come off the bench, but his inclusion in the starting XI perhaps has a lot more to do with Giroud’s contribution to our play when he came on against Bayern, where his ball retention and hold-up play allowed Cazorla and Ozil to get up the pitch quicker, giving us territorial advantage over the opponent. Or maybe Arsene Wenger just felt that Theo needed a rest as well.

THE SET-UP:

After a game against a Pep Guardiola side in which we “enjoyed” a mere 27% possession of the football, the game against Everton was always going to be more about what we can do with the ball than what we can do without it. As I opined in my preview, Roberto Martinez and Everton have seen a slight shift in their football philosophy, favouring a more direct style of play to suit Romelu Lukaku, and we ended up with 57% of play. We still needed to be at our best defensively however, and we were brilliant at breaking up Everton’s play particularly in the first half. Perhaps the whole team as a defensive unit was switched on after having to put a shift in against Bayern, because Arsenal made a season-high 31 interceptions against Everton- we had averaged just 19 interceptions per game before this game.

In keeping with this theme, we had 73 ball recoveries in this game, which is 13 more than our season average of 60 per game. While against Bayern Cazorla and Ozil were joint top of the pile with nine ball recoveries, we had Koscielny, Coquelin and Sanchez all on 12 ball recoveries, and Cazorla behind the trio with ten. Koscielny and Monreal did brilliantly intercepting those passes into Lukaku and Deulofeu on the right, and it’s no surprise then that the duo combined for five tackles, nine interceptions and 17 ball recoveries, helping to turn over possession whenever Everton attempted forays into our half. One typically dangerous aspect of Gerard Deulofeu’s play is in his crossing- he was at the peak of his powers when Everton beat Southampton 3-0 and in their 3-2 win at Southampton- but he was only 1/10 on crosses on Saturday, with Monreal blocking three of those crosses.

Our work on the ball was breath-taking at times, and at this point I must pay homage to Santi Cazorla. 102 touches of the ball, 75 of 81 passes completed, 93% passing accuracy, 28/33 in the attacking third (85%), 8/9 on long balls (89%), 5/5 on set-pieces, 4/4 on take-ons, three chances created and one assist. Fantastic. Mesut Ozil was also excellent, 89% passing accuracy, 88% in the final third (30/34), five chances created and one exceptional cross for Giroud to head home for the opening goal. He nearly scored as well, hitting the post late on with a placed effort from just outside the box. Ozil and Cazorla are now second and third on chances created in the league, with 35 and 31 chances created respectively and Ozil is now top of the league in terms of assists with seven. I saw a stat on Twitter, that Ozil now averages an assist every 2.71 games, which is the best assists per game ratio ever recorded in Premier League history. Top stuff.

THE GOALS:

One of Arsenal’s patient passing moves ended up with Bellerin finding Ozil on the right, and the German floated in a lovely cross that just tempted Everton ‘keeper Tim Howard off his line enough for Giroud to head the ball over Howard and into an empty net. Giroud, despite not starting a league game since August, now has five goals to his name and six in all competitions.

“We have a different profile with Theo, and he was doing well at the beginning of the season. I try to bring what I know to the team so I’m pleased with the header.”- Olivier Giroud.

We didn’t have to wait long for the second, and the Frenchman was again involved, tackling John Stones as Everton attempted to play the ball from the back straight from the restart. Sanchez recovered possession before being tripped by Seamus Coleman for a free-kick. Cazorla stepped up and whipped in a great cross with such pace on it that Koscielny headed it virtually on the line into the back of the net for 2-0. Tim Howard was perhaps culpable for the second as well, but anyway.

We should have scored more, Ozil and Giroud hit the woodwork, and Flamini headed the ball straight at Tim Howard when either side of the ‘keeper and it would have been 3-1.

A word on their goal:

“The thing is, when we are attacking we need to finish the action with a shot, not get counter-attacked. We know that they play well on the counter-attack. They break well and we were aware of that, but their goal was a bit lucky because of the deflection.”- Olivier Giroud.

It warms my heart to see that some work had gone into studying the opposition, something which Arsene Wenger has been accused of not doing in the past. It was the first goal we conceded after three consecutive clean sheets and 334 minutes of play, so that hurt to see it go in like that. I loved the moment right at the end when Everton broke from their own half, Lukaku had the ball in our penalty area and Gabriel put in a goal-saving, match-winning tackle and he then got up and was pumping his fists in the air wildly, just to show you how much the three points meant to the team.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH:

Has to be Olivier Giroud for me. Six attempts, two on target, one off the crossbar, and one well-taken goal to take his tally to six for the season. His ball retention and control was sublime, and he was 28/33 on passes, which is the highest passing accuracy I’ve seen from Giroud in a really long time (85%). His really played on his strengths, and his aerial prowess in particular, going 3/5 on headed duels and it was also great to see how Koscielny, Gabriel and Giroud set themselves up whenever we had a set-piece, one standing behind another hence making it difficult to mark them, and we ended up creating three chances from corners alone. And the stat that will surprise you most of all, Giroud was our top tackler with 4/6 successful tackles. Not a bad way to stake your claim for a first-team slot I dare say.

Right, we go again against Sheffield Wednesday in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday. Till then.

*Quotes and images from Arsenal Media*

BUILDING CONSISTENCY: ARSENAL vs EVERTON

“Now for someone to be consistent in the Premier League you have to win every week and compete at the highest level every week- but to compete for the Premier League is really, really hard.”- Mikel Arteta.

With a run of five wins in our last six league games coupled with three successive clean sheets, it is about that point in a campaign where words such as “consistency” begin to be bandied about. Consistency will doubtless be key in deciding the destination of the league title come May 2016, and Arsenal will be looking to underline their aspirations when they take on Everton in Saturday’s late kick-off fixture at the Emirates. Wins over Manchester United and Bayern Munich have certainly brought the feel-good factor back at the Emirates after a drab start to the season in terms of our form at home, and another three points against a difficult opponent will be crucial, especially considering United and City play each other this weekend. Tomorrow’s opponents Everton had been in decent form prior to last weekend’s home defeat at the hands of Manchester United, a result which means they have now won just one of their last four games.

Our head-to-head record with the Toffees will fill you with optimism- we have only lost one of our last 16 league games against Everton. Our record at home to Everton is even better- Everton haven’t won at Arsenal in the last 19 games in all competitions, a run stretching back to January 1996. Overall, we have kept five clean sheets in our last seven league games, scoring 13 goals in our last five, and winning the last three by three-goal margins. Everton, meanwhile, have kept three league clean sheets, and only one in their last five games. Of course form doesn’t count for much when the 22 players take to the pitch, but confidence does affect performance and that should count in our favour.

Tactically speaking, it has been interesting to watch Everton play under Roberto Martinez this season. This is the Spaniard’s third season in charge at Goodison Park, but many will remember Everton pushing us close for the 4^th Champions League spot in the 2013/2014 season, when Everton held us 2-2 at the Emirates. Everton played some great possession football on the day, dominating possession as we turned in a particularly tepid first-half performance. Things have since changed, tactics shifted and playing styles modified, more so for Everton after they endured a difficult start to the following 2014/2015 season. Everton struggled to get the best out of Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku, and it was largely suggested that this was a direct consequence of their prevalent style of play. Consider this, if you will:

	Average Possession	Passing Accuracy	% of long balls
2013/2014	53%	84%	40%
2014/2015	51%	83%	40%
2015/2016	50%	81%	42%

Martinez realised he had to play a more direct brand of football to get the best out of the club record signing-Lukaku, and it has told this season. Lukaku has scored five goals in nine appearances and is much more involved at the top end of Everton’s play. Initially Arouna Kone and now Gerard Deulofeu have played their parts in assisting the Belgian, but none more so than Ross Barkley. The England international has already registered more assists in nine games this season (3) than he did in the whole of the last season, and his two goals scored so far is as many as he managed last season too. More telling perhaps is his “chances created” stat, which has grown steadily from 0.74 per game in 2013/2014, to 1.14 in 2014/2015, and 1.8 in 2015/2016. If we’re to keep another clean sheet tomorrow you feel we have to cut the supply line into Lukaku, and Francis Coquelin will have to be on his toes.

Team news now, and we have to make do without Aaron Ramsey and David Ospina for up to four weeks. Mikel Arteta will also miss tomorrow’s game after he suffered an ankle injury in training on Thursday. Wilshere, Rosicky and Welbeck are penciled in for returns in early 2016. In more positive injury news, Gabriel has made a full recovery from illness and has taken part in training, meaning he is available for selection tomorrow. Oxlade-Chamberlain will come into the team in the absence of Ramsey and Arteta, and I’m sure many like myself will be excited to see what the Ox has to offer after a consistent run in the starting XI. What that means, however, is that we’re now short on options on the bench- should things not go well with our Starting XI there won’t be much in the way of alternatives to personnel that Arsene Wenger can make. Fingers crossed then!

There had been talk of resting a couple of players for the game against Bayern, and the theme has still persisted in the lead-up to tomorrow’s game, but the manager wasn’t forthcoming on the issue:

“I’m not sure at the moment to rotate because we had a medical meeting this morning with our recovery tests to see how everybody recovered and so it is difficult to speculate on players who might be tired and are not tired, sometimes you might see that during the game. I don’t think we have a fatigue problem.”- Arsene Wenger.

Everton’s 3-0 win over Arsenal in the 2013/2014 season featured Lukaku at his bullying best, taking advantage of space down Arsenal’s left to take on and, admittedly, give Nacho Monreal a torrid time at LB. This time he comes up against a different Nacho Monreal, a player who has grown into one of the best fullbacks in the league in 2015, and an Arsenal side with a better set-up and better shape in midfield. Lukaku will likely not drift to the right as often with the inclusion of Deulofeu in the line-up however, and he will pose an entirely different problem for Monreal. A true flair player, but his crossing has come on in leaps and bounds. Favouring a cross whipped in with his right, Cazorla or Sanchez may have to double up on Deulofeu to cut off that particular supply line.

Theo Walcott looks set for yet another start despite Giroud scoring after coming off the bench in four of his last six matches, and perhaps this is lingering in the manager’s thoughts:

“You have to accept that no club in the world can play with only one striker. If I would do it then you would first accuse me of being irresponsible… They are top players, I consider the form, the game on the day but at the end of the season both will have played their share of games. At the moment it is Theo but in a few weeks it might be Giroud. What is important is that both contribute.”- Arsene Wenger.

The Frenchman gave the team a different dimension after coming on against Bayern in midweek, helping us to have more of the ball in Bayern’s half and holding it up well for Cazorla and Ozil to join in play. You suspect tomorrow will not be as difficult for us to play in opposition territory. We’ll again be looking to Alexis, Ozil and Walcott to convert possession into goals, and with the added dimension of Oxlade-Chamberlain’s power and pace down the right providing additional speed and an outlet on the counter-attack, tomorrow promises to be an exciting game. Enjoy it J

*Quotes and image courtesy of Arsenal Media*

FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE: ARSENAL 2-0 BAYERN MUNICH

“I think the key was to keep the discipline in the performance because they played really well and came full of confidence and they controlled the game by having the ball and opening spaces. Also, we need to make sure that we are organized and disciplined and work as a unit, as one, and I think we did really well.”- Petr Cech.

Arsenal brought Bayern Munich’s 12-match winning run to a shuddering halt with a gutsy 2-0 win in a vital Champions League clash at the Emirates stadium last night. It truly feels incredible just writing that, considering just how the odds were stacked against us. The Gunners had lost their opening two Champions League fixtures to Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiacos, the first time Arsenal have lost their opening two Champions League games in their history. The last team to progress from the group stages after such a start was Galatasaray in the 2012/2013 season. Next up for us was the German juggernaut that is Bayern Munich who had won all 11 of their games this season, scoring 37 and conceding just four, keeping seven clean sheets in the process. Arsenal have never lost three consecutive European games, but were facing a familiar foe- we have been paired with Bayern Munich for the third time in the last four seasons- and had lost the two corresponding fixtures 2-0 and 3-1 at the Emirates. Taken in wider context, Arsenal had conceded exactly three goals in three of their last four Champions League games at the Emirates- against Olympiacos, AS Monaco and Anderlecht- and faced a true uphill battle to keep out the insatiable pair that is Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Muller, who have combined for 27 of the 37 goals Bayern had scored thus far.

THE LINE-UP:

Arsene Wenger went with an unchanged line-up from the side that beat Watford 3-0 just three days prior. This meant a first Champions League appearance of the season for Petr Cech in goal, and it only seemed right that our best ‘keeper would be between the sticks for this do-or-die clash. Theo Walcott started once again up top, and curiously Bayern coach Pep Guardiola went with David Alaba, normally a LB, to partner Jerome Boateng in central defence. Doubtless to counter Theo’s pace as the Austrian is no slouch either, but I think as an “insurance policy” for the German side as well- Guardiola likely felt he needed the requisite recovery pace in case we broke through their high line. More on that later.

THE SET-UP:

“It was not deliberate from the start (to let Bayern have possession) but I thought when we played very high up we stopped them from playing. When we were playing halfway they opened us up too much so I decided to drop Ozil a bit deeper and to make it tight around the box and catch them on the break…”- Arsene Wenger.

When you come up against sides like Bayern Munich or Barcelona, or a Pep Guardiola-managed side rather, you either face them up and try beat them at their own game (compete for possession, press high, and attack) or you cede possession, stay compact and organized, put a shift in and take your chances when they come your way. In my preview, I opined that we’ll see a similar performance to the United game in which we scored early, kept it tight and hit hard and fast on the counter-attack. Yesterday night was not entirely to script in this regard as we had to wait until the 77^th minute for the break-through, but other than that both games were pretty similar. We had to play deep, stay close together especially in midfield, full-backs tucked in and try to compress the space in our final third.

I actually thought the set-up wasn’t entirely right in the opening half- on a few occasions Francis Coquelin didn’t seem to be in tandem with Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker, perhaps Coquelin was wary of sitting too deep against a side of Bayern’s quality. I was also concerned about Bayern creating 2-vs-1 situations on either flank, but by and large the game plan was well-executed. Douglas Costa still underlined his credentials as one of the most dangerous wingers in the game as the Brazilian gave Hector Bellerin trouble to no end especially in the first half. He ended up having 9/10 successful take-ons, which is an incredible stat. He was Bayern’s outlet when things got tight in the middle and he managed to put in a few dangerous balls as well as draw finger-tip saves from Cech.

Now obviously Arsenal are a side that are accustomed to playing with the ball and have dominated possession in all but two of their matches so far this season (one being when we ended the game with nine men at Stamford Bridge). Yesterday night was always going to be more about what we did without the ball, and a case can certainly be argued that we excelled, even dominated in that regard. We created the better chances and had more attempts on target despite having only 27% of the possession.

	ARSENAL	BAYERN MUNICH
Total shots	13	21
Shots on target	8	6
Percentage of shots on target	62%	29%
Shots in penalty box	12	9
Percentage of shots in penalty box	92%	43%
Big chances created	4	2

So in case anyone speaks of Bayern’s dominance on the ball, point him/her in the direction of those stats above. Arsenal were more dangerous with the little possession that they had. If only Neuer wasn’t such a good ‘keeper eh? I still don’t understand how he kept Theo’s header out by the way.

THE GOALS:

By the time Theo was being subbed off for Giroud on 74 minutes, he had had six attempts, with four on target (all saved) before Giroud came on, but the Frenchman scored with his first attempt on goal just three minutes after coming on. Giroud actually has more goals than he does starts now, and with his goal yesterday has now scored four of his five goals after coming off the bench. Super-sub much? I don’t think he’ll like that tag though!

The goal itself was fortuitous in the manner in which it went in. Giroud himself won a free kick, and as Cazorla floated the ball in, Manuel Neuer came for the ball and missed it completely. Let’s just pause there for a moment people. By this point Neuer had already defied Arsenal with remarkable stops from Ozil and Theo, but even the best make mistakes. Remember that the next time Cech or Ospina messes up. Giroud was in the right place to bundle the ball home, but the ball rather came off his face (I think he even had his eyes closed), then off his arm and rolled into the back of the net. A scruffy effort, but he’ll take them either which way.

The second came after some brilliant, lung-bursting stuff from Bellerin- an Arsenal attack broke down deep in opposition territory, and as Bayern attempted to pass the ball from the back Bellerin gave everything he had to intercept, drive forward and beyond Alaba before squaring the ball for Mesut Ozil to slot home. Neuer again nearly defied all that is humanly possible to keep the ball out, but this time the ball had just crossed the line before he could get to it. Full marks for the official behind the goal for giving it as well.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH:

Petr Cech. Everyone in red-and-white earned their plaudits this week, but Cech was absolutely phenomenal when it mattered the most.

“I think there were two key moments. Obviously if Thiago had scored early in the game then they would have had control of the game so it was a very important save and then obviously I’m glad I made the save against Lewandowski as in that moment we could have been 1-0 down and instead in a few minutes we were 1-0 up and basically that decided the game.”- Petr Cech.

Cech ended the game with six saves, two big chances saved, which is actually identical to Neuer’s stats but taken in wider context- Cech has now saved 75% of the big chances he’s faced and 77% of the shots in prime areas he’s faced. He also boasts the best shots saved ratio in the league- 84%.

Yesterday’s win came at a cost as we now have a hamstring injury to Aaron Ramsey to contend with. There is continued concern for Alexis Sanchez as well:

“(Ramsey) is alright but very down because he told me that his hamstring is quite a tough one. He is out. Alexis, you could see he was a bit jaded physically tonight and he still pushes himself so much but he finished exhausted. The two games with Chile, plus travelling, plus Watford, plus tonight, it is too much.”- Arsene Wenger.

Let’s enjoy the win before we go again this weekend against Everton.

*Quotes and image from Arsenal Media*

MAY THE ODDS BE FOREVER IN OUR FAVOUR: ARSENAL vs BAYERN MUNICH

“We have some ground to make up in Europe because we have not been at our desired level in the opening games. Our focus has been much stronger in the Premier League than the Champions League, but we know in this game our focus needs to be the same. We have belief and confidence we are doing something right. We could be a little bit suspected of not taking the first two games at the right level, of not taking opponents seriously enough.”- Arsene Wenger.

“In this situation they have an advantage because they have to win. I cannot imagine they won't fight for 90 minutes. You have to look for a way to play that situation, we have to be intelligent and control our game. I prefer our situation, though, no doubt about that; I prefer to come here with six points rather than none. But I can imagine my team with zero points at home to Arsenal – I know my team would be animals and aggressive, because it is the last chance. You have to give everything.”- Pep Guardiola.

Err… right. Tonight’s opponent is Bayern Munich. The Bundesliga champions have won all eleven of their opening Bundesliga and Champions League fixtures, scoring 37 and conceding only four, averaging 3.2 goals per game. Their current nine-match winning run is the longest winning streak witnessed at the start of a Bundesliga season. Bayern have averaged 68% possession in the Bundesliga, and 71.8% possession in their matches in all competitions. Bayern have won their last 12 competitive matches in all competitions. Bayern also defend well, keeping five clean sheets in the league and seven clean sheets in 11 matches in all competitions. They only allow the opposition 7 shots per game on average. Arsenal, by comparison, allow the opposition 11 shots per game. Bayern themselves take 18.4 shots per game, which isn’t particularly terrifying unlike other aspects of their play (we average 19.7), but they have the best shot conversion rate in the Bundesliga.

Yet this is a hole that we dug ourselves into in fairness, with our two most calamitous results so far this season coming in those defeats to Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos, and I won’t even dwell on those.

“The confidence level is there, we know exactly what is required. A 0-0 is not even a good result. To score goals, we have to attack.”- Arsene Wenger.

As both managers put it, the situation and the context around our Champions League campaign so far simply necessitate a result tonight. Needs must. Ideally we should be looking at ways and means of stopping Robert Lewandowski, who has scored 22 goals in just 16 games for club and country this season, and Thomas Muller, who has nine in nine Bundesliga games already. In this regard, and despite Arsene Wenger’s quote above, I expect a game similar to the 3-0 defeat of Manchester United. Scoring early will be crucial to this game plan, and as the side with no points after two games playing at home the onus will be on us to attack. Bayern only know one way to play, they’ll likely hog the ball, play it in our half and try to get Douglas Costa and Thiago Alcantara on the ball as often as possible as these are their most potent channels of attack. Costa and Thiago have combined for 11 assists so far this season; and Costa and Mario Gotze have done well in the continued absence of Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben.

Seeing as we’ll spend large portions of the game without the ball, you get the feeling that this is the sort of game which can be decided by moments rather than anything else really. Alexis Sanchez has been in inspired form, scoring ten in his last six games for club and country, and he will need to be at his absolute best tonight. Sanchez and Walcott have formed an understanding of sorts in recent weeks, with Sanchez assisting both of Theo’s goals in the Champions League and Walcott assisting Sanchez twice as well, and may well find some joy up against the CB pairing of Jerome Boateng and Javi Martinez. As a consequence of Bayern’s game they like to play a high line- you have to believe that the chance to hit them on the break will present itself. Two more players I’ll be looking at to have big games tonight are Ozil and Coquelin, they will be critical to us putting any meaningful counter-attacking moves together. It’s happened a couple of times this season already, Coquelin puts in a tackle in our own half, Cazorla/Ozil recovers possession, releases Ramsey/Sanchez and one right pass later, the ball’s in the back of the net.

Start fast, score early, control the space between the lines, nullify the threat from wide, counter-attack with pace, power and precision, and win the game. Sounds easy enough right? Hector Bellerin has faced difficult opponents down his flank, but Douglas Costa might prove to be his trickiest customer yet. With David Alaba overlapping outside him, the young Spaniard will need all the help he can get from Aaron Ramsey to cut off that particular supply chain for the irrepressible Lewandowksi.

In terms of team news, there isn’t much to report from our end save for David Ospina who will miss out through injury. Isn’t that a little convenient though? I mean, a lot of eyes would have been on Arsene Wenger’s selection in goal tonight following the omission of Petr Cech from our defeat to Olympiakos and the subsequent errors made by Ospina. Would he have gone with Ospina, the ‘keeper whom he so valiantly defended in the aftermath of that particular defeat, hence benching the club’s best goalkeeper for a game of this magnitude? Or would he have recalled Petr Cech, meaning he doesn’t trust the Colombian enough for this game? I guess we’ll never know now.

Bayern will be missing whole host of players, including Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben and Mario Gotze (smiles in glee). Douglas Costa faces a late fitness test but is expected to start anyway.

So there we are. Tonight we’ll be playing the role of Tom Cruise in the latest installment to the sequel “Mission Impossible”. Yet we have to win. May the odds be forever in our favour.

*Quotes and image from Arsenal Media*

PATIENCE PAYS DIVIDENDS: WATFORD vs ARSENAL

“It’s good to come back to winning ways in the Premier League. It was a difficult first half, they pressed us really well, but we stuck to the game plan, and our quality showed in the second half.”- Aaron Ramsey.

Well, someone needs to remind the Welsh Jesus that yesterday’s 3-0 win at Watford means we have won three on the bounce, and five of the last six domestic games, scoring 14 and conceding just four! Well he scored so we’ll let him off the hook with this one. Yesterday’s second half blitz, which saw us score thrice in 12 minutes, meant Arsenal are only the second team to score at Vicarage Road in the league, and the first side to score more than two goals in a single game against Watford. Also, we’ve now scored 11 goals in the last three league games and 15 in our last five games in all competitions… but more importantly, we’ve now kept five clean sheets in nine league games. If only this were the case in the Champions League. Oh well. It’s also interesting to note that we had scored just five goals in our first six league games, but have now scored 11 in our last three; which means our chance conversion rate has improved from one goal from every 15 shots to one goal every 11 shots. But more on that in another post.

THE LINE-UP:

After nine games I think it’s pretty clear we have gotten into some sort of groove in as much as our first XI is concerned. Yesterday’s line-up featured just one change from the starting XI that blitzed United 3-0 last time out, with Mertesacker coming in for Gabriel who apparently was ill this week. Mertesacker might have come in for Gabriel either way though. Giroud’s brace for France in midweek still wasn’t enough to earn him a place in the starting XI as Theo continued to lead the line as has become the norm now. We are beginning to reap the rewards of signing Petr Cech by the way, as the Czech shot-stopper has now kept five clean sheets in nine and has the best save-to-shots percentage in the league (84%).

THE SET-UP:

“To beat Watford you have to be completely committed to the game. We faced a Watford team that was well organized and knew exactly what they wanted to do. They were very physical in the challenge and very strong in the challenges and very direct. These three things together, it took us a while to get on top of that. In the second half, the fatigue coming in, Watford came in less in the challenges and we got the ball quicker in transition and were much more dangerous.”- Arsene Wenger.

This is one which went according to script in a tactical sense. As I opined in my match preview, Watford would likely struggle to create chances and would not trouble our goal as often as other teams would. Indeed they had averaged 13 attempts on goal per game, and had just 8 attempts yesterday, with only one of those on target. And this attempt on target came in the 10th minute, meaning Cech was mainly a spectator for the rest of the game, save for an awkward clearance after a slight mix-up with Mertesacker. I also thought that Watford would attempt to press high up the pitch and try to get in our faces, and they certainly did so in the first half. We never really got out of first gear in the entire first period, and save for some particularly awful finishing from Odion Ighalo we perhaps would have found ourselves one down going into the break. We struggled to create any meaningful chances in the first half, I think Ramsey had two decent chances which he wasted and by half-time he had had four attempts, none of which were on target. His goal yesterday meant he's now scored one goal after 29 attempts since the season began... Which is more than we can say about Cazorla for instance, who is 0/22 after yesterday.

Watford were direct, and extremely physical. Troy Deeney was effective in this regard, throwing himself about and bullying Bellerin and Coquelin in the earlier stages of the game. Every time Gomes got the ball he sought to look for Deeney via long balls, and was successful six times in the first half. This was Watford’s second-most successful passing combination in that first half by the way for those who are interested, and you’ll struggle to find more successful long balls from a goalkeeper to a striker in the league. Mertesacker and Koscielny also struggled a little in dealing with two strikers. Mertesacker didn’t seem as assured as usual at times, and he ended up picking up his first yellow card of the season for it. Koscielny might have topped the charts in terms of tackles (4/4), interceptions (6), clearances (7/8) and headed clearances (4/5), but I counted at least three mistakes he made in the first half, one of which led to a Watford attempt on goal.

Some suggested that Watford would struggle to replicate this intensity in the second half, and this proved to be the case. Watford’s performance levels dropped in almost all parametresmeasurable in the second period:

	FIRST HALF:	SECOND HALF:
Passes (total)	126/172	99/133
Passes (attacking third)	38/64	30/52
Tackles	14/24	10/19
Interceptions	11	7
Clearances*	8/11	15/15
Fouls committed	3	8

*Clearances normally denote the amount of pressure a team is under. The more clearances a team is forced to make, the more pressure they are under.

Even whereas Gomes was able to find Deeney with six long balls in the first half, he was only able to do so twice in the second half. Watford were unable to sustain the intensity with which they started the game, and Arsenal took full advantage. For instance, while we had eight shots in the second half as compared to nine in the first, our shots accuracy more than doubled in the second period (22%-50%).  This also repeated itself when it came to shots within Watford’s penalty box. 13 of our 17 shots came in Watford’s penalty area, seven in the first half and six in the second, but our accuracy tripled from 17% in the first to 57% in the second. We could also look at the number of shots that Watford allowed us to take in the penalty area, which was 6/9 in the first half (67%) but 7/8 in the second (88%). Last parameter now, Arsenal’s number of passes and passing accuracy in the final third, which improved from 67/88 (76%) in the first period to 102/120 in the second (85%).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH:

A truly tricky one for me to call this time round. I noted whoscored.com and goal.com both awarded this to Mesut Ozil, and seeing as he was credited with two assists it’s not hard to see why. The first was rather fortuitous however (I would give it to Cazorla) and seeing as Ozil had a difficult (read anonymous) first half as well, I’ll be giving my man-of-the-match to someone else. Someone whom, I believe, is and has been the most under-rated defender in the league for the past season and this, Nacho Monreal. The solid start he has made to the season has gone largely un-noticed, and yesterday he was spectacular. He will never have the same flash and pizzazz that his counterpart and compatriot Hector Bellerin on the other side, but he is mighty efficient and effective. 2/2 tackles made, 5 interceptions (2nd after Koscielny), 6/7 clearances, 4/4 headed clearances, 5/5 aerial duels won (1st), 89% passing accuracy and two chances created. I do feel for Kieran Gibbs, who’s being kept out of the side by the Spaniard’s stellar form.

Honourable mention to Coquelin whose work on the ball rather than off it has become of utmost importance to the team. He was 4/6 on successful take-ons (tied with Alexis) and is 16/18 on successful take-ons in the league overall. That must turn heads at least. He was also 69/73 on passing yesterday (95% accuracy). And for Giroud as well, for the part he played in two of our three goals. For those who were keen, Ramsey owed his goal in large part to Giroud… when Bellerin drove into the box, Giroud made a diagonal run and took two defenders with him, opening up the space for Ramsey to receive the pass, take a touch and slot home. Top stuff.

Right, Bayern Munich in a must-win clash at the Emirates on Tuesday to look forward to now. Till then!

*Images courtesy of Arsenal Media and the Stats Zone app*

*Quotes courtesy of Arsenal Media*