Category Archives: Arsenal

Results mean 5th should be in the bag – but can The Arsenal finish 3rd?

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Happy Friday! We have made it through another week!!!

Another bank holiday weekend coming up which means that playing West Ham United away at 4:40 on a Sunday is not as bad as it would be on a normal weekend.

Would still have preferred it on the Saturday, but at least we can all meet early on Sunday, few beers before heading down to the ground.

Anyone who has not been before, my advice is drink up and around Highbury Corner before getting the London Overground to Hackney Wick and walk.

There were some results last night which all went Arsenal’s way.

West Ham lost 2-1 to Frankfurt which means they are still in the game. Surely David Moyes will now completely rest his first team ahead of the 2nd leg out in Germany.

I would be very surprised if the likes of Kurt Zouma, Tomáš Souček, Declan Rice, Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen start.

Our possible advantage if West Ham rest players is offset by the likelihood of Leicester City doing the same away to Tottenham.

They are in the middle of their Europa Conference (or whatever it is called) semi-final so will surely also rest their entire starting XI. I do not expect either Arsenal or Tottenham to drop points this weekend.

The result between Chelsea and Manchester United was also a good one for The Arsenal.

A 1-1 draw pretty much rules Manchester United out of the race for top 4.

The maximum points Man U can now get is 64. We are on 60 with 5 games still to play.

That draw has probably actually secured us a top 5 finish; Manchester United probably won’t all of their final 3 games, and Arsenal certainly will not lose 4 of our last 5 games!

It shows how quickly things can change in football.

10 days ago we were looking over our shoulders. No win in 3. People were talking about how we might not even make top 6, let alone top 4.

Victories over Chelsea and Manchester United has put us back into pole position for that 4th place, and Man U’s dropped points means 5th is all but secured.

So back in the Europa League a minimum next year – that was always our minimum target for this season.

Chelsea dropping points also gives us an outside chance of top 3.

We are 6 points behind and they have a vaslty superior goal difference alongside a fairly routine run in – but with the FA Cup in 2 weeks – and before the season ends – we need to be ready to pounce if they take the eye of the ball with the league.

There is still plenty of football to be played this season. We have seen how quickly things can change as games come thick and fast.

With Tottenham to face Liverpool prior to the North London Derby, I would expect us to go into that game 5 points clear. But we need to win the next two games to ensure that.

The Newcastle away game looks like a hurdle – it will be their last home game of the season and they are in Top 4 form with only Liverpool gaining more points than them in 2022.

I am now doing that thing of looking towards games in the future. Need to stop doing that. Focus on this weekend. Focus on Sunday. Lets get the 3 points in the bag. UTA.

Keenos

Eriksen, Emery, West Ham and Aubameyang

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Morning.

Not much happening in Arsenal World right now. This seems to be the way this season with no European football.

The lack of mid-week football means less discussions about upcoming games, less pre-match press conferences and less post-match analysis. As a blog that does not get involved in the world of regurgitated transfer BS, it often gives us little to talk about.

I wrote a blog on Tuesday about how Arsenal should target Christian Eriksen.

It was slightly written in jest, in an attempt to wind up that lot up the road. But also had some truth in it.

On the back of the Eriksen article, a few people mentioned we did not need him as we had Martin Odergaard. This missed the point.

Next season we will have some sort of European football. That means we will need a deeper squad.

Mikel Arteta has spoken about wanting to get back to a 22-man outfield playing squad. That will require 7-8 new faces.

It is basically 2 players for every position, and some change.

We can not expect Odergaard to play 50+ games next season. We will ned to purchase some cover (and competition) for him.

Erisken ticked a lot of boxed to be that man.

Premier League experience, quality, and would not expect (or be able to) play every single game.

Even if we take Erisken out of the equation, we still need to purchase a creative midfielder that can shadow Odergaard and potentially replace Granit Xhaka if we wish to be more attacking.

Expect us to bring in 6 or 7 new faces this summer as we improve the first team and strengthen the squad.

I see Unai Emery revision is still going on.

He is doing a fantastic job at Villareal in the Champions League. But in La Liga his side currently sit 7th.

This is typical for an Emery side.

He seems to be able to get teams performing well in Europe and in the cups, but is unable to get the consistency required in the league.

As we have previously blogged, Emery is a good manager, he was just not the right manager for Arsenal.

Tonight, West Ham play in Europe. I for one hope they get a positive result which leads them to resting their entire first team on Sunday against us.

Final thing of note. I thought everything had gone quiet on those crying over Aubameyang.

He has scored just 2 goals in their last 7 games. Is the honeymoon over?

Enjoy your Thursday.

Keenos

The transformation of Granit Xhaka

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For as long as I can remember, Granit Xhaka has been a contentious figure over The Arsenal.

When we signed him, I was very exited.

I saw him as potentially one of the best midfielders in Europe.

Xhaka was a fantastic ball playing central midfield who mixed up fabulous short and long passing with aggression in defence.

At 6ft he seemed to have it all in the locker to be not only a mainstay of our midfield but also our long term captain.

Xhaka was everything we hoped Jack Wilshere would become. But it never really happened for him.

For all his great work, he always had a poor decision in him.

Playing a blind pass that went straight to an opponent, or committing a silly foul when there was no need for him to do so.

And everytime he made such a mistake, it seemed to lead to conceding a goal.

There was also the petulance. The ill-discipline. Red cards when he had not need to even make a challenge.

He could put in 7 or 8 dominating performances but on that 9th or 10th game would do something that would cost us. And this led to the love / hate relationship with the fans. And invariably it was more hate than love.

What was frustrating for someone like me is I could see how much of a good player he was.

Arsenal were a better team with him in it. He was magnificent for Switzerland. But then he would do one of those silly things and it would undo all the good he has done.

At the weekend he scored the clincher against Manchester United. After the game he spoke brilliantly about how the 3 points was great, but we had plenty of work to do.

Then on his drive home he stopped for pictures with fans. This is a long way from him telling fans where to go after the Crystal Palace game a few years ago.

Xhaka seems transformed this season.

The mistakes are few and fair between – and less costly – which allows us to concentrate on the good rather than the bad.

6 months ago he was one of those we would have been looking to move on in the summer. But now he has become key to how Mikel Arteta wants to play; and very few would be upset if he remained.

So how has Xhaka transformed himself?

Well for a start he was never a bad player. He just had bad moments.

He seems to have eradicated those moment s from the game. But he has been helped by a tactical switch by Arteta.

For Switzerland, he never played as the deepest midfielder. Xhaka aways had someone in behind him.

This allowed him to press higher up the field, influencing the game in more attacking areas.

It also meant if he made an error, he was further up the field with more players in behind him.

For much of his time at Arsenal, Xhaka has been the deepest midfielder, playing just in front of the defence.

This means when he previously lost the ball, opponents were right at our defence with very little cover – and that cover was Shkodran Mustafi and David Luiz or Sokratis. Not exactly top drawer!

By playing further up the field, he is more protected.

He makes an error, opponents are only on the half way line and stop facing Thomas Partey and a back four.

And that back 4 is much approved with Gabriel and White in it.

So in days gone past, he had Mustafi and Luiz behind him. Now it is Partey, Gabriel and White.

A problem previously is that he just didn’t trust those behind to pass the ball too. This led him to often dwell on it too long or make a pass he should not.

Our back 4 (and Partey) are now all much more comfortable on the ball.

This comfort also means that they those behind Xhaka can also play out the back a lot better. The result is instead of receiving the ball on the edge of the box, Xhaka now gets it further up the pitch.

At 29, Xhaka is now a senior pro at the club and very much part of the leadership team – even if he won’t wear the armband again.

This summers conversation should be about who we should sign to cover and compete with Xhaka, rather than who we should sign to replace him.

Arguably our player of the season. Granit Xhaka.

Keenos