Rodgers to Leicester opens door for Tierney or Chilwell to Arsenal

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Today Arsenal face Bournemouth looking to make it 3 wins in the last 3 games.

No game in the Premier League is easy, but anything less than 3 points will be a blow for the top 4 hopes.

It is a close fight for 4th place, with 3 points separating Arsenal in 4th and Chelsea in 6th. The key tonight is that Tottenham are at Chelsea.

If Spurs lose (and Arsenal win) Tottenham are dragged back towards the chasing pack – there could be just 5 points separating 3rd and 5th. If they win, it would could take Arsenal and Manchester United away from Chelsea and turn it into a two-horse race.

With Arsenal set to face Tottenham (away) and Manchester United (home) in the next two weeks, 3 points tonight as key – as you would be very surprised if we got 6 points from the next 2.

After Manchester United in a weeks time, there are 8 games to go, and Arsenal have a relatively comfortable run in – with Everton and Leicester away being our only tricky fixtures.

Victory tonight puts us on the tail of Tottenham and could result in us finishing ahead of them in 3rd place.

Moving on, Brendan Rodgers has joined Leicester City, and this could play out well for Arsenal’s chase for a new left back.

With Nacho Monreal coming to the end of his contract – and the rumours of him getting a 1-year extension dying down – Arsenal will certainly move in the summer for competition for Saed Kolasinac.

Kieran Tierney has been a long term target for some time.

Just 21-years-old, the Scottish youngster has remained loyal to Celtic in recent years, but Rodgers leaving could open the flood gates for those players who were loyal to the manager. Tierney will be one of those expected to leave in the summer.

Arsenal should be in for him.

One stumbling block could be that Rodgers wants to take him to Leicester City; but this could open another door.

If Tierney joins Leicester, they might cash in on Ben Chilwell to finance the transfer.

If either Chilwell or Tierney are available this summer, Arsenal need to move for one of them. It will be the left hand side of the defence sorted for a decade.

Enjoy the game tonight. Back the team.

Keenos

Proof is in the points for Unai Emery’s Arsenal

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“Unai Emery has not improved Arsenal” is a complaint I have heard a lot from bloggers, tweeters and idiots who are simply unhappy that he was not their first choice as next Arsenal manager.

The proof is in the points, however.

Yet after 27 games Emery’s Arsenal sit in 4th place with 53 points.

After 27 games last season, Arsenal were 6th with 45 points, 8 points away from 4th place. It is a clear improvement no matter what people say.

Were this improved points tally under Arsene Wenger, or under Mikel Arteta, Massimiliano Allegri or whoever the critics favourite was for the job, they would be talking about a huge improvement for last season.

Instead they are sat their moaning that we took our foot off the pedal in the second half against Southampton.

Of course, it is probably wrong to compare Emery’s first season with Arsene Wenger’s last ever season. so let’s look at the last 5 years:

2018/19 – 53 points
2017/18 – 45
2016/17 – 50
2015/16 – 51
2014/15 – 51

So Unai Emery’s points total this season is the most in the last 5 seasons.

In the last 8 years, it is only bettered by the 59 points that we got in 2013/14 – where we were just 1 point off top.

To make it clear, I am not settling for us being on 53 points, in 4th place, after 27 games. We are 13 points off top, and that is what we need to strive towards.

But look at that first league table. Liverpool are 3rd on 54 points. It was Jurgen Klopp’s second full season.

What Emery is doing is not out of this world, but it has returned us to our “par” position.

A good summer of recruitment (ignore the “£50million to spend” stories) where Emery can sign the players that he wants, Emery getting a full pre-season with his players and a bit of extra luck with injuries (Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin have been big misses) and I do not see why we can not move forward again next season. Maybe not in the title race, but certainly up to the 59/60 point mark after 27 games.

We’re on the march with Unai’s army.

Keenos

Match Report: Arsenal 2 – 0 Southampton

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Arsenal (2) 2 Southampton (0) 0

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 24th February 2019. Kick-off time: 2.05pm

(4-2-3-1) Leno; Lichtsteiner, Mustafi, Sokratis, Kolašinac; Torreira, Xhaka; Mkhitaryan, Ramsey, Iwobi; Lacazette.

Substitutes: Čech, Koscielny, Özil, Aubameyang, Monreal, Suárez, Guendouzi.

Scorers: Lacazette, Mkhitaryan

Referee: Graham Scott

Attendance: 59,877

Truthfully, after just seventeen minutes, this routine Sunday afternoon match against struggling Southampton was all but over, courtesy of two well-taken goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Henrikh Mkhitaryan; but in essence, this victory probably told us more about Arsenal and their self-imposed limitations more than we thought possible at this stage of the season.

Both goals came from some truly lackadaisical play from the visitors. The first goal was made possible after a sloppy effort by Nathan Redmond that saw us do what we know we can do best, which is smash-and-grab football of course. Almost immediately we broke out, and although it looked as if we were going to get a penalty awarded to us after Lucas Torreira was ham-fistedly tackled in the penalty area whilst attempting to meet an Alex Iwobi cross, Henrikh Mkhitaryan fluffed his shot, but thankfully Alexandre Lacazette was on hand to make no mistake in scoring his thirteenth goal of the season. Eleven minutes later, another Southampton error led to our final goal of the day. Some kind of schoolboy football that involved the Saints’ goalkeeper and a defender saw the ball land at the feet of young Alex Iwobi who wasted no time in getting a low cross over to Henrikh Mkhitaryan who drilled it into the back of the net.

Pressure, boys, pressure. This was now the measure of Arsenal for the rest of the half. How on earth we didn’t score any more goals after that degree of domination was nothing short of incredible. Alexandre Lacazette by rights, should have added another three goals to his tally at least, whilst Granit Xhaka somehow failed to hit the target with a superb effort just before half-time. Arsenal had eleven shots on the Southampton goal, two of which found the target; of the others, it would not have been unkind to the men from the south coast to say that by the time Graham Scott blew his whistle bringing proceedings to a halt, we should have been at least 4-0 ahead at the break.

After the natural hiatus, the visitors did change formation and it did look like they were going to get something out of thus match at various points in the second half, but thanks to a winning combination of great marking from the defence and a superb performance by Bernd Leno, we deservedly kept a clean sheet here at The Emirates today. As usual, Mr. Emery utilised all three substitutes in the second half; Laurent Koscielny for Stephan Lichtesteiner after 56 minutes, Mesut Özil in place of Aaron Ramsey on 63 minutes and with a quarter an hour remaining on the clock, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang replaced Alex Iwobi up front. And still, we could have scored. Mesut Özil saw an opportunity for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to add his name to the score sheet, but unfortunately his effort was very nearly turned into the net by a Southampton defender. However, we won, kept a clean sheet, put three points on the board, and even better that all that, we are in fourth place in the Premiership table tonight.

Although there was no doubt as to who the dominant side on the day was here at The Emirates, our problem still remains that when Arsenal are leading in matches, we are just not ruthless enough. We need to be able to demolish, not just beat the opposition, and not allow them back into the game at any time during the proceedings. Every man today played their part in the win, and they all played well; it was good to see Mesut Özil in particular back and in form, with some of his passing being truly amazing. Our next opponents here are Bournemouth AFC on Wednesday evening; let’s hope that we find consistency in our play and continue this winning feeling. A top four finish is here in our hands, now. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.