Ominous…

Hi all.

I’ve been busy lately (and as of yesterday recovering from a fairly nasty kick/knee to the head…not sure which it was). Anyway, I wish I could comment on Arsenal’s evisceration of Tottenham up at the Lane, but I sadly missed the match to play in a soccer tournament…the one where I picked up the aforementioned injury. I did see a GIF of Cesc’s goal to make it 2-0 though, and while there was some dozy defending and it did start with a horrendous going-nowhere square ball, the run and the decision-making from the Captain were sublime. The only other player on the squad who could potentially score that goal is Andrei Arshavin. What a finish, too…keep in mind that Gomes made some stellar saves before that, and Cesc didn’t give him a prayer of stopping that shot – near post or not.

But, of course, that’s not why I’ve titled this post in the manner that I have. It’s not even about the Canadiens, whose record is abnormally inflated with two heavy-weather wins over the Islanders combined with two wins over Toronto that had to go to OT or the shootout (Really? Conceding the tying goal in the last minute of the 3rd? Jacques Martin team, my bunghole). Instead, I refer to the New York Giants, who on the back of the last three weeks look in danger of having been sussed out by the rest of the league.

Today’s 40-17 loss to the Eagles highlighted the same old problems – the secondary, Eli Manning and special teams in that order – but I think we may have underrated just how deep those problems lie. It’s nice to thump Oakland’s skulls for them, but on the other hand, what does that prove? The Giants sit at 5-3 (albeit with a 3-game losing streak), but they have only played four teams with a pulse. They are 1-3 in those 4 games – a fortunate-in-retrospect win at Dallas; and losses at New Orleans, at home to Arizona and now away to Philly. The loss in Louisiana was expected in a lot of ways, as our troubled secondary was always going to struggle against the best QB in the league (and New Orleans is a tough place to play in general). But, the loss at home to Arizona was fucking DREADFUL, and may have been the first real sign that this team may not be what we thought they were.

Meanwhile, while there isn’t much shame in losing at Philadelphia, you would expect our guys to at least put up more of a fight than they did today. Going down 13-0 inside the first few minutes is frankly inexcusable for a team with Super Bowl pretensions. As for the DeSean Jackson TD pass, it says it all when at the time of the reception, the only other player visible on the screen was C.C. Brown – the safety on the other side of the field. There’s almost no point in wasting any further keystrokes on this – it was yet another awful performance on both sides of the ball.

Here’s where the visions of doom really start to kick in, though. As mentioned, we’re 1-3 in games against above-average or better opposition, with 94 points scored against 143 conceded in those matchups. The bye week is thankfully coming up in 2 weeks, but first our guys travel out to Cali to take on the San Diego Chargers.  They have some problems of their own, and they admittedly did just luck out to beat the same Oakland Raiders that we demolished so comprehensively. However, they have a quality QB in Phillip Rivers and a dangerous wideout in Vincent Jackson. Any team that is comfortable going to the air more than half the time is a terrible matchup for us at present, and that’s what the Chargers do. Any way you look at it, this is another one that we may struggle in. After the bye week, it doesn’t get any easier – home vs. Atlanta, away to Denver, then the return games against Dallas and Philly (both at home, thankfully). Two should-be gimmies follow against Washington and Carolina before a hellaciously-tough season finale away to Minnesota. Even if you assume victories in the Washington and Carolina tilts, the G-Men would still need to win 3 of the other games to get to 10-6, which I imagine will probably be the minimum to get into the playoffs. To win the division, they’ll probably have to win at least 4. Other than perhaps Dallas at home and perhaps Atlanta, where are those other wins coming from?

I don’t know, frankly.

Today Is My Birthday

And somebody down there likes me. Throw in a spanking of Liverpool today for Arsenal, and it’s the best day ever.

“You’re All Scum, And You Know It, But For A Little While Some of You Have The Chance For Something More”

… are there any good teams left in the Premier League? The longer this year drags on the more you have to think Arsenal have a favorite’s chance to take the crown, 50% due to their improved play, 50% due to the amazing crapness which seems to have descended on the rest of the league in the space of one offseason. It’s preposterous. If it were just United slipping due to losing CR9 and Liverpool falling apart without Xabi Alonso that would be one thing, but Chelsea’s taking a tumble with the same old crew (and they’re really not that old). Such a very strange season this is, so far.

Anyway, apologies for the lack of posts this week, I have been sick or food poisoned or something and have felt about as good as Pepe Reina must right now. Quick picks for tonight are Dirrell by decisions ad Abraham by mid-late rounds KO, and I may post something after the fights.

(The quote is from I, Claudius, and is wonderful)

Two other links from the Guardian, while I’m at it…

First, a former ref has called out “I refuse to call you Sir. that should be reserved for individuals of class such as SIR Bobby Robson” Alex Ferguson as being a “bully”. 

On one hand, that’s great – Ferguson has indeed bullied referees for much of his managerial career, and he’s gotten a free pass on it to a frankly remarkable (and ludicrous) degree. On the other hand, this is unfortunately coming out of the word-hole of notorious media whore Jeff Winter, who seriously has failed to shut the fuck up for 10 consecutive seconds since he thankfully retired from the game. Look, referees have a godawful job and I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy. Most of them honestly do their best to monitor a very fast game with very little help. I hesitate to slate referees for that reason, and I try to reserve it for the very worst, such as Mike “Confirmed Manchester United supporter” Riley and whoever that piece of filth was who called the match against Citeh.

However, Winter was a SHITE referee in his day, and him opening his yap on a subject that has exactly zero to do with him doesn’t help anyone. Know what would actually make a difference? If a current referee came out and talked about this, even off the record or anonymously. Of course, that has as much chance of happening as me shacking up with the apparently-now-single Jessica Biel, so there you go.

Also…

Fat Sol wants Arsenal to bail him out fitness-wise while he looks for a new club. Oh, come on now, lad. You think we’ve forgotten your absolute mental capitulation against West Ham some years back? You think we’ve forgotten you shirking your duties and turning your back on our club?

Fuck off, sunshine.

Arsenal 2-0 Olympiacos

I’m going to just come out and say it – this stage of the Champions League is a farce and Michel Platini should be ashamed of himself. All over Europe, you had top sides strolling to success over minnows – Arsenal winning this game with the Greeks parking the bus for 90 minutes, Sevilla destroying Rangers 4-1 at Castle Grayskull (side note: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Choke on that, ya bastards!), Barcelona strolling over Dynamo Kiev, Lyon thrashing Debrecen 4-0 on the road, etc etc etc etc.

Anyway, as stated, Arsenal largely dominated this match (Disclaimer: I only actually saw the second half…took a late lunch and nipped off to the pub. I followed the first half via the Guardian’s MBM). As usual, our guys overelaborated in the offenzive zone, and could not make their possession count. That may seem harsh considering how many shots found their way towards Antonis Nikopolidis’ goal, but many of them were fairly tame and easily handled by a quality keeper such as him. The rare times where there was serious intent behind the shot, Nikopolidis was equal to it right up until the end.

As far as individual performances go, it’s pretty much as you were – Song and Vermaelen were fantastic once again, Eboue showed flashes of brilliance going forward while committing his customary mental error (he tried to play his way out of trouble at the edge of our area, and a better opponent would have made us pay for it), Clichy was OK but got skinned badly once or twice, Mannone had little to do but made one excellent one-handed save, Arshavin and Rosicky played well without being able to shake off the rust enough to slice open a determined backline, Gallas continued his renaissance and was quite good, etc.

This one gets its own paragraph – ABOU DIABY FUCKING SUCKS AND SHOULD NOT BE STARTING FOR THIS CLUB. Honestly, in a sane world, I think he would struggle to get a game at…say…Aston Villa or Fulham. Seriously. If an opponent runs right at him, he can break up attacks and such. But, he’s not even as good at that as Denilson is, and he offers absolutely nothing going forward (again, not even as good as Denilson). I’m so tired of him ambling aimlessly around the field, misplacing passes and contributing little defensively. It’s like playing with 10 men. Does anyone at all think it’s a coincidence that when Arsene finally yanked him from the field and sent on Carlos Vela (finally!), we scored exactly ONE FUCKING MINUTE LATER?

That’s not to say that young Vela did much to contribute – he’s clearly shaking off some rust himself. But, he at least gave the Olympiacos defenders something to think about, and it opened just that little bit of space for Cesc Fabregas to work his magic. A buccaneering run down the left-hand channel brought two defenders over, and his pass to the overlapping Eduardo (who came on for Rosicky in the 65th) was perfect. Robin van Persie’s late run into the middle was met by Eduardo’s low cross, and even the recently out-of-sorts RvP couldn’t fail to score from point-blank range with the empty net gaping.

While Nikopolidis would have every right to feel let down by his defense for leaving his back-post side open after having held the line so well for so long,  he should feel just as aggreived at himself for the second goal. Fabregas was the architect once again, and his through-ball to Arshavin left the Greek backline for dead. Those who are claiming it was offside need to see the replay again – Arshavin timed his run perfectly, and his back-heeled volley was clever. While it had to have had the element of surprise going for it, Nikopolidis did dive correctly and he did get two hands on it…it just went through him and in. It was a terrible goal to give up for the keeper, but at 1-0 already and with his offense rarely threatening, it probably didn’t mean much in the context of this match. However, with AZ Alkmaar and Standard drawing 1-1 today, you get the feeling that it will be a tight battle for the second-place slot. If Olympiacos finish in third on goal difference, they’ll look back at the second today and wish they could have it back (of course, this doesn’t take into account that were it not for The Standard Arsenal Profligacy, this could easily have been 5-0 or 6-0).

So, what did we learn today? Diaby still sucks, Wenger sometimes does get substitutions right, Nikopolidis is still good even at 37 years of age, and we’re going to overelaborate until the end of time. Oh, and Olympiacos are crap, and dirty fouling twats besides. Same as usual, then. I will say though that the return leg will be a much harder proposition – Greece is a hell of a tough place to play, and these guys have just enough about them where at home, with a slightly more adventurous outlook, they can turn us over if they catch us on a bad day.

TSBS Man of the Match: It would have been Nikopolidis, but the second goal knocks him out…step up, Cesc Fabregas!

Dreamland

More Wenger quotes

Without getting into everything there, let’s focus on one part: “people want me to buy strikers, but where do I put them? I don’t know.”

Who has ever asked him to buy strikers? No one has chanted it at games; Arseblog doesn’t want strikers; Gunnerblog doesn’t want strikers; Goodplaya doesn’t want strikers; I don’t believe Goonerholic wants strikers; Le Grove has talked about strikers, but only out of conviction that strikers were all that Wenger would consider; Myles Palmer mostly just wants very expensive additional players in every position. All the papers focus on is the goaltending, defense and midfield. If you go back through this blog’s archives, the two players Sean and I talked about most this offseason were Patrick Vieira and Blaise Matuidi. Who on earth are these people that Wenger is talking about, and where may they be found? Quotes like these are a lot of what worries me, not just because he’s refusing to spend money but because he’s basically making things up for the sake of argument, constructing a strawman that he can knock down easily. Most fans, rightly or wrongly, have been convinced that Manuel Almunia wasn’t up to the task and wanted him replaced; most fans have been terrified of a defense thin enough to make games for Mikael Silvestre a real possibility; and most fans have had serious questions to ask about a midfield full of very young and somewhat injury-prone players who’ve been frequently not good enough so far in their careers. These are the actual concerns.

Now, there are answers to them as well. If Wenger came out and said: I bought Vermaelen and kept Senderos to shore up the defense, I tried to buy Robert Green and I’m aware of the issues in net, and I told you to trust me and I was right about Alex Song- he’d have a point. It’s not a complete answer, but it’s reasonable and it actually addresses the real concerns (and before you say anything- everyone strongly suspects Almunia is dropped, there’s no point in hiding it). Instead, we get this weird claim that “people” want him to buy strikers. My best guess is that someone gave him a third hand description of some message board muttering about how the team could use some insurance after losing their top striker in the offseason, or else he’s getting some needlesome questions from the press which don’t actually end up forming the basis for columns. Either way he’s not communicating with any actual fans, which is becoming a bigger and bigger issue at the club. It helps alienate fans who tend to turn that anger back on the players who represent Arsene in incidents like the booing of Eboue last year, and it results in wild overreactions from the club to mundane questioning of the type most coaches hear weekly on the rare occasions when Arsene does face the fans. The joke used to run that Arsenal was a French club in the middle of North London; increasingly they’re becoming an Arsene club in the middle of Arsenal fans.

EDIT:

One last thing to note. Arseblog said this today:

“As I said at the start of the season whether he’s right or wrong will be proven by May 2010….The manager could be absolutely correct about this group of players but if another season passes by without a trophy, or at least a real and sustained title challenge, then people will, quite rightly, point to the money we had to add players and say he got it wrong.”

And:

“…if this squad comes through this season with silverware then I’ll be the first to hold my hands up and say ‘Fair play’. If not though, this money, how often we talk about it and the manager’s reluctance to spend it will be a millstone around his neck.”

I don’t disagree with any of this, but I put this caveat to you: if May 2010 comes and Arsenal finish 3rd and lose in two semifinals, what will that mean? The manager will not change, he will not be replaced, ownership will not attempt to change him, the players will not be changed wholesale, and fan attempts to exert influence will continue to be dismissed as disrespectful. What, exactly, is going to be determined by that date? This is part of the issue at the club at the moment: people love to talk of the salutary effects of competition for places within the squad, but somehow that logic is never extended upwards to the man who selects it- and since the reality is that Arsene Wenger will remain at Arsenal until he decides to leave of his own volition and not before, and no one above him is going to dictate policy to him, there’s simply no meaningful deadlines which can be set such that some benchmark must be achieved by them. That’s the reality of the situation, and we may as well face it.

Arsenal have a certain chance each year to win each competition- it’s not as high as it might be with an improved squad, but it does exist; and Arsene will get as many attempts for that (15%? 20%?) chance to pay off as he needs. If it does so, he’ll crow and tell everyone they were wrong and he was right; if not, he’ll claim that the need is for more faith and belief in the squad. This happened through the entirety of last season when the manager repeatedly said to judge him in May, was judged, hated it, and made few changes as a result. It is in essence happening again this year already, and the problem with it is always the same: one year means nothing, consistency means everything. It meant nothing when Arsenal went one year without winning anything; it meant nothing when they went two; it meant a little when they went three; it meant a lot when they went four; it will mean more still if they go five. It means even more still when the reasons for those results are the same each year- questionable players mixed in with excellent ones and very little depth behind them to absorb the endless injuries. If Arsenal win something one year, it will mean a little; if they then win nothing for the next three because of the same underlying factors, what good was that one fluke year?

One thing that can be said in favor of Arsene Wenger is that he has the wisdom to focus on the long term, and I respect the man immensely for that. I absolutely do believe that he should be judged on that basis. That’s why I’m so worried about all of this.

Rain of Toads

I have no brain today after spending the weekend out of town taking the LSAT, but I will note the convergence of two stories: Arsenal lose two more players due to injury including Denilson for 2 months, alongside Arsenal make record profits.

EDIT:

You know, it’s September, and this is already the 4th Arsenal player (Fabianski, Djourou, Nasri and now Denilson) to be ruled out for two months or more by injury. There’s been additional injuries of a game or more to Rosicky, Fabregas, Arshavin, Bendtner, Van Persie, Almunia, Walcott, Eduardo, Vela and no doubt a bunch more which I’m not recalling off the top of my head. The manager was boasting a few days back about how he has money to spend and how he refuses to do so for his own reasons; today he’s quoted as saying more or less that results are meaningless without profit. It’s not that he’s wrong- financial stability is immensely important. But when the club has announced record profits, transfers are heavily in the black, there’s been umpteen new contracts handed out to players who’ve won nothing, and the squad is again being ripped up by injuries both long-term and niggling, the optics of it are really, really bad. Things like this are why people leap to the conclusions that Wenger doesn’t really care about winning anymore, or that he’s obsessed with his personal project players instead of doing what’s best for the club. Those conclusions are probably unjust; but it becomes harder with each season to figure out what else the explanation is.

The fact of the matter is that given Arsenal’s track record of injuries, it takes 3 players to do the job of one for a full season. Sooner or later the manager and his backers need to come to terms with that instead of hoping that it just won’t happen next year or deciding that it’s better to have money than a player to do a job.

And here’s a brutal truth: Arsenal and Arsene may have to ensure their profits, but it’s not incumbent on Andrey Arshavin and Cesc Fabregas to help them do so any more than it was on Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira. Players play to make money for themselves, and to win things; if they get an offer to play for a winning club for equal or better money, loyalty will only keep them for so long. On the day when those two players come to the manager and say “Barcelona has made me an offer”, do you think talk about how profitable Arsenal are will keep them? Do you think talk about how good of a replacement Jack Wilshere will be for those two in 5 years’ time will sell season tickets? That whole game worked once, when fans were sold on Emirates+Project Youth+Cesc’s Team, and so far it’s produced a healthy bottom line and no sporting success at the level which Arsenal are accustomed to. Fans just aren’t going to buy into that line of salesmanship a second time with anything like the enthusiasm they did the first time, and it’s hard to blame them- no one grew up hoping that their favorite team would have a healthy bottom line or that their favorite players would be well-compensated with improved terms every year, they grew up dreaming of their team topping one league or another or going all the way in a cup competition. It doesn’t make fans spoiled if they hold to those motivations, or if they’re tired of hearing about how Nicklas Bendtner is unavailable because he ran his Aston-Martin off the road at 10 AM on a Sunday morning after being photographed pantsless in a nightclub last year following a major defeat. It’s a fucking football club, not daycare, which you can tell because only one of those socially useful institutions sells tickets.

That’s the real rub here: it’s not that the club isn’t winning trophies alone, it’s the sense that winning trophies is somewhere down the list of priorities below making a profit and taking care of the current group of players financially and emotionally. I hate to sound like Le Grove or Myles Palmer here, but the manager is having one of those weeks where he makes those guys’ caricature of him sound all too plausible, and the players are doing him no favors. After a while, you just get tired of the rain of horseshit that comes with Arsenal; after a while, and five years is a while, you want the team to just fucking win already to remind themselves that winning is supposed to be the point of this exercise. No more talk about the future, no more talk about how wonderful the bottom line is, no more citing the inevitable injuries as an excuse, no more talk about how well the team played in big game losses, no more “two semifinals is good enough”, no more benching one of the two best players on the team in one of those semifinals to prove a point, no more talk about long undefeated streaks which go nowhere, no more hiding behind how pretty the football is, no more giving out 3 or 4 new contracts to a player before he’s done anything, no more distractions of boardroom turmoil, no more whining about “anti-football”, no more demonizing of players who’ve left the club to distract from any success they may have, no more niggling about every last penny on every last transfer deal to the point where deals don’t get done, no more dodging tough questions with mock horror and indignation at their even being asked, no more Abou Diaby. Just fucking win something already, or find someone who can, or throw in the towel and admit that winning isn’t the point of your sports club right now, which they appear just this side of ready to do. Arsenal are one of the ten richest and biggest clubs in the world, and it’s time they acted like it for once instead of behaving like a heavily-indebted feeder club with dreams of playing above their station one day. This team’s spent five years with half a hard-on but not enough to fuck with.

Does my head in. Just does my head in. If you take the Mighty New York Football Giants out of the equation, I root for 4 other teams in 3 different sports and I’ve seen them win a grand total of 1 championship (New York Rangers, 1994) in my lifetime. There have been stretches of 5+ years for both the Knicks and the Rangers in which they were arguably the worst and most shameful teams in their respective leagues, the Nets have been in that boat as well back in the Derrick Coleman/Kenny Anderson/Chris Morris/Yinka Dare days, the Jets are a byword for goofy failure who, yes, won the league in black and white, and yet somehow 20 years of following those teams hasn’t been as frustrating as the last 5 years of Arsenal. It’s astonishing. At this point if Arsenal ever make another cup final I fully expect the manager to find a religious objection to playing in the game or the fixture to be canceled by a rain of toads, that’s the level it’s gotten to. I’m starting to sound like this guy when I talk about this team. Can I afford to care about this team? I DON’T KNOOOOOW

Anyway. I need to get this kind of rant out of my system roughly quarterly so expect another of these in about 4 months, or possibly sooner if another adolescent player on his 8th professional contract crashes his very expensive sports car into the ditch under questionable circumstances before then. You never know!

(you never knnnnoooooooooowwww)

Building up momentum

At this point, you have read all about Fulham 0-1 Arsenal by now at other places. To all that, I would just add that while Vito Mannone was clearly MOTM and that double-save was magnificient, let’s not go nuts and anoint him the starting goalkeeper yet. Anyone who has been around to remember Alex Manninger in 1997-98 will recall that he stepped in and held the fort like a boss when David Seaman went down with a broken finger – in particular, his penalty saves against West Ham were the reason we stuck around long enough in the FA Cup to go on and win it. If you remember that, though, you’ll remember the League Cup match the following season where Arsene played all the kids against Chelsea, and there wasn’t a Jack Wilshere or an Aaron Ramsey in the bunch. Actually, there wasn’t so much as a Kieran Gibbs. Manninger was left completely exposed in a 5-1 shellacking, and he was never the same after that. The point is, the confidence of young players can be remarkably fragile, and while he has shown flashes of brilliance in his brief time in between our sticks, he should not be thrown entirely to the wolves yet.

With that said, I just thought it was interesting how the football teams – both normal and American – I support are at the same sort of crossroads in their season. It isn’t entirely comparable of course with the shorter season for the NFL, but both sides find themselves in a soft part of their schedule where nothing but running the table will be acceptable.

To wit: the NY Giants play Tampa Bay at their place this afternoon, and follow that with a trip to Kansas City before entertaining the Oakland Raiders at home. There is no good reason on this earth why the G-Men shouldn’t be 5-0 heading into the big clash with Drew Brees (oh, and I guess the rest of the New Orleans Saints as well) on 10/18. They will need to have those wins in the bag, because after what should be a slam dunk at home to Arizona, they travel to Philadelphia and San Diego, two games they could well lose. If they’re 7-2 or 6-3 at that point, the playoffs should be well and truly in the bag by then. From there, they have two potentially tricky games at home against Atlanta and Carolina, but there’d be no excuse for not taking care of business against at least one and preferably both.

In the meantime, the Arsenal are in the midst of a stretch where picking up three points is vital in every case. This weekend, Chelsea demonstrated this by contriving to lose 3-1 to Wigan while having their goalkeeper sent off on top of it. Still, you have to look at this and figure that picking up all 18 points should be within the realm of possibility – Blackburn Rovers (H), Birmingham City (H), West Ham United (A), The Lily White Scum (H), Wolverhampton Wanderers (A), Sunderland (A).

If either side is to seriously challenge for honors this season, stretches like this must be navigated with little problem. If not, serious questions have to be asked about if either has what it takes…and questions at this stage are fair as well. We all know about Arsenal’s youth-based policy and team selection (PLEASE FUCKING BENCH DIABY), but the Giants have their issues, too. Can Steve Smith and Mario Manningham truly be No. 1 and No.2 caliber at wide receiver? Why is our defense getting breached for big plays on a regular basis? When will Eli Manning be consistent over an entire game? If the Giants lose any of these three upcoming games, I don’t think it will kill the season or anything (that’s the main difference with Arsenal, where 14 points is probably the bare minimum they need to get from the above stretch in order to stay in the race)…especially with Dallas imploding and Philadelphia looking sketchy in the early going. However, if the Giants want to be taken seriously as a Super Bowl threat, these are the opponents that need to be brushed aside. A loss to the Saints or Falcons or Chargers I can handle, but I am not responsible for my actions if we lose to Oakland or Kansas City.

Noted

ANR says Vieira in January. Palmer’s track record is sketchy, but it’s an interesting rumor.

Belated: Arsenal 4-0 Wigan, Preview of Carling Cup vs. WBA

Hello, all. After a weekend that consisted of drinking, playing football, watching American football, watching UFC and sleeping (in that order), I’ve only now had a chance to sit down and get caught up with my blogging responsibilities.

Anyway, the weekend’s action essentially boils down to the premise that, my god, Wigan were an absolute pile of dogshit. For all of the recent games where they’ve been viewed as a possible banana-skin match, they went a long way towards losing that reputation on Saturday. It wasn’t for lack of physicality, either – they committed fouls at an absolutely shocking rate (side note: one can argue that Wigan should have had more yellow cards for persistent fouling, but I tend to think that the only thing Wigan did right in this match was keep their fouls on the non-violent side fairly well…I thought the ref was pretty good myself). Unlike Steve Bruce’s sides though, Roberto Martinez’s version offered absolutely nothing on the counter-attack. From what I’ve seen of them so far, they look like a slightly better version of Tony Mowbray’s West Brom side that got relegated last season…valiantly trying to play attacking football against opponents that are infinitely better at it. They’ll stay up, but in other seasons where there were more mid-table sides of reasonable quality, they’d have had a more nervous time of it.

But, I digress. The Gunners eviscerated Wigan from the off, dominating the midfield and creating a plethora of chances. Robin van Persie had a match to forget, as shots came off of his feet at angles that defied most laws of physics. Luckily, Le Boss’ most astute signing for quite some time ended the match as a contest by the opening moments of the second half. He rose majestically to power home his now-trademark thumping header into the top corner in the 25th minute…and as a goalkeeper myself, I can relate to poor Chris Kirkland having the ball beat him and roll back out of the net before he could even lift his arms. Think Odin or Thor or some other angry god hurling a lightning bolt from the heavens, and that’s what you’re trying to stop in this case. Of course, his 2nd-half goal was even better, as he exchanged passes with Emmanuel Eboue and slammed home an absolute belter – this time (and more strangely for a center-half) with his foot. Whatever token resistance Wigan showed before the second goal circled the drain once that one flew in.

From there it was largely a procession, as our boys at times over-elaborated again, but mainly fell victim to extremely poor finishing from the strikers. Eduardo didn’t have his best match, but he did well to take charge of a scramble in the Wigan area and fire a shot on goal. I tend to think it was going in anyway, but it deflected off of Eboue and went in. In fairness, Eboue probably deserved a goal for his decent play on the day (in an unfamiliar position as part of the front three to boot). Finally, Cesc Fabregas completed the rout by getting into a good position to tap in a cross-field pass from Nicklas Bendtner. It may be a little churlish, but the fact that he was that open probably can be traced to Wigan having left the premises in spirit a good 10 minutes beforehand.

Overall, it was a decent effort against a horrendous Wigan side, and it was good to see us put four past someone again. The defense didn’t have much to do, but they swept up nicely when they had to and were never threatened by the rare Wigan set pieces (Mannone did have to make one save off a corner, but it was pretty much right at him). Conversely, this was a match that taught us nothing and did feature the now-typical profligacy from our strikers. You have to think that they’ll turn the corner at some point – away to Fulham on the weekend will do me just fine, actually. Individually, Abou Diaby had yet another horrid game in the center of midfield, giving the ball away and running into cul-de-sacs like it was his job. Hell, maybe that’s the problem…maybe he thinks it is his job! One can only hope that Tomas Rosicky can get back to full match fitness at some point soon (I’ll even take Denilson at this rate), because Diaby has been nothing but a liability so far this season. In a more nitpicky sort of quibble, young Vito Mannone looked OK in the rare times he was called upon, but there are gigantic flaws in some technical aspects of his game that need to be sorted out sharpish. He has a sort of Massimo Taibi-esque manner of picking up low shots, and his positioning has been iffy at times. Of course, there’s precious little that can be expected when you stick a fetus in goal, and it’s really on Wenger that he’s in this position to begin with. Still, if he’s going to play, the coaching staff should at least correct some of those basic problems.

TSBS Ratings: Mannone 6, Clichy 7, Vermaelen 9, Gallas 7, Sagna 7, Eboue 7 (Rosicky 6), Fabregas 7, Diaby 5 (Ramsey 6), Song 7, Eduardo 6 (Bendtner 7), van Persie 5.
Man of the Match: The VERMINATOR.

The lads have a potentially tricky trip to Craven Cottage on the weekend, especially given how badly Fulham shit the bed against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the same time that we were thrashing the Latics. They’ll be looking to rebound in a fixture that they infamously won last season. Before that though, our collection of toddlers will take on a frighteningly in-form West Bromwich Albion in the Carling Cup. Coming off of WBA’s 5-0 axe-murdering of Middlesbrough at the Riverside, I fear that our ridiculously-young lineup may find themselves under the cosh in this one.

How young are we talking? Well, this is apparently the matchday squad that Wenger will choose his 11 from: Mannone, Gibbs, Senderos, Silvestre, Hoyte, Ramsey, Merida, Wilshere, Randall, Watt, Sunu, Szczesny, Bartley, Coquelin, Freeman, Frimpong, Murphy, Traore, Eastmond, Barazite.

There’s some interesting choices here. Vito Mannone has of course been playing in the first team with the illness of Manuel Almunia and the injury to Lukasz Fabianski. So, will he continue on to get more match experience in a match with slightly less pressure, or will Arsene opt for the 19-year old Pole, Wojciech Szczesny? Personally, I think it’s madness to throw in Szczesny against a club scoring for fun at the moment (even if it is in the First Division), especially when Mannone has now been baptized in the fire a bit after the Standard Liege match last week. The back four picks itself, with Kieran Gibbs and Gavin Hoyte on the flanks, and Philippe Senderos manning the center with Mikael Silvestre (sigh). Of course, one can dream that AW leaves Fishface on the bench, and chooses young Kyle Bartley instead…but that is unlikely in the best of times.

The midfield also presents some selection headaches. In my mind, Francis Coquelin has to play as he’s the only midfield ball-winner in the entire squad. Aaron Ramsey is also a dead-cert to play in the center of the park, so the question is does Arsene go 4-4-2, or 4-3-3? The fine folks at the Arseblog forums tend to think that the latter is a lock, so fuck it, we’ll go with that. I think Fran Merida and Mark Randall also have to play if you’re going to get your best 11 out there, so I’m guessing we’re going to line up in something close to this fashion:

————————————Mannone—————————————-

Hoyte—————–Senderos—————–Silvestre——————Gibbs

————–Ramsey—————-Coquelin—————–Randall————-

————–Merida—————-Watt/Sunu—————Wilshere————–

Sanchez Watt and Gilles Sunu are essentially a pick ‘em in the 4-3-3, but they’d be the two strikers in a 4-4-2. It’s hard to get Merida and Armand Traore on the field at the same time in a 4-3-3, which is why I have Merida in an unnatural position on the right. To play him on the left, you’d have to drop Randall. Meanwhile, there’s no place anywhere for the promising Dutchman, Nacer Barazite or the highly-rated prospect, Armand Traore. But, I have a feeling that they’ll see the pitch at some point in the proceedings.

Anyway, call me a doom-monger if you wish, but I think this lot over-relies on Wilshere to beat a team on a hot streak. I suspect that WBA will put most of their defensive efforts into stopping the little winger (and probably Ramsey further away from their own area), and I fear that they’ll capitalize on a mistake from our defense (or our GK) and beat us, say, 2-1 or so. I hope I’m wrong, obviously.