Top of the league, top of the Champions League “Group of Death”, yet who amongst us has begun to believe we can actually win either of them, or even a domestic trophy?
Well on our day, we are good enough to beat anyone, including Borussia Dortmund, who in my humble opinion we should have done on Tuesday. However, how many good days does this squad have in them? Arsenal are getting tired and looked jaded in our win against Crystal Palace this weekend simply because the same set of players cannot maintain the levels of excellence playing 3 big games in a week.
On Tuesday, Arsenal entertain Chelsea. This test will highlight the difference between our squads and will be a telling benchmark. It certainly leaves Arsene Wenger with a massive dilemma – how many kids can he afford to throw to Chelsea’s Lions? Make no mistake, Jose Mourinho will field a very strong team regardless. And any squad that can bench David Luis , John Terry , Juan Mata , or send Romelu Lukaku out on loan looks like being more than a match for the likes of Chuba Akpom, Serge Gnabry, Nicklas Bendtner and Emmanuel Frimpong.
The Arsenal Squad has seemed light all season, but what always compounds Arsene Wenger’s reluctance to spend is Arsenal’s annual injury list, and the length of time so many of our top players seem to spend on the treatment table. Theo Walcott, Thomas Vermaelen and ‘Smoking’ Jack Wilshere always seem to be a strong wind away from long term injury. Wilshere’s recovery from his ankle injury is still ongoing, and he is still struggling to find his best form. Hell, Abou Diaby could probably grow a leg quicker than Arsenal’s medical team can fix his!
Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie seemed to always be injured , yet now seem to play every week for their respective new clubs. Interesting, that. Tomas Rosicky spent so much time out 2 seasons ago Wenger had a treatment table tied to his back, and apart from Vermaelen’s long term injury last season, he still has nightmares from having to play alongside Sebastian Squillaci and then having to cover Per Mertesacker. But all jokes aside, why are Arsenal players so fragile and then why do they all take so long to come back from injury?
Over a month ago Walcott injured himself warming up. He was supposed to return 2 weeks ago but suffered a relapse – or maybe his nappy rash flared up again. Lukas Podolski, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and new signing Yaya Sanongo also make up the ranks of the long term injured. I hear Sanongo apparently injured himself signing his contract in utter disbelief, while the Ox hurt his finger constantly Tweeting to Smoking Jack Wilshere .
Every week I fear the inevitable injury to Olivier Giroud, Mesut Ozil or Aaron Ramsey, but even if they can stay injury-free, fatigue or loss of form is inevitable, and both are showing tiny signs of that. As Arsenal approach what will be a pivotal period of our season, I hope our medical team are working around the clock to bring back our missing stars, especially Podolski and Walcott, whose respective power and pace are badly missed alternatives to the team.
Arsenal sorely missed the width and pace that Walcott provides against Borussia Dortmund, and I really believe we could have won that game with him in the team and without the silly mistakes we inflicted upon ourselves which augers well for future when we get our stars off the treatment table and back onto the pitch. The ‘sick note’ mentality or the lack of medical expertise needs to be addressed very quickly if we are to remain competitive for the rest of the season – as does our defending.
Saturday we were up against a poor Crystal Palace side, and it has to be said a useless Arsenal reject in Marouane Chamakh, who as useless as he is, gave the Arsenal back for a torrid time culminating in Mikel Arteta’s totally unjust sending off. Arsenal were still only 1-0 up against Palace, yet Arteta still found himself in a one on one situation. The referee stupidly deemed it to be a goal scoring opportunity and sent our unfortunate captain off. Which leads me to the question about who Arsenal’s captain really is, and why isn’t it Mathieu Flamini? Vermaelen was captain but when he is fit he can’t get a game!
Mertesacker was captain, but takes too long to put the armband on, so today Arteta was captain until his sending off; he passed the armband onto Per Mertesacker, who was still trying to put it on going down the tunnel at full time. At a time when Arsenal needs an experienced leader and organiser on the pitch, Flamini is the most obvious candidate. His swashbuckling lead by example mentality is exactly what we need to drive and organise the team – especially when we sometimes we lose our way on the pitch. And he was another big miss against Dortmund.
Once again Arsenal seem to be just a couple of pieces of the jigsaw away from being the finished article, and if Wenger is to continue with his frugality in the transfer market he needs to give his back room staff a severe kick in the backside to get our players back fit – oh, and make Flamini club captain.
I would dearly love to see Wenger finally stuff our old nemesis Jose Mourinho on Tuesday and I will be at the Emirates hoping that our medical team have finally learnt the art of faith healing and that Wenger is at least able to field a competitive team against Chelsea. But the real test will be next Saturday against Liverpool , when our first eleven will have to deal with a rampant Suarez and Sturridge in what will be a top of the table clash of 2 footballing sides trying to confirm their resurgence.
Let’s hope we can pass this test. I’m still hopeful we can.
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