Written by Mean Lean on Monday, 17 January 2011 12:07
It looks as if I will not get my wish this season, not that I can really complain though. I have been rather patiently waiting for Arsene Wenger to field our strongest team at some point this season but the news that Thomas Vermaelen will undergo surgery, could well mean that we may have to wait until next season for that to happen.
News broke last night that our left footed hammer could be flying to Sweden to undergo a minor operation which will apparently not require going under general anaesthetic. He may be out for six weeks or so and while that doesn't actually rule out his season you have to add on the time it takes to gain both fitness and sharpness and that is assuming that he does not have any set backs.
It does mean that Arsene has almost no choice but to dip his hands into his pockets and search around until he pulls out a central defender ready to add to our squad this season. The question is, where on earth do you acquire a player of the same quality of a Thomas Vermaelen? Not an easy task, especially at an affordable price. We are not Manchester City who are probably the closest thing to a Premier Manager computer game, but even they would find it difficult to sign every single target they had scribbled down on a raggedy piece of paper.
Gooners have been wondering if our target will be a stop gap or a first choicer. The usual names have been bandied about. Upson, Cahill etc etc. In my opinion I believe that Arsene already has in mind what his ideal partnership will be and I think that Laurent Koscielny is a long term project for Arsene. His style is important to the way we play and given the amount of games he has played, especially important matches, I do not see Arsene buying a player who will come in over him for the longer term.
What we do need is a player good enough to bring in to the squad rotation, especially as we are currently fighting in four competitions. The only club in the Premier League to be doing just that, I must add.
Johan Djourou and Laurent Koscielny have been improving together and have forged a very good partnership. We have kept three clean sheets in our last three Premier League games and I think I am correct in saying that they have played all three. Do we need to bring someone in over that duo? I am not so sure but Djourou cannot play every single game, Squillaci has lost a bit of form and the games are still coming in waves.
Our defence has been criticised many times this season and at times it has been justified criticism. After hearing the usual Sky Sports waxing lyrical about Ferdinand and Vidic I had a glance at the league table and it reads that the red Mancs have conceded three less goals than us and that with also playing one less game.
I think talk of our defence being woeful is off the mark and it has been more of a question of team defending than our back four being poor. Since Nasri's shift to the left and Walcott's inclusion, our team defending has improved dramatically. I read a great comment on another site. 'We defend from the front and attack from the back' how classy is that?
As long as that remains our template from now until the final whistle in the 2010/11 season then we will be fine and we will continue to defend well.
Something that I mentioned on Twitter the other day was, since Samir Nasri was moved to the left has Gael Clichy had an average game let alone a bad game? No, would be the long and short of it. It is no coincidence that now that Clichy has help on his side he has looked back to his best.
Clichy may not have Leighton Baines' quality in the final third but his link up play, energy and superb intercepting cannot be underestimated. I really enjoy the way Clichy plays football and even when he was at his lowest I wouldn't have swapped him for Gibbs, I am just pleased that Clichy has rediscovered some of his best form, long may that continue.
On the subject of Gibbs, I would love to see him take less time to get the ball out from his feet and deliver into the box. He has plenty of quality from his final ball but he has a habit of hitting the first man when players are in good positions in the penalty area.
We are yet to witness the best of Kieran and that will happen once he finally gets rid of constant injury niggles. As a back up, there cannot be many clubs in Europe who have a player as good as he is to fill in if need be.
The result of our two enemies yesterday has meant it has been a decent weekend for Arsenal. I would have preferred a Tottenham victory if I am honest, I am feeling somewhat uncomfortable about the fact that they are still unbeaten, I am suffering from mild panic attacks. The game was pretty crap though wasn't it?
The media keep painting Tottenham to be the big entertainers but I cannot see what is so exciting about playing the ball to wingers and crossing into the box for the whole 90 minutes. That was pretty much the whole game. With the likes of Modric, Bale, Van Der Vaart, Lennon and co you would have thought that a few combinations around their penalty box at speed with good movement would have opened up the Mancs. Manchester United continue to look average going forward so surely it is a matter of time before they are beaten. Please. Pretty please.
Iron Man has assured me that they will be beaten by Blackpool so I am banking on that, if not then I know who to blame. As much as I would like us to beat them and take that record away from them, I don't want them to remain unbeaten until April because we need them to drop many more points than that until we face them.
Next up we face Leeds United in the FA Cup replay at Elland road that should be interesting. I wonder how Arsene feels about squad rotation right now after being a little burnt in the cups. We have many fresh legs in the squad who all need games but keeping momentum and top performances will be important. I would expect to see many of the players who started at Upton Park face Leeds with a few others on the bench.
I suspect that Nasri and Van Persie who missed both cup games will start and perhaps Wilshere could miss out. It is such a shame that Diaby is out, he would have been vital for a game like this. I really hope the lad can get over these problems, I really think we have a world beater waiting to get out.
I have no problems with the rotation of certain players, it is healthy and it is needed. I can also understand if they do not click as well as the players who have been playing more regularly, that is normal. What I do not understand is if they
Arsene Wenger still insists that we are still going for all trophies while Theo boasts that we have the best strike force in the league. Hard to argue with that Theodore.
And finally the new Ronaldo/Carter/Messi/Henry/Owusu-Abeyie [circle appropriate choice] has now gone to Dutch club Feyenoord on loan so we can keep our eye on his progress.
Back tomorra initt?!
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