Written by Mean Lean on Sunday, 27 March 2011 11:30

Ok, first thing is first. Arsenal have not suffered any injury problems to our first team squad so far and that is by far the most important part of this weekend. I am holding back on any air punching just yet though. March 28th - March 30th provides another list of fixtures in which Jack Wilshere, Robin Van Persie, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, Bacary Sagna, Tomas Rosicky, Andrey Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner, Marouane Chamakh and Kieran Gibbs could all feature, so the coast is yet to be clear.

I watched the Wales vs England game last night, mainly to watch the two Arsenal boys in the midfield and I must admit I enjoyed the game very much. I was hoping that Scott Parker would play in the England midfield to give Wilshere the freedom to express himself and that is what happened.

It looks as if Gary Speed wants his team to play out from the back and has probably been working on his squad to pass and move. Capello set out his team to press from the front and not allow the Welsh time in their own half to move the ball. It looked quite painful after a while as the Welsh players on the whole did not have the ability to pass around England's intense pressure.

It wasn't a great day for Aaron Ramsey. In the advanced midfield role he wasn't able to receive many passes with support of his team mates as the home side sat so deep. He is also lacking 'a little bit sharpness' which is understandable and we saw that against West Brom last weekend.

Even without Ramsey at his very best we saw glimpses of his ability. He has very quick feet and never hides. It might take until next season, after a full pre season training and games before we see him at his best but the signs are promising.

Jack Wilshere played how Jack Wilshere plays. It could be against Barcelona, it could be against Wales or Grimsby, he continues to play well alongside whoever or against whichever opponent.

He had a few through passes after striding forward into Welsh territory that almost came off but not quite. I do have plenty of time for Scott Parker as a player and I think his introduction to the England team has come a little late.

England's high pressing game worked very well and according to Wilshere, Capello has been inspired by Barcelona.

Wilshere said: "We watched some videos on Barcelona and the way they press. The full squad watched clips of them against Arsenal a couple of days ago.

"We want to press like them because they are the best team in the world, so we have to learn from teams like that. We pressed high and were able to get two early goals."

It is a style and system that I admire very much. Whenever we have implemented something similar we have often won the match. We seem to switch our levels of pressing on and off throughout the season and I am not sure why this is. Perhaps Arsene does not want to tire out his players if we have a busy schedule. Perhaps it makes our players more prone to injury by putting so much into every minute of every game.

Barcelona are able to kill many teams off within 45 minutes in La Liga as the overall level of opposition is lower than the Premier League.

I just wonder how structured our pressing is. When is it decided that we will put our all in to stopping the opposition having time on the ball. Is it only against certain opposition?

I do not believe that it is a coincidence that our best form of the season came when Nasri moved to the left and Theo came in on the right and we pressed high up the pitch. Chelsea (h), Manchester City (h), and Birmingham City (a) all came about after our loss at Old Trafford and the subsequent changes.

Interestingly enough, the one result that didn't match the positive results was the Wigan away performance when Arsene made many changes to the team. We had enough quality on the pitch to have beaten Wigan but the pressing game had disappeared. Why didn't those players continue with what served the team so well?

I am no tactical genius so the answer could be quite simple and could be slipping past me but from the evidence that I have seen over the last few seasons, when we fight to win the ball back and hem the opposition back then we are at our best and can beat anyone but when we switch that off and slow our tempo down then we can beat and lose to anyone.

We are an attacking team who need the ball in the opposition half and the best way to do that is to win it back quickly in the opponents half. I am more than happy with our squad, that may not be the case with every Gooner but I believe that if we approached every game in the same vein as we did against Chelsea then we would be looking down from a great distance at the rest of the teams on the league table.

In other news Jens Lehmann could play for the reserves against Wigan on Tuesday. Regardless of the managers intentions for the number one spot, it makes sense that Jens has match practice just in case Almunia picks up an injury whether it be a standard injury or another mysterious long term problem.

If he does play for the reserves then it will be interesting to see how he performs, only then can Arsene really decide if he would be ready for a top flight game.

I think the fringe players turning out for the reserves makes for an interesting subject but one that I shall go into tomorrow as my son is whacking the football around the living room and is begging me to play football in the garden.

With the sun shining, it would be rude not to.

Back tomorrow.

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Comments (10)

• 27-Mar-2011 22:20 | | Sam
  

  Lovin the blog keep it up

• 27-Mar-2011 22:48 | | MeanLean
  

  Thank you Sam,
  
  It seems like only you do though

• 28-Mar-2011 02:04 | | Man United KIlla  - we too!!!
  

  come on ML..you know most of us come her cos we like it here.

• 28-Mar-2011 07:10 | | MeanLean
  

  Thanks MUK,
  
  I actually meant the amount of comments on today's blog.
  
  Now to drag myself to some breakfast.

• 28-Mar-2011 10:47 | | CHGooner
  

  ML, don't you agree though that one of our problems is that Wenger doesn't prepare the team properly for different challenges? I think it was Cesc who said that the preparation for Spain games was completely different as they studied the opposition and developed a plan to beat them. At Arsenal that just doesn't happen. It was commented on by someone here or another blog (not sure) that we set out our tactics at the beginning of each season not at the beginning of each game.
  
  What do you think, any truth in that?
  
  PS agree with MUK, we DO like this blog. I prefer to hear both sides of an argument rather than just one. Far more interesting!

• 28-Mar-2011 12:59 | | Man United Killa
  

  Yes Sir...this blog is the bomb...diverging opinions..
  
  and about our preparation,i think we need a plan B and C interms of tactics

• 28-Mar-2011 13:38 | | Anonymous
  

  CH GOONER
  
  wenger at this point of his players development is not concerned about teaching them specific game tactics ..they stilll need to learn as emphatically as possible the arsenal way of play which is ball possession and quick one touch pass and go with all players and all lines involved.
  
  first they must learn that the arsenal way of play is the emirates chelsea game (or first half at newcastle) and then learn to do that consistently for 90 games in 40 games per season . once they have mastered that then it makes sense to teach them special tactics (like barca second leg) btu its too early to confuse them from now since they havent mastered the first yet. even if it works ( as it looked like it could work till the 47th minute in camp nou) it will be mostly due to luck and a one off than a standard "plan" of the team

• 28-Mar-2011 15:48 | | Man United Killa  - Never too early.Squad is not too young anymore.
  

  CH gooner..ok sounds fair but I am concerned by the quality in the team to some extent.In as much as they are learning-as you say,(which I dont agree with you on by the way), I think this squad has played together for enough time to have a plan B.
  I think most of them are smart enough to learn another style of playing.we only need to do away with a few dead wood.As for our passing game.I think its good,its our sluggish movement and atrocious movement off the ball that is killing us.If you watch Barca carefully,the play the Dutch game.The next time you watch a Barca game observe how many attackers run into the box when a cross is coming in and compare that to what Arsenal players do.Its jaw-dropping.
  I have always complained about the quality of players we have but if we can make some changes to our tactics, I am pretty confident the results will be massive.

• 29-Mar-2011 10:41 | | CHGooner  - Wasn't my post!
  

  MUK, the post you are answering was by 'Anonymous' in answer to my post questioning the perceived lack of tactical thought or preparation. My view is that it is a pretty feeble excuse to say our players 'aren't ready' for tactics!! I haven't even heard Wenger himself the King of excuse makers, come out with that little gem!
  
  You and I are on the same page I think...

• 29-Mar-2011 17:18 | | Man United Killa  - I know..
  

  funny..I guess I started typing as soon as I saw your name..
  And yes...This squad is not that young anymore.We cant continue hiding under the cloak of "we are a young squad"...I am sure the players can chew gum and walk at the same time.

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