Arsene Wenger has said Arsenal’s hunt for 4th place has now become ‘urgent’ but he’s trying, for obvious reasons to stay positive. He says:
Now we just think about regrouping, and not feel sorry too much and not be down too much because in two days we have a big game again. It is very important that we do not let ourselves down and be too negative – there were a lot of positives and now let us show that again at Newcastle. It is good to have a good game, it is a good basis – but at the end of the day as well you need to have all the qualities that make a strong team, that is all part of a quality team.
Fair enough. There’s no denying the fact that we played well and created chances against West Ham but as the boss points out you can’t have 90% of what’s needed, you have to have 100% or you’ll lose games.
Today’s game is massive. No question about it. Three points are an absolute must and again the worry is where we’re going to get goals from. We just have to hope that somebody finds their shooting boots. In terms of the team there’s not too much we can do but I might consider a change in the centre of defence and I’d bring Hoyte back in place of Eboue. I’m don’t think Gallas and Toure work together very well. They were dreadful against Liverpool and between them the defending for Zamora’s goal on Saturday was shocking (leaving aside the question of offside).
As has been pointed out elsewhere both of them are at their best playing alongside a more traditional centre-half who can do the dirty work while they mop up behind. Look at Kolo’s partnerships with BFS and Senderos. Look at Gallas’ partnership with John Terry. Those were partnerships that complimented each other. Kolo and Gallas don’t. And no matter how good the two of them are I just don’t think you can play two centre-halves who are both under six feet tall, especially when our midfield is so small.
With that in mind I’d play a 4-1-4-1 sort of formation with the back four of Hoyte – Gallas/Kolo – Senderos – Clichy. Gilberto to anchor the midfield with Cesc and Diaby ahead of him centrally, Freddie and Rosicky wide with Adebayor up front. I think that’s the best we’ve got at the moment and Gilberto’s presence in front of the back four will prevent Martins getting too much space – and we’ve seen before when he played for Inter how he can exploit that with his pace.
What’s going to happen? Who knows? With this Arsenal team we could just click and win the game well or we could follow on the last few performances and really suffer. We’re capable of some brilliant performances and brilliant results but then equally capable of a terrible performance wrapped up with a terrible result. Obviously the lack of consistency is a major problem and it’s pretty obvious what the reasons for that are but that’s another day’s blog post.
Anyway, news round up for you. Gilberto says the team needs to push itself and do a little more. It’s very simple, all they have to do is score more than they concede and things will be rosy.
Jens Lehmann says the team has suffered because of lack of freshness (if I hear World Cup hangover one more time I’ll fucking scream. It’s April. Get over it) and ‘could’ be better next year. He’s still to decide whether or not he’ll be around next year. I wouldn’t put any money on him staying though.
And that’s it. I’m off for a bank holiday game of golf. Until tomorrow.
