Apparently, and I take this information from my Twitter feed (confident in the fact that Twitter has never, ever been wrong about anything), today is the 125th birthday of Arsenal Football Club.
Was it on this very day somebody said ‘Let’s make a football team and let’s call it Dial Square’ before somebody not too shortly afterwards said, ‘Dial Square is a terrible name for anything, let alone a football club. Let’s call ourselves Royal Arsenal instead!’?
I’m sure it was a lot less interesting than that really and probably a lot more Victorian and filthy and stuff. Imagine being physio back then?
‘Wilf can’t play today boss’
‘Why not?’
‘Consumption’
‘Pfff, he’d do anything to get out of a Wednesday trip to the North. Of London.’
I’m not much of a history buff, I have to say. Our man Stillman is though, having provided an historical piece for the book, no doubt this is something he’ll touch on in his column later on (is that the sound of frantic re-writing, I hear?), but 125 years is a landmark and a milestone for any organisation. If there’s a cake later on it’s going to need quite a lot of candles.
Anyway, as nice as being 125 is and all, it’s a bit weird wishing happy birthday to a thing rather than a person. Mrs Blogs, for example, always remembered the Arseblog basset hound’s birthday and gave him a cake or some kind of treat, but all we can say is here’s to the next 125 years of by the far the greatest football club the world has ever seen (based on our own extremely subjective definition of great and not one based on trophies won and all that. That’d be silly).
Moving on and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain caught the eye against Man City on Tuesday night. His attacking play had more verve than Richard Ashcroft hopped on goofballs and he says he’s happy with the way things are progressing for him at the club since his arrival in the summer:
I have already noticed there are some parts of my game which I have to change, and playing against good defenders like I was against City, you are going to learn. I am just going to keep taking my opportunities and learn, then push onto the next opportunity.
All I can do is try my best to impress when I have got my chance, I just have to keep working hard and improving
From an attacking point of view he must surely be weighing heavily in the manager’s thoughts now. Perhaps not as a starter but as a dynamic option from the bench he’s got to be close to being involved. If you need someone to come on, run at tired defenders, and shoot whenever he gets a sight of goal, then I don’t think there’s another player like him in the squad.
If the manager is concerned about his lack of defensive nous that’d be understandable but, and let’s be quite honest here, it wouldn’t set him apart from a particular pocket-sized Russian who is brought on to try and make an impact and rarely does that tracking back thing. That is clearly the next step for him, to improve that side of his game while continuing to develop as an attacking player, but I think now that’ll only come with games and being involved more.
There’s also the suggestion that The Ox’s obvious potential and stand-out performances have provided Theo Walcott with something to think about – thus improving his game. Competition for places and all that. It might well be true. I’ve long been of the opinion that even the most professional player can find themselves in something of a comfort zone without any pressure for their place in a side, but maybe it’s doing Theo a disservice, Zonal Marking’s analysis of Walcott for ESPN is certainly worth a read.
And perhaps it’s something that’s having an influence all over the team. Szczesny, although miles ahead of Fabianski for me, knows that he’s got the elder Pole waiting for him to slip up at domestic and international level. We have real competition at centre-half now – has that been a factor in Koscielny’s consistency and improvement?. Walcott and The Ox, Gervinho knows he’s got a Russian international waiting to take his place (I know, I know, but Arshavin is still, at least, a name). Our central midfielders know that Coquelin and Frimpong are chomping at the bit to get a game.
Does it make that much difference? It’s hard to quantify but if it adds 5% to a player’s performance – consciously or sub-consciously – then it’s no bad thing at all. As for the role of striker in the team, Robin van Persie can’t feel the slightest pressure for his place from either Chamakh or Park but he’s a player in the form of his life making up for the time he’s missed due to injury. I still think a striker is an absolute necessity in January though and I hope that’s something we’re working on.
As it’s now December I think we’ll find the transfer speculation beginning to mount, day by day stories will appear, and today the Mirror kick things off in good style with reports of a £30m bid for Dortmund’s Mario Götze. Of course it’s impossible to say how likely this is but I’d imagine much will depend on what happens in the final games of our Champions League group. Would the player leave his club if they have qualified for the knock-out stages? Seems unlikely to me. How interesting then that the German side need Arsenal to do them a favour in our last game against Olympiacos.
I say that knowing that there’s no way Arsene Wenger, or the players who are selected that night, will be doing anything other than trying to win the game, but it’s still one of those interesting situations that football throws up from time to time. I’d happily take Götze for his potential and quality as player and for the litany of mucky headlines his name provides to those who get it.
But with plenty of football in December and the transfer window looming ever closer, I think it’s going to be a busy, busy month. The deathly days of the Interlull long behind us.
Speaking of the book, by the way, here is is. It’s alive, it’s alive!
Right, that’s about that for this morning, back to tomorrow with an Arsecast and we can start looking ahead to Wigan on Saturday.
