Champions League action tonight as we face Anderlecht in the reverse of that extraordinary game a couple of weeks ago. It looked as if we were going to drop more points away from home, instead two late goals from Gibbs and Podolski meant we came home with all three.
It was interesting to read the manager of the Belgian side say Arsenal underestimated Anderlecht for the first game. While I think there was an expectation that we should win the match, if we underestimated anyone it was ourselves. We were, then, a team with little or no confidence and the win that night has gone some way to help turning things around (as have the subsequent two games against a couple of the worst teams in the league, in fairness). Tonight you’d like to think we can continue with the small progress we’ve made in those games.
While the lack of options at the back (including an injury to newly promoted Isaac Hayden) means we can’t change things there, I suspect we’ll see a couple elsewhere tonight. Obviously it depends on the system the manager plays and I do wonder if the 442 we saw against Burnley was because he knew they were going to set up the same way. I’m not convinced it’s a long-term change but it’s curious nonetheless that we did tailor our approach based on what the opposition were doing.
Aaron Ramsey’s absence from the team was thought to be down to caution, that Arsene was taking no chances with him after a hamstring strain, but yesterday it was revealed he’s been ill (and it’s illness that keeps Jack Wilshere out of tonight’s squad). I think we’ll see Ramsey tonight, and Wenger was interesting on him yesterday. With 18 goals in all competitions for club and country last season, the manager wants him to remember a midfielder has other responsibilities:
A midfielder is a player who defends well, attacks well and keeps his priorities right. He’s not a goalscorer, so he has not to be obsessed by that. I just want him to do his job well. The goals are the consequence of the quality of his game. He’s running after consistency.
My take on that is he’s telling Ramsey he’ll get goals simply because of the way he plays, but not to forget the other parts of his game in a quest for goal-scoring glory. At the tail end of the 2012-13 season, he tucked in with Mikel Arteta to provide a very good midfield base for a team which had to scrape out one goal wins in the chase for the Champions League. His energy, tackling and all round game meant he was the perfect foil for the Spaniard and played a big part in the team’s more solid defensive outlook.
Of course when a guy scores you 16 goals, including a winner in the FA Cup final, the last thing you want to do is stifle him but a reminder that he’s got to contribute more in other areas is no harm too. I expect to see him to start tonight.
Up top it’s hard to see a change in either Welbeck or Alexis, but perhaps Santi’s struggles in front of goal might provide a chance for Lukas Podolski. His cameo was impressive on Saturday, and even if it feels like that’s how he might best make an impact, I go back to what I said about keeping some of the fringe players happy and involved. If it doesn’t work after an hour, then we’ve got options to replace him.
Ideally this is a game in which we might be able to give a rest to some of the players who have played a lot recently. I understand people’s fear about Alexis burning out but when a guy is doing what he’s doing right now, it’s very hard to take him off the pitch. How many times did Thierry play the full 90 even when games were won? But look, if we have a lead that befits it, I don’t think it’d be viewed as anything other than sensible to replace him before the end.
Of course that’s making the assumption that Anderlecht don’t make it as difficult for us as they did last time (and we don’t make it as difficult for ourselves). If results go right then we can qualify for the knock-out stages tonight, and that should be our motivation. Let’s win it first, we’ll worry about the how after.
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In other news Arsene has revealed that contract talks have begun with Theo Walcott, saying:
We are starting to sit down with him. I think he has one and a half years to go in December. It should be his peak years because he is 25. It’s the best years now, so hopefully we can profit from that.
Somewhat tellingly though, he qualified that with:
It is never an easy job with him.
Obviously a reference to the last time we were trying to get him to extend and despite deals being on the table for a long, long time nothing was signed until we’d reached a point where he could have negotiated a Bosman to a club abroad. This wasn’t a situation where the club left it late, it was simply that Walcott and his people deigned not to sign and it was touch and go (leaning towards go) for a while as to whether he would at all.
Now he’s got just over 18 months left, which is plenty of time to get something done, but it’s hard not to get the sense that the manager making it public is part of the brinksmanship involved in the process. That the club can’t be accused of waiting too long. You’d like to think that after 9 months out and all the support, financial and otherwise that entails, that Theo would be open to extending – especially with top players like Alexis and Ozil on the books now – but you just never know with footballers. At least the talks have begun.
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Until then.
