Well, it’s West Ham next to pose another obstacle to our fading title bid.
Despite our good record at Boleyn Ground (or Upton Park, or whatever the hell we’re supposed to call it) this should no doubt be a difficult matchup. West Ham have stayed unbeaten in their last eight games, during which they’ve faced Everton, United, Chelsea and Spurs. And they have Dmitri Payet in red-hot form against a team dicey in set-piece defending.
It’s doubtless a must-win, but not really so that we can remain on the peripheries of the title race. I’d imagine most of the players already know the title is a lost cause, and aren’t really looking at the season that way. However, with the season’s end segment already in sight, winning would put the club in good stead going into a transfer window where, surely, reinforcements are required. Wins would help keep the club’s reputation and the fans upbeat, and it’s always good to be positive going into a new season.
The team should pretty much be the same that started last week. Players like Mohammed Elneny and Alex Iwobi have added some freshness and unpredictability to the team when Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott seemed stagnant. It would be unfair and confidence-denting to toss away those pieces as soon as our injured players reach full fitness. Come to think of it, the only change one can foresee is Petr Cech coming in for David Ospina.
It’d be great to see how strong our bench is. With the likes of Ramsey, Rosicky and Wilshere fit (more on him anon), our bench could feasibly look like this: Ospina – Mertesacker – Wilshere – Ramsey – Rosicky – Walcott – Giroud. Not too shabby at all. It’s quite typical of Arsenal to lose their key players when the season is more congested in the first three-quarters of the season, only to get them back and string a run of results too little, too late. It’s what happened last season too.
Leicester and Tottenham – not to give you hope – do have some room for slippage. The Foxes play Sunderland away, and Sam Allardyce has a reputation of squeezing draws in games exactly like these. Meanwhile, Tottenham seem to be rocking a bit and play Manchester United at White Hart Lane. It’s true that United haven’t exactly been the poster boys of this season, but they have the quality to cause some kind of hiccup in Spurs’ momentum. Let’s hope they do.
—
Elsewhere, Wilshere made news by showing up in a nightclub some days ago (or something like that, I didn’t really follow the news). There was a hint of nostalgia to that, and not the good kind. Anyway, for obvious reasons it sparked much debate on how seriously he takes his Arsenal career. Wenger moved quick to quell such concerns, saying:
“We test our players and we don’t have a drinking problem. The drinking problem was much bigger when I arrived. We test them regularly. Jack is not a drinker – at all. I don’t even have that worry. Not at all.”
To be perfectly honest, I get a bit of the Szczesny touch from Wilshere. Talented young bloke, never really lives up to what he could due to alleged attitude issues… it all feels a bit similar. And look, I’m not a huge propagator of the claims that Szczesny was a rubbish keeper of Almunia proportions. To me, he always felt like a very talented goalkeeper – but ultimately it was a sense of “I take my Arsenal place for granted” that cost him.
Wilshere, to me, feels the same. I haven’t heard of many people going to nightclubs even after becoming a father. Now maybe that’s because I’m not so hot on London culture and maybe it’s the media takedown affecting my opinions, but there does seem to be an attitude issue where Wilshere. Not to make a direct comparison, but it was Joey Barton’s aggressiveness and over-enthusiasm that turned him into the kind of overgrown barbaric juvenile we see him today.
Jack played in some under-21 clash against Newcastle United yesterday, and I heard his passion and quality did not wane. That’s a good sign. What would be an even better one is if he manages to stay out of the newspapers for the wrong reasons and if he doesn’t get himself injured all the time, we would have quite a player.
However, in all honesty, I just can’t see that scenario coming to life.
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
Comments