How many Arsenal players will be looking forward to the Stoke game?

Ideally, the answer should be everyone because there is no better way to forget a bad result than by putting in positive performance. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done because history has shown that Arsenal have struggled after a bad result.

2002/03 Season

Everything looked good for Arsenal until a 16 year old unleashed a long range shot to beat them 2-1 in the final minute. Arsenal’s next three games ended up in three more 2-1 losses to Auxerre (at home), Blackburn (at home) and Dortmund (away). It may be unfair to lump together the Champions League games along with the league fixtures but overall, it was a bad stretch for them. Arsenal went onto give up their title after throwing away a healthy point lead in the second half of the season.

2004/05 Season

Oct 24. Damn. Awful date. A leg stretches out and is pulled back but Rooney still dives over a ghost limb. Ofcourse, the Ref buys it as the game was in Old Trafford. Arsenal’s next 5 games ended up as:
Arsenal 2 – 2 Southampton
Crystal Palace 1 – 1 Arsenal
Tottenham 4 – 5 Arsenal
Arsenal 1 – 1 West Brom
Liverpool 2 – 1 Arsenal

Arsenal gave up their lead at the top to let Chelsea overtake them and didn’t recover from that.

Last season — That awful game where Eduardo went down! After that, Arsenal went on that long winless stretch to give up the title.

Three seasons and essentially, two different teams. Why did the team go through phases where they dropped points after a shock result? In the 2001/02 season, Pires got injured in the second half of the season but Arsenal managed to continue winning. Was it that Pires’ injury was not inflicted maliciously by an opponent that the team was able to carry on? Was there a sense of injustice felt by the team in 2004 and even last season that caused them to lose focus?

I can’t claim to know what was in the player’s minds but I do believe that if Arsenal had not dropped those points after the Old Trafford robbery in 2004, they would have been league champions. And then that loss would have merely been a footnote in their history and not a giant marker. Eduardo’s loss was quite damaging but had the team regrouped and gone onto win the league, then maybe the injustice regarding that game would have been restricted to his injury and not seen as the game that killed the season. In a way, these shock results end up getting more attention the longer the team drops points or does not return to winning ways.

What happens next…

I am glad their next game is away to Stoke because it won’t be an easy fixture. If there are any Arsenal players thinking that they are going to have it easy, then they will be in for a shock. In fact, Arsenal have effectively given up the right to assume easy games anymore. The majority of the team have not won any trophies or medals to automatically consider themselves superior to other teams. Yes, on any given day the team can play some intoxicating football but all the teams in the league are aware of that and some even have their unique ways to stop them. So Arsenal have to work hard, week in week out, to get results and not assume they will win games easily.

And if there are Arsenal players who think they are better than Spurs, well they should also forget that. Arsenal are now winless against Spurs in 3 straight games. And the worst part is that Arsenal managed to make the league’s worst team feel on top of the world after Wednesday night. Whoever saw Spurs celebrating would not believe that the team is still rock bottom. In fact, Spurs fans were probably more delighted than fans of the top two teams. Bizarre logic, but then when it comes to Spurs, nothing makes sense anyhow. Spurs can rollover against Man Utd and Chelsea but you can be sure they will not try to give up against Arsenal. Ofcourse, if someone gifts you a chance, then very few players might not want to take advantage.

Chelsea were spared Rory Delap’s long throws on their visit to the Britannia Stadium but he will be playing against Arsenal. So how can Arsenal handle him? Arsenal’s aerial weakness is well known but hopefully they can play smart and better position themselves to avoid getting caught out. Also, if they know of Delap’s danger, then they shouldn’t give away needless throw-ins to start with.

So how many people are looking forward to this game? How many are positive? Over to you guys as the emotional roller coaster that is the Arsenal football club continues its journey…

The following are some positive words about tomorrow’s opponents:

Who am I kidding? I have nothing positive to say about Arsenal’s neighbours.

The numbers game, 12, then 21…

In the 12+ years that Arsene Wenger has been in charge of Arsenal, Spurs have had 12 managerial changes, with Harry Redknapp being the 12th. Although, they have not had 12 unique people in charge as David Pleat took over the club on three occasions. Here is a good link to the dozen managerial changes at Spurs. This statistic does tell something about the nature of Spurs over the last decade as they have struggled to find any consistent management of the team, while spending lavishly year after year in the hopes of achieving success.

No Arsenal fan needs to be reminded of the last game between these two. Arsenal held a 21 game unbeaten record against Spurs when the two last met appropriately on Jan 22 when Arsenal were crudely denied a chance to make it 22 games unbeaten and gain a place in the Carling Cup Final.

Thy shall try to emulate thy neighbour

I am sure Spurs have their own history and tradition but it seems the clock for their uniqueness stopped in 1919 when due to some handshakes, they were relegated at the expense of Arsenal. Since then, Spurs have had multiple chances to etch out their own identity but no matter what happens, their fan’s hatred for Arsenal takes centre stage. And with each passing year and subsequent failure to match Arsenal’s glory, Spurs have been more and more desperate.

In the last decade or so, their managerial hirings do indicate an attempt to replicate Arsenal’s glory. First they hired George Graham, the man responsible for dragging Arsenal from the shadows into the limelight and whose solid defense paved the way for Arsene Wenger’s success. Then Spurs hired their own French manager, Jacques Santini, in the hopes of glory but Santini left in mysterious circumstances citing “personal reasons”. Then came Martin Jol and while Jol may have endeared himself to Spurs cause by being the only manager to physically confront Wenger, he too left in failure to finish above Arsenal. The hiring of Juande Ramos was meant to usher in a reign of sexy football at White Hart lane and in the initial days, there was plenty of speculation about big name players wanting to move to Tottenham. But nothing came of that and Ramos left Spurs in worse shape than before.

But the biggest attempt to steal a page out of Arsenal’s book had to be in the hiring of Damien Comolli. Spurs believed they had a man who could find them the precious talent that Arsenal were able to discover. This article explains the extent of that misbelief. As per chief Arsenal scout Steve Rowley, the only player Comolli found for Arsenal was Clichy. “I always thought he [Comolli] was very ambitious. He was a hard-working member of my staff for about seven or eight years and the player he found for us was Gaël Clichy. He was enthusiastic and ambitious and now he’s got a different role at Spurs.”

The article does not mince words when it comes to Comolli: In fact, the man who did not discover Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Bacary Sagna, Abou Diaby or Philippe Senderos and had bugger all to do with uncovering the talent of Denilson, Johan Djourou, Nicklas Bendtner, Armand Traoré or Emmanuel Eboué got more than a different role. He got a job at Tottenham that made him even more powerful than the manager.

And the timing of Harry Redknapp’s hiring does indicate that Spurs wanted a change before they met Arsenal. Why was Ramos not fired after the league defeat to Stoke? Why not on Friday after Udinese beat them in the UEFA Cup? Could Ramos not have been left in charge until the Arsenal game? It would have quite an occasion for Arsenal to have taken on a Spurs side lacking confidence. But that was not too be. Spurs turned on the bat signal and Harry has come to save the day. Although, I prefer to use the picture from There Will be Blood as a better example. In the picture, the character Daniel Plainview has to get dirty in order to put out the explosive fire. So Dirty Harry fits the bill. His presence apparently helped Spurs on Sunday but the real litmus test will be against Arsenal.

Cycle of Hatred..

Having followed Arsenal outside of England, I didn’t despise Spurs to begin with. But having met Spurs fans “born and bred” into hatred for Arsenal, I could not remain neutral. And it seems that the hatred is not only limited to fans as quite a few players have experienced how passionate this derby can get. Thierry Henry understood this hatred and made sure he rubbed salt into Spurs always open wounds. Even though Henry is at Barca, you can be sure he will be keeping an eye on this game.

Adebayor has established himself as a derby day man with 7 goals against Spurs in the last two seasons.

Arsenal need to win on wednesday to climb further up the table but importantly they have to win this game to ensure that Spurs stay rooted at the bottom of the league.

But enough biased stuff from me, over to you guys for some articulate and balanced views regarding tomorrow’s #@#@&$#$*# opponents.

Arsenal make the long physically demanding journey across the city to take on Gianfranco Zola’s West Ham side. It is too early to tell what direction Zola’s managerial career will take but Zola has an interesting history of encounters with Arsenal. Zola arrived in England less than 2 months after Wenger took over at Arsenal. As a result, he came across Wenger’s first generation Arsenal side during his playing days with Chelsea, including coming on as a sub in the 70th minute when Chelsea were leading 2-0 over Arsenal at Stamford Bridge back on Oct 1999. Five minutes after Zola’s arrival, Kanu struck a hat-trick in the last 15 minutes to grab a 3-2 win over Chelsea. Interestingly in another encounter with Arsenal in the 2002 F.A Cup, Arsenal opened the scoring just minutes after Zola took to the field. Of the many goals that Zola scored for Chelsea (including that back heel goal against Norwich), he found the back of the net against Arsenal on three occasions and was involved in some cracking games against the Gunners. Zola also has the distinction on taking on Arsenal during George Graham’s era in that memorable 1994 Cup Winners Cup Final. Back then Zola played for a dazzling Parma side packed with attacking talent but the Italians were undone by a solitary strike from Alan Smith while GG’s resolute defense held firm to win by 1-0 (what else?). And now, Zola will take on Arsenal as a manager, going head to head with Wenger.

By the numbers..

In a way, past results have no bearing when it comes to this current Arsenal side. On any given day, this team is capable of upsetting the odds and beating a previously difficult opposition while on the other hand, they could drop points against a weaker squad. But for the record, in the last three seasons Arsenal have a poor record against West Ham, having won only 2 of the 6 meetings between these two sides, losing three games and drawing 0-0 away to Upton Park in the 2005/06 season. Of those three defeats, two came in the 2006/07 season when West Ham achieved a double over Arsenal, including becoming the first team to win at the Emirates stadium. And West Ham were also the last team to win a game at Highbury back in Feb 2006. That 3-2 defeat at Highbury also kick-started the final days of Campbell’s Arsenal career after he left the stadium after being substituted at half-time. Arsenal’s two wins over West Ham, since the Hammers gained promotion back to the Premier League (2005/06), came only last season. Arsenal managed a 1-0 away win to West Ham thanks to Van Persie’s goal and started off the new year with 2-0 home win thanks to Eduardo’s slick strike and Adebayor’s subtle touch.

Sunday is the new Saturday..this week atleast

Only four games were played on Satuday with the remaining six fixtures to be played on Sunday. This is not the first time this has happened in the last few years and the traditional 1500 GMT Saturday kick-off time is no longer a safe bet to catch a majority of the games. In fact, the top 4’s games have been normally getting a slot other than 1500 GMT Saturday time. This weekend the Champions league and UEFA Cup fixtures might have been a factor in some of the moved games. Given that Aston Villa, Portsmouth and Spurs played in the UEFA Cup on thursday, one can understand their moved fixtures to Sunday but Man City vs Stoke could have taken place on Saturday. Arsenal can use their extra day’s rest to recover from their Turkish trip before taking on their [insert word of choice] neighbors on Wednesday. There are 9 games scheduled for next wednesday, with Newcastle taking on West Brom on Tuesday.

Hull City’s 3-0 away win to West Brom on Saturday has made them joint top of the league, atleast for 24 hours. Hull City are certainly working on their corners in the training ground and it is paying dividends, something that Arsenal have yet to get benefits from. It will be interesting to see if Big Phil’s Chelsea can avoid the dreadful 0-0 ties that Chelsea and Rafa’s Liverpool have normally engaged in over the years. Then there is the small matter of Chelsea’s long long unbeaten home record, with Arsenal still holding the distinction of being the last team to win at Stamford Bridge. Having achieved his first ever league win over Man Utd this season, can Rafa lead Liverpool to an unlikely triumph over Chelsea? No matter what happens in that game, Arsenal will get a chance to close the gap on atleast two of the three teams (if not all three) ahead of them with a win away to West Ham.