All is well that Ends Well

Top of the morning to y’all

Another 3 points on Saturday sees us move three points clear of Chelsea and another three closer to Sp*ds after them both lost their games. Our performance was not quite what we expected judging by the performance against sp*ds but like Wenger said:

 “Liverpool played with a rhythm and pace above us in the first half and our fluency was not there at all, we gave them too much room. But as long as you are not killed off in the Premier League, you always have a chance as every team has quality strikers to score goals.”

That's the beauty of the premier league and also football in general. If u don’t take your chances, you will pay for it. In the past we have seen teams play badly against us and we create a host of chances and at the end they get just one chance and that's it, we lose the game and it was a really refreshing change to see the roles reversed on Saturday.

There may be several reasons for the lacklustre performance though. First of all, international matches were played in mid-week and almost all the players travelled to different parts of the world. Definitely the cohesion of the team would have been lost after playing for different other teams and playing patterns, I  for one am not an advocate of meaningless friendlies when the clubs that pay the wages of the players are neck deep into fighting for their seasons. Most times, the players get injured and then the clubs are left to bear the brunt. Vermaelen played 90 mins in mid-week in a friendly when the Belgian FA had already been notified that he was carrying a knock from the Sp*ds game. Belgium are not even playing in the Euros next summer and you wonder what they are preparing for or trying to achieve by playing an injured player for 90 mins in  a friendly. We also remember the case of van Persie about 2 seasons ago when he was injured in the challenge from Chiellini in a friendly against Italy which ruled him out for almost the whole season.

Back to the game, Liverpool boasts of a striking duo worth a combined £56million and another £40million on the flanks, that is enough to make them one of the most feared teams in the league coupled with the fact that they play in one of the most intimidating stadia in Europe. They had also just won the Carling Cup and they are not short of confidence But *scoffs* they wish that was the case. This season, they have scored just 30 goals in the league while Van Persie alone has 25 and I just shudder at the way these people spend money. We all want Wenger to splash some cash every transfer window but definitely not in that manner.

Two chances and two goals for Van Persie and that's what we have come to expect of him but Szczesny for me gave his best performance of the season to date and the manager was quick to recognise his efforts:

 “It is good that he had a performance like that, because he had a little bit of a difficult period in January. He has shown his potential and I like that he was brave as well. He had a lot of kicking to do and a lot of coming out to do, and he didn't make a mistake. At 21 years old he is a great talent, he is learning his job but because he is a great talent, he learns quickly”

It makes a whole difference for the team to know that they have a keeper they can rely on and am glad that our goal keeping troubles are finally over after Lehman’s eccentricity and Almunia’s incompetence.

The table is looking slightly pretty for us at the moment ahead of Chelski buy 3 points and 4 behind Sp*ds  but we can’t afford to rest on our oars. Things change very quickly in this league of ours and there is no doubt we can achieve our aim of finishing in the top four come May.

On a sad note, from Wednesday, the blog would be taking a month break. This is because I have to answer the call to national service as a corper. I have been posted to Oyo state to serve and I cant wait to get to it. I promise to return even a bigger and better blog. You can still follow my in-game tweets on Twitter and also expect to get fresh stories from the Arsenal world and the Arsenal family. I love the Arsenal. God bless the Arsenal. Iree o.