Arsenal beat Wigan and it’s one for the road: plus when a Yank is a yank

Arsenal ran out 4-1 winners over Wigan at the Grove yesterday, relegating the Latics in the process, after yet another all-round excellent performance from the Gunners. If Arsenal have been known for any one thing this season it has been strong second-half performances, a trait which has been true both on any given day and with one game left and Arsenal the form team of the League at the moment, a trait which seems to even extend into the season as a whole.

It was only 6 moths ago, December 1st, 2012, that Arsenal were still trying to get some kind of form together after a rocky off-season which had seen their leading scorer demand a trade to bitter rivals Manchester United and their leading playmaker and midfield enforcer work his way out the door through a variety of antics which angered manager Arsene Wenger.

On that day, in front of a home crowd, an insipid Arsenal performance was punished by Swansea City’s upstart striker “Michu” who scored two late goals. The Gunners slipped to 10th place in the League table, the worst start of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal tenure. Boos rained down on Arsenal from the home crowd.

Ten days later Wenger would field a full strength Arsenal team against minnows Bradford City in the League Cup and another soft performance meant that the Arsenal crashed out of the cup on penalties as Bradford fought tooth and nail to defend their 1-1 stalemate for 120 minutes. Some fans pre-called the match and wondered if a loss to Bradford would have echoes of the infamous Arsenal loss to Walsall in 1983 which saw near riots outside of Highbury House force the board to fire then manager Terry Neill.

Much to the chagrin of the Anti-Wenger crowd, the board persisted with Arsene. And Wenger has managed to turn the ship around, despite a powerful challenge from both London rivals Tottenham and Chelsea.

Arsenal and Chelsea are the form teams of the last six matches with both teams taking 2.33 points per game. Arsenal have been one of the best defensive sides as well in this run, allowing just three goals in six matches while Chelsea have conceded five and Spurs eight.

But really, Arsenal turned the ship around after the 23rd of January where the Gunners have lost only one match in League play, conceded just 10 goals, and despite some profligacy up front have managed to score 26. Not only that but a ruthless Wenger battened down the hatches after a horrible performance at center half by captain Thomas Vermaelen against rivals Spurs saw Arsenal slip to their only defeat of the run-in. Vermaelen was subsequently benched in favor of Laurent Koscielny and in the ensuing eight matches, Arsenal have conceded just four goals. None of those goals has come from open play.

Against Wigan yesterday there was a familiar feel to the story but with some new twists. Arsenal came out in the first 20 minutes playing some of the best football I have seen from them all season. Taking ine shots in that opening quarter of the match they were at their best with the imperious Santi Cazorla running the show from the wings before setting up Lukas Podolski with the free header from a corner to get the opening goal. It was number one with a bullet.

Podolski, number one with a bullet

But then the familiar “handbrake” feeling crept over this Arsenal team and for the next 26 minutes Arsenal seemed incapable of getting out of their own half. Wigan shut down all service to Podolski as the Gunners sat back and seemingly invited pressure.

Koscielny was forced to make some magnificent stops during this time, none moreso than his acrobatic kick to deny a long ball to Kone.

Kone-Baloney And Kieran Gibbs was called upon to keep MacManaman quiet on the wings, which he did with excellent tackling and great positional play. But it was an entire team defensive performance during that 26 minute period which strove to keep the Arsenal sheets clean — Ramsey was bursting a lung tracking back and tackling, Walcott played an almost right back position at times to stop the forward runs of Espinoza, which is exactly how Arsenal Letters said Arsenal needed to play in his match preview.

Mike Dean, whose record against Arsenal speaks for itself, manged to inject himself in the game before half time by refusing to call Wigan for pulling on Cazorla’s arms on every possession while blowing up Arteta for the exact same offense on the other side. Wigan were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box and Maloney hit a ripper over the wall which Szczesny got a hand to but not enough to keep the ball out.

1-1 at half time and if there were any worries that the Arsenal faithful would turn the crowd got behind the team, as described by our Man at the Match reporter Chary, and the boos rained down on Mike Dean, along with chants of “cheat cheat cheat.”

The second half kicked off for Arsenal much the way the first had with the Gunners pounding the Wigan box with excellent probing play from Santi Cazorla, Theo Walcott, and Aaron Ramsey. In a 10 minute burst, Arsenal scored three goals, relegating Wigan and bringing me to tears of joy for Aaron Ramsey as he scored his first League goal of the campaign. A real cheeky goal it was too — he received Cazorla’s pass, drove at the keeper, looked to see Podolski begging for his hatrick, and no-looked the shot off the keeper’s head and into the net.

VICTORIOUS!

And now Arsenal head into the final game of the season, this Sunday, and it’s looking like it’s one for the road. There are three teams vying for two places at the top of the table, all three teams are London rivals, all three teams are playing opponents who have nothing to win (Arsenal’s match is against Newcastle and Geordies boss Alan Pardew has stated that he doesn’t care if Arsenal win 4-0), and there could even be a playoff for third place should Chelsea draw against Everton and Arsenal win by just one goal. It would be the fitting end to what has been a wild season for Arsenal so far.

Xenophobia and Pejoratives

I made some controversial remarks on twitter the other day about how there’s a certain element to the anti-Kroenke sentiment which is, I believe, xenophobic and that there’s a common usage of the word “Yank” that is often used pejoratively. I stand by those remarks.

There are some people who seem to hate Stan Kroenke and all Americans just because we are American. I did a quick Google search and found this comment on Le Grove by someone named Goonerboy:*

Goonerboy-xenophobe

That’s not to say that Le Grove or Goonerboy are xenophobes but that comment is certainly attempting to paint all Americans with the same brush and frankly, it’s not as rare a comment as some people would like to imagine.

I have had people say such things to my face, “not you of course” they will say, but they will say it regardless. Which would be astounding except that I have been around when Arsenal fans sing about “gassing the Jews” and have heard more Gooners than I care to count say “I’m not a member of the BNP but I do believe in some of what they say.” Moreover, I have banned many people from commenting here (and probably will have to ban many more after today) and have blocked people on twitter because of comments just like those above.

But here’s where my critique above is being taken out of context, people are accusing me of saying that I think anyone who wants Kroenke out is a xenophobe, which I have never said. I have said “there’s an element” of xenophobia to this and that is undeniable — some people who want Kroenke out want him out because he is American. Just look at the comment above and you can see what I’m talking about.

Why can’t people just say “Kroenke doesn’t understand history” or “Kroenke doesn’t get community”? I would probably agree with that oor at least it would give us something to talk about. But when you start getting out the broad brush and painting all Americans as know-nothing carpetbaggers I’m going to feel the need to defend myself.

*The goonerboy in this comment is someone you’ve never heard of who calls himself goonerboy, not the other guy you’ve never heard of who calls himself Goonerboyblog on twitter and on blogspot, or something.

Man at the Match, Chary: Arsenal rain on Wigan’s parade

Despite the award of a free kick for a non-foul that led to an undeserved Wigan equaliser to Podolski’s early strike, Arsenal bit back in the second half to score 3 goals in a 15 minute spell and trounce championship bound Wigan.

As the rain came down in relentless sheets on the red corner of North London the Arsenal faced up to a Wigan side fresh from a giant killing of Roberto Mancini’s former team, Manchester City.

The neon lighting around the Ashburton Grove stadium combined with the heavy bursts of rain to give the look of a Blade Runner inspired backdrop but with a cool autumnal feel despite it being mid-May.

With all but the ever injured Abou Diaby available for selection the major choices for Wenger would have been whether Gibbs and Flappy would return to the starting XI at the expense of Monreal and Chesney, with the latter having done nothing to deserve being dropped, in the event the return of Gibbs was the only change.

Wigan’s support were squeezed into one block, rather than the three away clubs normally get probably due to their supporters opting for the Wembley fixture of their 2 London dates in the space of four days.

As the game kicked off the Wigan danger man McManaman was given license to run their right wing however it was clear early on that Gibbs had the measure of him – Kieran’s anticipation of his interplay with Maloney prevented anything of consequence developing offense wise for Wigan.

While there was a little tension in the air around the stadium Gooners would have done well to realise that Wigan’s defence has been leaky most of the season and so it was to prove. A cross into their box was headed in, with little challenge from the Wigan defenders, by Podolski to put the good guys one up fairly early. Due to Arteta losing the toss we attacked the North bank in the first half, and not the second as is usual, so my view on the goal was a distant one as I was in the Clock end lower tier.

The rain carried on saturating the players and the pitch and possibly Mike Dean’s brain as he gave the first of two Wigan free kicks for fouls of what seemed to be of minimal contact and close to the edge of our penalty area.

The first of the free kicks went into the wall and ricocheted off in my direction to the right of the goal but the second 30 seconds before half time beat Chesney’s left hand.

The sense of injustice of an equalising goal coming from the “Dean effect” galvanised the crowd and the aforementioned official and his team left the pitch to a justified chorus of boos and whistles.

The atmosphere at the stadium could have gone one of two ways in the second half – either nervous anxiety or defiance and support of a team that deserved to be winning. It went the second way and it has to be said the way the crowd got behind the team and didn’t let the officials get any respite from home crowd pressure or the timewasting by the Wigan players (the goalie, who was given the countdown, or the player who got booked for slowing down the taking of the corner) go unnoticed.

The Arsenal were now attacking the goal in front of me and it seemed the team were being energised by the crowd to get the win that was rightfully theirs with Cazorla being effective in decisive bursts.

All of a sudden he was running towards me, down our right wing, and a cross was slung in towards Theo. At that point time appeared to slow:

Oh, it’s bobbling around in there, wouldn’t it be nice if Theo got onto that, but wait the goalie has ploughed into him, that’s a penalty surely, never mind it’s a goal now as he’s bundled it in!

It was nothing more than Arsenal deserved and the crowd felt the vindication of taking a lead that was lawfully theirs.

About 25 minutes or so to go, would we hold onto the lead? Moments later, all of a sudden Podolski latched onto a through ball from Santi, who I think took advantage of napping by the Wigan defence to send in a quick cross, and Lukas duly lobbed the floundering Joel in the Latics goal.

Relief! A two goal buffer, one that this more defensively resilient Arsenal would surely hold onto. However yet another telling through ball from Santi set off Rambo on a marauding left wing run, which just as I saw the whites of his eyes he flashed them to the side and curled in a delicious goal past the keeper who was expecting him to cross, and made it four goals for Arsenal. After another lung busting performance in a dynamic midfield the supporters to a man were elated for Aaron, who thoroughly deserved to score

A few late subs saw Jack return; he suffered his first foul (one that Dean even called) after being on the field for five seconds and our skipper come on after Oxo.

4-1, a decisive score line and one that started the exits of the bedraggled Wigan supporters to begin their long journey up north to Lancashire, where they would contemplate life in the Championship come August. To the Arsenal supporters credit when the Wigan team went to clap their fans at the final whistle they also applauded the team and their remaining fans.

The chants of “We’re coming for you, we’re coming for yoooo—uuu, Tottenham Hotspur, we’re coming for you” rang out at fulltime and while the job is not finished the home season ended on a high note and the lap of appreciation was warmly received and all thoughts would then be focused on final fixture against Newcastle.

It’s been a rough old season and your humble scribe hopes you enjoyed this season’s reports and looks forward to a win on Sunday to salvage a season that started off inauspiciously.

UTA!

By Charybdis1966, on Youtube and Twitter.

Arsenal v. Wigan: Never in Doubt

“This isn’t the article I want to write” could be a quote appended to probably half the articles that I have written over the last three years. Because much like Sisyphus, it seems, we Arsenal writers are constantly pushing the various rocks about Arsenal up the hill in a never ending dialog over points that are largely meaningless.

In case you didn’t notice there are the following types of Arsenal articles that every Arsenal writer must pen at least 15 times in a season:

FINANCES FINANCES FINANCES
Sponsorships
Ticket Prices
The new kits are ugly
Did you hear what that person/player/racist said on Twitter?
Suarez/Rooney/someone from the Premier League who I want at Arsenal
Does Arsenal need more players?
Who is to blame for not buying players?
Does Arsenal need a keeper/defender/DM/striker?
Who is the keeper/defender/DM/striker Arsenal should buy?
Why Arsenal will never buy a “big name player”?
Why Arsenal can’t afford x player if Arsenal drop out of the Champions League spots
Why the Subhumans “Animal” is one of Tim’s favorite songs of all time.
Arsenal are/aren’t going to finish fourth
Why Arsenal can’t defend from set plays
Why Arsenal can’t score when teams park the bus
Long balls
Tactical fouling
Egregious physical play
Diving
Why the press suck
Tiki-taka (pro-con)
Counter attacking
etc etc etc

And of course, the granddaddy of them all “Arsenal need to win this game”.

Continuing from the theme of two days ago, as you can see above, writing about Arsenal has become absurd. Not just in the harsh sense that some will take it, but in the way that I suspect Camus would identify absurdity: a deeply meaningless action, just like the rest of life. We ascribe Arsenal meaning, but in the Absurdist sense, that’s just a form of intellectual suicide. If we think about it, look a little bit bigger than just the 10 mile radius around us, we all know how meaningless this is. And once we discover that meaninglessness we are presented with three choices: death (physical or intellectual), religiosity, or perseverance.

In the Arsenal sense, death is giving up. Just quitting on your team. You know, “Fuck it. I just can’t do this shit any more.” Though, unlike real death, I suppose you could try to come back. I’m not sure anything would be the same. If I stopped blogging for a year, I might return but it would be very different.

Religiosity in the Arsenal sense is another form of intellectual suicide as it’s the abdication of the self over to a higher power. Stats can become a form of worship, Arsene is worshiped (and hated, which is not the negation of worship but rather another form of worship), concepts such as history, and historical figures become gods, on and on, its the raising of someone or something else to a higher power in order to explain what is fundamentally an unexplainable world.

And then there’s Camus’ perfect being, the Absurdist hero, Sisyphus – he who knowingly perseveres in the face of the contemplation of the absurd. “Groundhog Day” is another way to describe the Sisyphean task, though interestingly, the myth of Groundhog Day had an out, once Phil perfected himself he was allowed to escape. Sisyphus is offered no such out and I imagine him down there in Hades, shoulder to the stone, loincloth rippling from the heat of hell, smiling up at us* as I write this.

But importantly, Sisyphus defies the gods, rejects them outright and does what he wants (until he’s captured and forced into a life of toil). But Sisyphus also escapes death. He wants to live the absurd life to its fullest. Which is what I’m doing here with my columns on this blog. You certainly can’t look at my entire history of writing for four years on what is essentially one rather meaningless topic and say anything other than “well, this is absurd”.

This revelation of fundamental meaninglessness will give some of you pause. As if Sisyphus himself took a small break and said to you “you know it’s all kind of pointless.” You will now say, “wait… why am I doing this?”

Good.

I’m doing this because I have to. It’s not really any deeper than that. I enjoy it most days. I love reading other people’s informed opinions. I love when someone like Arseblog makes me laugh. I love when commentators call me a “Yank who knows nothing about the history of the club”. I love when my readers give me something new to think about. And I love Arsenal when they win and when they lose.

And today against Wigan, is a “must win” but I do not despair because tomorrow I will be here, doing what I always do. In fact I feel no nerves about the game. None. I feel like the result is never in doubt. And I mean that no matter what the result.

It was never in doubt.

P.S. Before the match, you should read Arsenal Letters’ very intelligent analysis of Wigan’s tactics and his conclusions about Wigan’s vulnerabilities down the flanks, how they will pack the center, the importance of Theo Walcott, and where they will try to pull Arsenal apart with Kone-Maloney. Cracking great stuff!

Also, look for Chary’s Man at the Match report after the game. It will be his last one until fall. CONTEMPLATE THAT.

*I imagine George Carlin down there too, with Sisyphus, smiling up at us.

7amkickoff

Covering the Arsenal diaspora from the four corners of the globe

Arsenal beat Wigan and it’s one for the road: plus when a Yank is a yank

Man at the Match, Chary: Arsenal rain on Wigan’s parade

Arsenal v. Wigan: Never in Doubt