Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Arsenal Wins Again!

Is winning becoming contagious at Arsenal? What should we think of the narrative that this team is on the decline when they've won 7 of their last 8 matches. What is particularly striking about this winning streak, is it has not been based on playing great football for 90 minutes. Instead they've been toughing out victories. The team with no heart and little mettle appears to have found some. No it is not against the best teams in the world, but I think it is a positive trend, particularly our younger players showing up and performing in the Carling Cup and Champions League. But, of course, we need to win the big games and it remains to be seen whether we will. This weekend should provide an early answer to that question -- as it must be admitted that we lost to Man U, Liverpool and Tottenham (and tied the surprising Newcastle) -- the best teams we have faced. We did beat Udinese, who are top of the league in Italy and Marseille, who were good last year. But otherwise we have been beating up on teams below us in the standings.

One hopes we show up and actually perform well against Chelsea. Good news on several fronts from the 2-1 win though. Vermaelen is back and after an injury scare appears to be ready to go Saturday. Arshavin continued to show signs that he is getting back to his old form, with a goal and assist on the winner. Park finally started a game and, of course, scored -- and it was a beautiful finish (and also had another sure goal saved, though I didn't get to see that one). Chamberlin apparently came back to earth in the game, but I don't think that should allay us from giving him a real shot to displace the terrible Walcott (with the latest rumors having him shipped off to Barca). A victory over Chelsea would actually move us only 3 points behind them, so I will at least dream of glory at the bridge for the rest of the week. 

P.S. It has been an odd year overall, really, with only two draws so far. Besides them we are 10-4 this season. Three of those losses are against top teams and the fourth, to me the real low point of the season, was the terrible but unlucky loss to Blackburn on September 17. Since then, the only chink in our armor was the disappointing defeat at Spurs. All this being said, a win or draw against Chelsea could be a huge one for the team and really get us back on track.  

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