I Heart Arsenal!

At half-time of our epic win over Chelsea this morning, I started to write a rather negative blog entry. The goal right before half-time again showed our frailty against set pieces and all the missed opportunities left me cold. But then a different team showed up in the second half, a team that (dare I say it) looked a little like the invincibles, moving forward of course. Van Persie is a god at the moment, but this is not a one man team! Walcott put in the best performance I've seen from him in a very long time. He actually should have had two assists within the first 10 or so minutes but for misses by Gervinho and Van Persie, scored a lovely goal and looked dangerous throughout the game. Gervinho looked truly wonderful, his mixture of speed and skill really starting to reek havoc on the left side and another assist to Van Persie for an easy tap in. And Aaron Ramsey gets better with each game. He actually looked magical at times and almost scored a spectacular goal. 

But that's not all! The defense actually showed up for the second half, and but for a moving pick (are Chelsea playing basketball these days?) and a spectacular goal by the Spanish dude we probably should have bought, they would have kept a clean sheet after the half-time whistle. Mertesacker looked better, after really being guilty on both first half goals, Santos woke up from his worst performance of the year in the first half to play much stronger in the back in the second and, of course, score a crucial goal. Kocielny is becoming one of my favorite players, making key clearances when the inevitable breakdowns in the back occur. Arteta was much better and Song actually had his best passing game in quite some time. Our passing was great and we not only controlled the midfield but moved forward into dangerous positions over and over again. When you add it all together it was the kind of win that can truly turn a season around.  

Not only were we down 2-1 with a goal right before the half -- the sort that used to often lead us to fall apart (remember the Barca away leg last season or the Tottenham score (both from Fabergas errors)?) -- but the late Chelsea equalizer, after a very questionable no call by the refs, looked to have robbed us of two points. Instead of settling for the draw or giving up a heartbreaking fourth, we kept putting the pressure on and an errant pass from Malouda to Terry, who fell down, led to the go ahead goal and then we finish it off as time is running out. There seems to be something apropos in that exchange between Malouda and Terry, but the key point is we again showed that mettle whose absence has cost us so dearly in recent campaigns. I truly believe that while we have to shore up the back with some additional signings and still probably need some more strength in the midfield, we have largely proven all of the naysayers wrong. 

To put it bluntly, I think we might actually have a team that has more heart than the more talented one that kept losing finals, fading toward the end of each season and finding rather astounding ways to lose games. The heartwrenching defeats last year too often showed a frailty of spirit, heart and balls that this bruised but not broken team appears to have discovered in the wake of the Man U and Blackburn debacles. Consider how ridiculous the British Press and many of our own fans have been in writing off the squad for the year, calling for Wenger's head and essentially claiming this team is a lost cause. Yes they don't have the bench or talent of Man City (or Man U or Chelsea for that matter), but this team appears to have something else -- something missing from Arsenal for a long time: the ability to keep fighting, win ugly and even win games that matter late. This game won us no silverware, but it was a huge, huge victory none-the-less.

Let's deconstruct the season for a moment. Wenger was clearly stubborn in failing to realize that Fabergas and Nasri were going and really should have completed the transfers for Cahill and Mata (who, by the way, played a part in two of Chelsea's three goals). But the past is the past and what happened instead was the signing of the players who now comprise our squad and who are growing into their roles week by week (except Mertesacker who I fear might need to be replaced. He really does seem too slow for the Premiership). So the season began and Gervinho was egged into a questionable red by ahole Barton after pulling him up for what was perceived as a dive. A nil nil result that was disappointing, but Newcastle haven't lost yet this year. Then we score a huge 1-0 victory over the current Series A leader Udinese, essential as it brought us halfway to securing Champions League football for the season. It wasn't spectacular, but we really needed it. Then we play Liverpool and are in the game until Frimpong gets a red and we lose a tough match 2-0 with two late goals (and maybe both were offsides). Then we go to Udinese and need to at least score a goal and keep them in check to qualify -- and win 2-1. Four days later is the infamous defeat, 8-2 to Man U. But the rhetoric surrounding that defeat has been rather ridiculous, given the number of injuries we had and the young, inexperience team we were forced to field. Like the Man U loss to City last weekend, many of the goals came late, and Arsenal actually missed a penalty in the first half and had several chances to make it a one goal match before the wheels came unhinged. Next up we play a tepid match against Swansea, but our little Russian scores a cheeky goal and we pick up three very important points. We follow this up with a great result against the German champions from last year, almost pulling off a 1-0 victory before a last second miracle goal (even as our defense seemed porous the whole match). Maybe our season is turning around? Well, not quite yet as we suffer an ignominious defeat at the hands of basement dwellers Blackburn, 4-3, with three ridiculous goals against and chance after chance squandered. It felt like the Newcastle collapse from last year. So the team would fall apart right?

Well, as Arsenal fans know, the fact is we awoke from that defeat and have won 8 of 9 matches. The one defeat, unfortunately to hated rival Tottenham, could easily have gone the other way particularly as the first goal appeared to be a rather obvious hand ball by Van der Vaart. Many will argue that many of the wins during this period have been rather ugly performances. The Sunderland match almost went the other way, but for a spectacular save by Szczesny. The Marseille game was pretty ugly for large parts, but we pulled it out 1-0 with the late Ramsey goal. Van Persie had to come in to save the day at home against Stoke and our second squad came from behind to beat Bolton in a close Carling Cup match just a few days ago. But I think these ugly performance are a positive. We have won a number of games we could easily have lost, unlike last year where we had the Carling Cup final nightmare, the last gasp Liverpool penalty, the two goal lead ceded back to Tottenham, the Newcastle disaster and a host of other games that we clearly should have won. Now we are winning those tight games and getting ourselves back in contention. I've seen a lot of memorable Arsenal moments over the years that I have been a fan (though obviously those memories get more distant with each passing year), but this had to be the most exciting since the come from behind win against Barca last year. We have a nice run-in until Christmas now (beside Man City) and really need to keep the momentum pushing forward and hope that Newcastle and Tottenham start to drop points. Go gunners!