The Easter weekend kicks in with matches in the Premier League and elsewhere affecting promotion and relegation matters. No Arsenal today and no musings on Everton’s game as they take on United once The final whistle has blown at the KC Stadium.

Cardiff City’s attempts to survive include complaints to the authorities that the Cockney wide boys from Crystal Palace indulged in the footballing equivalent of industrial espionage. Not for them a network of scouts to watch their opponents and divine tactics or strategies from those reports. No, they went to straight to the horses mouth. Allegedly. Whether foul play was afoot will become clear in coming weeks. Whether the footballing authorities will decide this can of worms is worth opening is another matter. If true, it’s nice to see that Arsenal aren’t the kinky team who don’t bother watching the opposition beforehand. Boom, boom; it’s never too early in a post for a cheap gag.

There is a point to mentioning The Bluebirds or did their maniacal owner dispense with the colour from that? Are they now just The Birds? No wonder Tippi Hedren didn’t want anything to do with the Cardiff Tourist Board. Anyway, their favourite son has been nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year and, sort if, rightly so. The hesitancy cones from the fact that Aaron Ramsey, for it is he, missed three months of so of the season. Which in fact is a testament to how well he played up to that point.

No-one can dispute that before god injury he was in the form of his career, leading the way in front of goal for the club for a while but generally giving energy to the performances. What difference he would have made had he not bee injured is debatable. He wouldn’t have stopped the collapses at Anfield and Stamford Bridge; even Superman would have struggled with saving those days but other matches would, I am sure, have yielded more points.

The attacking aspect of his play was eye-catching but it is his all-round game which impressed most this season and that pushed others on. It’s that attitude which was most missed in his absence. Injuries have hurt Arsenal this season, there is no doubt of that, and Ramsey’s was as crucial as Walcott’s. With the Lee flamboyant approach this season, those goals were missed as the squad did not have a natural replacement for either in that respect. In the end, it all comes back to that, doesn’t it?

Nonetheless, well done to the lad for his nomination. Should he win it? He has as good a case as any of the others. The nomination is reward in itself, recognition of the journey he has followed since returning from his broken leg, of the improvements in his game as he matures as a player. Winning would, in a romanticised version of football, be the flip-side of that injury. Just reward, you might say.

That’s it for today, back with a preview of the Hull game in the morning.

‘Til Tomorrow.

Morning all, the Easter Weekend is upon and balmy sunshine bathes over the back garden as many prepare to test the new Government car parks, otherwise known as motorways, on their way to wherever. Something to keep the journey flowing is the Good Friday Gathering, this morning’s playlist which can also be found in the right sidebar. Welcome to the weekend.

With today being a bank holiday in the UK, Arsène’s press conference was brought forward to yesterday which has thrown me entirely, especially with the trip to Hull being on Sunday. It’s just typical of Sky’s detrimental impact on football; it’s always about them, never stopping to spare a thought for the poor blogger who has an extra day to fill in the schedule. And that’s before we even consider their swapping of fixtures to suit the schedule of Chelsea with ne’er a care about the financial impact on Arsenal supporters. Quite why they are choosing this weekend’s FA Cup final rehearsal…ah, trying to steal the thunder of those channels which can show the final live on TV. They took a punt on the fixture living up to its pre semi-final potential and to hell with the consequences. Arsène took aim at the broadcaster earlier in the week and before pulling the trigger, turned the gun downwards and shot himself in the foot by admitting Arsenal had never requested a change of fixtures to suit their own needs rather than that of the TV channel. Will they do so next season or suffer the slings and arrows of not doing so? It does set a dangerous precedent for the future; Sky have done it once, got away with it, we should expect similar next season and beyond.

Arsène though had moved on, preparing to welcome back Mesut Özil to first team action, aware of the impact the German international can have on the few remaining games this season. With Everton facing a tricky home match with Manchester United, there has been a swift proclamation that fourth is all but signed and sealed. Hull won’t mind such arrogance, they intend to take a psychological advantage to Wembley by beating Arsenal at home for the first time in 99 years. Yes, avoid defeat tomorrow and Arsenal will make it a century before Hull have emerged victorious in this fixture. Unless of course, next season’s trip to the KC Stadium takes place before the end of this year in which case we are eighteen months or so away from reaching the 100 year mark but that’s still a lot closer than me making a point. It sounds impressive until your realise that Sunday is only the seventh league and cup meeting between the two clubs in that time, Arsenal didn’t visit Hull for 73 years during that time. Still, a ton is a ton and worthy of being trotted out to fill out a paragraph in a post.

Despite being the club’s record signing, Özil can be divisive. Probably “Because he is the record signing” would be a better start to that sentence but the difference reflects perceptions. Arriving as the shutters were being pulled down on the transfer window, a bright start met those expectations but the worms turned quite quickly, a procession of pundits accusing him of letting the supporters and the side down. The bills had to be paid somehow I suppose and the ease with which bitterness can surface in the media from an ex-professional never ceases to amaze, especially when you recollect that most pundits were rank under-achievers in their playing days. The media feed off the extremes and cajole a view into the mainstream, gently scooping more with the voracious appetite for opinions.

The German international has struggled with the physical demands of the English games, the mental pressures as well. Arsène observed that Özil found it hard to adapt from a mentality where Real Madrid going two goals ahead meant the game was over. I am not so sure that doesn’t happen here as well but undoubtedly there is more of a fight shown against the big clubs in this country, mainly because when they lose it is a surprise yet not unusual. Ordinarily all of the top four in any season will suffer a poor result or two against a team lower down the table; it’s always been the case in the top flight here, always will be. Perhaps that unpredictability is part of the attraction of the game around the world?

Arsenal have a world-class player in their midst and for Özil coming to terms with that status, being the biggest fish in this pond, brings pressure. Adapting to a new life, new working environment, culture, language, etc., takes time and his displays haven’t actually been disappointing. He has followed the path of Bergkamp and Pires in taking time to adapt to the English game but Wenger is certain that next season he will be in the running for Player of the Season. He’s likely to have Aaron Ramsey for company using that logic. But a lot of the problem for Özil is not his performances but supporter expectations. They were sky high on his signature and there was an attempt to change the narrative of how this changed the summer. It didn’t but he certainly gave the season more confidence and added impetus as the team recovered from the opening day defeat against Aston Villa.

In Özil’s case, the desire for him to run rife through Premier League midfields and defences comes on the back of a poor summer when it came to strengthening the squad; there was no-one else of attacking note signed leaving Özil as the knight on a white charger. It’s a hell of an expectation to walk into. It’s a case that the player will be fine, he will produce the goods; many of us have seen false idols arrive with a blaze of publicity and expectation, only for them to fall at the first hurdle. I don’t think I have seen many at Arsenal with the technical ability of Özil at Arsenal. Bergkamp, Pires; there’s a bit of a gap to the next level when you think of those players. Özil is in their company, we know it, next season will see it. And given that the last nine years have always been about next season, we’re well-versed in the waiting game.

’til Tomorrow.

It’s the trophy that nobody except Arsenal wants to win. Another season, another challenger crumbles under pressure and in nip Arsène’s Men to take fourth place. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Arsenal’s return to the top four was supposed to be temporary with Everton achieving a routine victory last night. Everyone assumed Palace were Puncheon above their weight in this bout but far from it, the win took them to the magical forty points total and assured their Premier League survival. As much as it sticks in the throat to say it, Pulis has done a good job in keeping them up without resorting to the rugby club tactics for which he is ‘famed’. I think they were safe anyway; thirty-six points will be enough given Norwich’s final four games. They will take three more, it’s up to Arsenal to make that gap irrelevant with three consecutive wins, starting on Sunday.

Palace weren’t the only winners last night with Manchester City dropping out of the title race. The scene is set for the destination of the title to be decided when the top two meet at Anfield in a week or so’s time. Until Vito Mannone’s blunder, fantasy football was taking over with dreams of third place rekindled as City lumbered their way around the pitch. The questions swirled, what if City lose at Everton as well, we could…, what exactly was never clear. City still have a vastly superior goal difference and a game in hand; even drawing level on points was not enough for Arsenal.

Dreaming isn’t bad, it’s an integral part of football but to think of anything higher than fourth? You might as well dream of the title and having led the way for the first half of the season, it is bitterly disappointing to be locked in a battle to achieve the same position as last season and relying on the same frailties, just from a different opponent. Of course it requires the Arsenal players to deliver and that is by no means certain. The signs are promising – by the standards of the last eight weeks, at least. Back-to-back wins have injected the missing self-belief back into the squad; tentatively, of course, and by no means is it the formality of an unbeaten end to the season as guaranteed as we tell ourselves but of Arsenal and Everton, the fixture list suggests it will take a Herculean effort for the latter to do so, especially as United, their next opponents, harbour vague ambitions of a top five finish. The slings and arrows of Premier League fortunes are not yet fully fired.

Winning is all that matters, something Wojciech Szczesny is acutely aware of,

“I will take four or five more games like that until the end of the season. As long as we get three points, it does not have to be beautiful. Before the four disappointing results we had recently, we were still in the title race. So it has slipped away from us but it is important for us to fight for the new challenge, which is the top four now. We are confident we are going to do the job.”

It encapsulates the season and I wonder how the players feel about where they find themselves now. Szczesny makes it clear that finishing as high as possible is the target and the FA Cup offers the chance for the medals they crave. Financially secure, it is more fun for them to look at medals and remember the good times when the playing days have come to an end. Will they look at this season and wonder if that was this was the one which got away? In some, in many, respects I hope they do because that introspection may offer them a better understanding of their contribution and how it could improve the team in the future; learning from your mistakes.

It is something Arsène touched on before the West Ham match. Talking about the desire to compete in the top competition, the Champions League is preferable to the Europa League and the manager pointed out that,

“You learn more by playing against Bayern or Barcelona or Real Madrid than if you play in the Europa League. You don’t go backwards but you want to play with the top teams“.

The theory is sound enough but only if you put those lessons into practice and whether Arsenal have is questionable when it comes to Champions League football. Recent seasons have seen the team habitually finish in second place in the groups and be drawn against the tournament favourites. Nothing they can do about the luck of the draw but that can be mitigated by winning the group, it generally offers the opportunity to play weaker teams, relatively speaking. The knockout phases have offered no respite, with the first leg of ties effectively ending Arsenal’s interest in the competition. This season was different, Wojciech Szczesny’s dismissal skewed the match in the favour of a team which doesn’t need that sort of help to win.

But where is the evidence that we have learned lessons from the group stages of previous years, where do we see that Arsenal have got to grips with the notion that coming first improves their chances of making it past the first knockout phase? The manner of the home defeat to Dortmund was no improvement on the same outcome against Schalke the season before. The perversity of Arsenal is such that they achieved creditable results in both return matches. Old habits die hard as the capitulation in Naples proved.

In 2005/06, it all came together for Wenger until the final when events conspired against Arsenal. The chances Thierry Henry did not take were the ones we expected him to and ten men were eventually undone. But the route to the final was a lesson in tactical astuteness that the manager has not replicated and not come anywhere near doing, either. You don’t go ten matches without conceding a goal through luck; it remains a marvellous achievement. It wasn’t all luck that saw Real Madrid and Juventus beaten; yes, there were moments in the second leg against the Spaniards when they might have equalised, the same is true of Villareal in the semi-final but Arsenal played well in five of those six matches and deserved their reward. Have those lessons been learned by the manager? It doesn’t appear so.

The personnel is different, squads evolved, devolved, rotated and disrupted. Arsenal play differently as well, the pendulum of tactics and style has swung back and forth over the years but that kind of cohesiveness in away matches is light years ahead of anything produced since. I can’t see the current vintage of players or manager achieving that again. It’s why dropping into the Europa League may not be as bad an option as is expounded. The level of competition is not as great and in that sense it could act as a confidence-boosting exercise for the club on European shores. If Arsenal took it seriously, resisted the temptation to field League Cup style sides, to gain the experience of winning knockout ties over two legs would be invaluable. If it is going to be treated as nothing more than a training exercise, field kids and be done. In fact, it would be better not to qualify for Europe in those circumstances, no lessons will be learned.

The problem is we take Champions League qualification for granted. Arsenal are good enough to do that, good enough to get through the group stage but is that the limit of ambition? Genuinely, is reaching the knockout phase as good as Arsenal will ever get?The received wisdom is that the best players in Europe want to play in the Champions League. Surely the best players want to have a chance of winning it, not just turn up every year to make up the numbers.

It is baffling that anyone cares about competing in a tournament where being knocked out as soon as the group phase is over, is the best that can be achieved. If that is the case, then is it anything more than a cash cow where supporters are there to be milked?

’til Tomorrow.

Arsenal 3 – 1 West Ham United

0 – 1 Jarvis (40)
1 – 1 Podolski (44)
2 – 1 Giroud (55)
3 – 1 Podolski (78)

It might only last a few more hours but last night’s victory over West Ham sent Arsenal back junto the top four and put pressure on Everton ahead of their meeting with Crystal Palace at Goodison Park tonight.

It was a tale of two halves. If the first was the worst of times, the second was definitely the best. Arsenal coughed and spluttered before half-time and purred into life afterwards. Nobody epitomised that more than Olivier Giroud. Guilty of an appalling miss having been sent clear with the deadlock yet to be broken, he produced a marvellous moment to give Arsenal the lead ten minutes after the interval. It is that inconsistency which caused the squad and the player himself so many problems since Christmas.

Arsène  made five changes from Saturday and it showed as passes went astray from the kick-off. West Ham meanwhile were intent on making life difficult and sought to nullify what little creative spark Santi Cazorla could provide. And when the Spaniard sent Giroud clear, it was entirely in keeping with the performance that he should prove he was no Messi, tamely clipping the ball rather than ensuring that he applied the finish both he and the team needed.

inevitably punishment came as Jarvis headed home following the confusion caused on Arsenal’s left by Nocerino. Had West Ham survived the remaining five minutes of the half, the outcome might have been different. As it was, Kallström’s shot minutes after Jarvis’ goal injected life into Arsenal and Podolski changed the complexion of the match with the sort of unerring finish we have come to expect of the German in such situations. It made the half-time talk a little easier for the manager.

The second half saw a more cohesive performance from Arsenal, suitably rewarded by Giroud’s goal ten minutes in. Controlling Vermaelen’s hopeful pass on his chest, the French striker outmuscled and out-thought the West Ham bodies in close attendance, to drill the ball between Adrian’s legs. It was the finish to which we became accustomed when Thierry Henry strode The Emirates turf and perhaps as much of the delight in the goal comes from the fact it so unexpected given Giroud’s own form in front of goal recently. He and Podolski displayed the sort of form last night that you wish they could produce consistently; it might have made all the difference.

One man who was sorely missed was Aaron Ramsey and his energy was a bright spot during the dullness of The opening hour on Saturday. He enlivened the final twenty minutes of last night’s proceedings, cushioning the ball to Podolski for the German to find another unerring finish fir the third. By that time, West Ham had decided to go home, put their wool-lined, check-patterned slippers on and fill the kettle ready for a nice cuppa before they went to bed. The obduracy of their first half performance had given way to a meek acquiescence. It wasn’t hard to see why they are in the bottom half of the table.

There were a number of bright spots as Arsenal head into the final four games of the Premier League campaign. Cazorla had arguably his best night for s while and there was plenty of energy accompanied by endeavour from Kallström and Arteta in midfield. That others such as Sagna who played the gruelling 120 minutes at the weekend, were also able to summon lively performances once the cobwebs had been shaken, underlines the willingness to scrap for the final Champions League place, even if it means their summer holidays may be shorter due to the final qualifying round tie that fourth place brings with it.

Much was made of the fact that it was an ‘old’ Arsenal side with Giroud the whippersnapper of the outfield players at 27. Wenger had some youthful options but was perhaps mindful of the FA Youth Cup semi-final second leg tomorrow night where the youngsters will seek to overturn the 2-1 lead established by Chelsea in the first meeting between the two sides. As much as Arsène needs his experienced heads in the senior team’s Premier League battle for fourth, I wonder if the proximity of that match fuelled his reluctance to call Akpom or Bellerin from the bench last night?

Post-match Wenger was quick to praise Giroud and Podolski, the former for his strength of character in shrugging off the first half miss, the latter generally for his wide play and finishing. He admitted that the German was withdrawn on Saturday due to a sub-par performance; Podolski wasn’t the first and don’t be the last to experience that sense of failure on their fist Wembley appearance. Last night must count as some sort of success for him bringing a rare 90 minute outing. Was he helped by the injury situation? Of course, you sense that had Mesut Özil been available, Podolski would have once more been the lamb sacrificed at the substitute’s altar. With the midfielder likely to be available at the weekend for the trip to Hull, Podolski’s hopes of a second consecutive full 90 minutes appear to have reduced.

As it is, Arsenal did all that was required of them and in taking the three points on offer, they have begun an undefeated run. Granted back-to-back wins is not much to get excited about but winning seems to do so much for the players confidence that you feel they really ought to do it more often. Victories in all the remaining games this season would be a good starting point.

‘Til Tomorrow.