1. Sometimes a statistic is all you need.
I could sit here all night and type about the collective ineptitude of Arsenal, the regressing tactics, the lack of fight, heart or defensive ability. I could give you twenty reasons right here, right now, that every single match that Arsenal still have Wenger at the helm sets them further... and further... and further back. But I won’t. I will just sit back and quote one single statistic. In 90 minutes against Stoke this Saturday, Arsenal made just one successful tackle.
One. (1)
Put simply, that is utterly extraordinary.
2. The invincibles talk can finally end.
Talking of going unbeaten for the season in November is premature at the best of times, so it was a bit of a relief to finally park that bus this Saturday as Jose and his Chelsea troops lost their mojo once again in the North East. Feebly trying to deflect his teams performance with fabricated ball-boy yarns, this was a bad day at the office for Chelsea and one that temporarily blew open the title race. I say temporarily, because despite City winning, the sight of Sergio Aguero clutching his knee and spending a month (at best) on the sidelines was probably more of a blow than losing the match would have been. City have an easy winter run and will hope that their spine is fit and fighting again in January. If not, it’s likely that Chelsea’s defeat will only be significant in ending their long winning run, rather than stopping their dull and relentless quest to the title.
3. West Ham won. Again.
Okay then, I put this off last week with good humour, but West Ham are playing lovely football, varying their tactics and winning games with style and grace. It’s probably time to stop taking the piss, hoping to God that it stops and actually give them some credit. What’s brilliant about West Ham this season is the variety in which they are attacking. It’s hard to think of any club (Man City maybe) who can boast three strikers with such uniquely different skill sets. The pace, power, creativity and arial expertise of Valencia, Sakho and Andy Carroll are causing havoc with the contrasting ways in which they can be used to breakdown opposition. Behind them, Stewart Downing is reborn and Alex Song the signing of the summer. Defensively West Ham are as solid as ever, although it’s a bit strange to see Carl Jenkinson doing so well whilst his apparent replacement, Calum Chambers, continues to toil at Arsenal. Fair play Sam, this is the manager who did such a good job at Bolton before he became typecast as a boring, relegation saving journeyman. West Ham won’t still be 3rd or 4th come May, but so far it looks like it might actually be entertaining seeing them try.
4. Spurs need to up the tempo.
Spurs home form this season has been largely dreadful. They have lost half their matches and are scoring barely a goal a game. Held by Crystal Palace this weekend, the most talked about moment of the match was a piece of skill by an opposition player by his own corner flag. The team has been rotated at will, the tactics varied seemingly at random, but the real take home point is that Spurs just aren’t playing the sort of high tempo game you would expect. The current team is incomparable to what they were under Redknapp, and certainly nothing like the Southampton side that got their manager the gig in the first place. Sherwood has spoken at length of a poor mentality from his time there, and notably about how slow Spurs were to start matches. That trend is showing no signs of stopping. At home Spurs seem to be just passing it around and hoping they’ll score. They need to be grabbing games by the scruff of the net and wanting the three points. They have won just 6 of their first 15 matches, the same as Swansea and Newcastle. For a team with delusions of a Champions League finish, that is simply not good enough.
5. Leicester are in real trouble.
It is now ten games since Leicester defeated Manchester United in the game of the season so far. Ten games that have seen 8 defeats and 2 draws. They have conceded 18 goals in that time and scored just 6. They currently look a team bereft of confidence and it’s impossible to see where the next win is coming from. In truth, the 2-1 defeat by Aston Villa, the worst home team in the league, flattered them hugely. Villa battered them for much of the match and but for errant finishing and brilliant goalkeeping it could have been a slaughter. Pearson deserves time to turn it around but he needs to make his side harder to beat before concentrating on matters further up the field. Man City rocking up on Saturday probably isn’t going to help matters. But then we’ve said that before this season...
Team of the Weak:
Fabianski - erratic and sketchy performance that culminated in a red card. Never ideal.
Chambers - absolutely awful from start to finish, would have made the team even without the red card. Looked like a pub player.
McNair - An actual pub player, hauled off after half an hour of multiple errors.
Mertesacker - World Cup Winning defender beginning to look like a typo. Is exactly the sort of leaderless leader you expect of a current Arsene Wenger team.
Konchesky - torn apart by Gabby all match, then sent off for presumably telling Alan Hutton what we’d all been thinking.
Barry - looked badly off the pace and committed multiple fouls and misplaced passes. Still made more successful tackles than entire Arsenal team.
Fellaini - Absolute toilet. This was the Fellaini of last season right when nobody wanted to see him again.
Fabregas - Sometimes, even the greats have off days. Still got an assist...
Mason - Um, does anyone know why this lad is starting games?
Costa - is becoming a little bit of a home, flat track bully. Since Everton, has been awful in every away game he’s played.
Anichebe - One of those players where the word “striker” really needs to be in inverted commas.
What you may have missed:
Any goals at Hull. Any goals at Liverpool. Any goals at Spurs. Man City scoring early and then just conserving their energy ready for Wednesday night. Everton letting Man City score early and then inexplicably allowing them to conserve their energy for Wednesday night. Charlie Austin making a goal, scoring a goal and then getting sent off. The sight of thousands of fantasy football managers who had captained Augero hurling something at the TV. Liverpool keeping another clean sheet. But it being against Sunderland so not actually counting. Burnley not scoring in a match. Bristol City leaving it until injury time to see off non-league Telford. And finally, Ronaldo... and Messi, both scoring hat-tricks yet again. 44 between them now in the last six or seven seasons. To put that into perspective, that’s the same number that has been scored in the ENTIRE of the Premier League in the past four and a bit seasons. Silly really.
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