Villa Lose, And The World Is Bright Again - Man's Game Time

Morning all. I could lead into this post with a headline like "It's funny how things change" or "Football really is a funny game" or something else, but apparently all the other blogs beat me to that one so we'll just go without. I did predict Villa losing and us winning on Tuesday, so boom, outta here, correct. We're now within 3 points of Villa after their loss to City and our injured players are all going to be coming back at just the right time to really give us that boost.

Aston Villa aren't a team who are used to fighting for the Champions League places near the end of the season, and maybe the pressure is getting to them a little bit. They have a good team to be sure but none of those players have ever been locked in a battle to get into Europe like this and all that comes with that honor. They don't have it easy the rest of the way either.

Tottenham - Home
Liverpool - Away
Man United - Away
Everton - Home
West Ham - Home

I figure they probably lose to United and Liverpool away and probably either Everton or Sp*rs will take some points off of them. That's a lot of chances we have to take that 4th spot from them. While we still have to go to United and Liverpool, I'd take our schedule the rest of the way over theirs any day. Ten games left in the season, it's Man's Game time.

Theo Walcott and Eduardo are back in the squad Sunday for the match against Burnley. I can't wait to see Theo back. I feel like he's been out about ten months and it'll be great to not see Eboue out there and to have someone that is actually a cool guy that has skill, pace, and ability, unlike Eboue.

"I will see how they (Walcott and Eduardo) look tomorrow and Saturday but they will certainly be in the squad, especially Theo. We have to wait and see how Eduardo reacts and responds to his injury."

On the defensive front, Arsene Wenger says that Gallas should be back for Sunday and Kolo should be back for Roma next week, which is great news. Djourou had been playing well earlier in the year but last match he was a bit shaky. It's probably just because he hasn't gotten many matches lately but for the Champions League I'd prefer to have Gallas and Toure, who have been doing well together. Never thought I'd say that.

The next league match isn't until the 14th against Blackburn, so we have to wait a while for that. Maybe by then we could have Adebayor back as well, and who knows what Rosicky's status is. (By the way, calling him Rosicknote or some variation like Rosick List is not funny or imaginitive, so please come up with something original or just call him by his name) Cesc could be back in April for the stretch run against the other big guns so all is looking up.

Optimisim is the key now! Remember 2005-2006? Sp*rs thought they were going to be Aston Villa that year and steal our Champions League spot. But the lasagna saved the day then, and the lasagna will find a way to infect Villa as well. 4th place here we come!

No Defense for This Type of Defense

Well if you forgot we had a match yesterday, woke up knowing we didn't have Cesc or Adebayor, and saw that we had drawn 2-2 at Aston Villa, you would have thought it was a good result for us. However, if you actually watched the match, then you realize that we should have been able to hold on for a win. Was it our best performance? Hardly. But anytime you are up 2-0 in the second half you need to be stout enough to hold on for a win. Gallas brought down Agbonlahor for a penalty that Gareth Barry converted, and then our ultimate failure came in extra time. A cross came in from the right side to the left of the box and a simple one touch back in to the middle of the box for Zat Knight spelled our demise. He took the chance well and hit it right into the back of the net as the clock was about to run out.

Looking at the replay just makes you feel sick. It's the 92nd minute in a match that you are leading and we only have three defenders in our box when they are sending crosses in. Why are we so far up the pitch when there is so little time left while defending a lead? It's coming down to the wire and we're letting them pass it around in our box like they're on a damn training pitch. Can anyone really argue now that Senderos is not as good as Silvestre? What was the purpose of buying him? Did Wenger really still think he was a quality player or did he just want an extra body to put in defense? I can only imagine, but he just isn't very good.

While Arsene Wenger is still talking about winning the title, I think our goals must now change. Liverpool are ten points up on us halfway through the season, and are playing much better than us. And while we have shown that we can play with the best teams on our day, our consistency has been awful this year and a realistic expectation needs to be just qualification for the Champions League next season. We are three points behind Aston Villa and Manchester United now, with United having two games in hand. We have only nine wins and five losses so far, which is hardly a statistic to brag about. It will be an uphill battle with Villa playing so well, and I am hoping that a couple of buys in January will strengthen our squad enough to overtake them. In the end I still think we are the better team with better players, but it is the mental side of the game that we must adapt to in order to take back our Champions League spot.

While a lot of the fault does reside in our defence, our midfielders must also be back helping to close down and defend. When we only had three in the box on that last goal they were all defenders. You would hope that you would have some of your midfielders coming back to help in that situation but none of them are even close to the ball.

We've all been over who we think we need to bring in. Some have said Arteta, some have said Xabi Alonso, and still others have been wanting a defender. I think we could probably use all three, but I still want a defender more than anything. Gallas is very incosistent, Toure has not been at his best all year, and Silvestre is just not very good. The problem is, which defender would you buy? I'll leave that up to Arsene Wenger, because he is one of the best at finding talents from abroad. But let there be no doubt that we cannot continue like this.

I must have a little bit today on Bacary Sagna, who was truly inspired yesterday. I've always loved Sagna and he put on one of his best performances for Arsenal yesterday. He was brilliant from start to finish and definitely was man of the match for me. I also will give some credit to Denilson for taking the advantage when a little opening was given to him in the first half. Against the run of play, he struck and we took advantage of it. Credit to him.

So it's on to Portsmouth next, who have been pretty dreadful since Tony Adams took over, unfortunately for him. It is however, a chance we need to take to get three points. The January transfer window is only days away, and we may, for the first time in awhile, see some new players coming in in that window. We need to fight on. The Champions League is not far out of our reach and we have to want it more than Aston Villa wants it. Let's go Arsenal, Come on you Gunners!