The Twunt-O-Meter - Suarez and Arsenal's past misdemeanors

Following Luis Suarez latest chomp I thought it was high time to create a Twunt-O-Meter. Naturally Suarez pushes the meter to the maximum, but where would Arsenal players feature for their past indiscretions?


Dennis Bergkamp - Sunday 19th January 2003

In a 3-1 win over West Ham United, Dennis Bergkamp had the ball 40 yards from goal and cutting in-field from the left, he found Lee Bowyer on his shoulder. He decked the West Ham man with his elbow before using his new-found space to curl a perfect assist onto Thierry Henry's head for Arsenal's second.

Verdict: Dennis was simply avenging the McDonalds' workers who seven years earlier had been verbally abused by a chair-throwing Bowyer. So really Dennis Bergkamp's behaviour was super-heroic... think Batman but much better at football.


Martin Keown - Sunday 21st September 2003

This could be seen as the peak of bad feelings between Arsenal and Manchester United and no player was more hated by Arsenal players and fans that Ruud van Nistlerooy - quite possibly the cheatiest ballsack ever to have stained the Premier League.  On this occasion, he succeeded in getting Patrick Vieira sent off with a typically nasty foul and an absurd overreaction to Vieira kicking his leg out in his direction, from metres away.  He then had a last minute opportunity to win United the game from the penalty. He hit the bar, the scores finished level and Arsenal went on to finish the season unbeaten and win the league. At the final whistle, Ruud van Nistelrooy was immediately confronted by several Arsenal players.  Keown jumped up next to Van Nistelrooy and brought his arms down hard on his back whilst yelling in his face like a man-possessed.

Verdict: While Keown's behaviour was far from gentlemanly it was directed at Ruud van Nistlerooy and as such was commendable.


Cesc Fabregas - Sunday 24th October 2004

Arsenal's 49 game unbeaten run was ended by a van Nistlerooy penalty after a Wayne Rooney dive and one of the most shambolic refereeing performances in recent memory by Mike Riley who as well as incorrectly giving the game-deciding penalty failed to award Manchester United three blatant red cards.  In the tunnel after the game, Cesc Fabregas allegedly threw some pizza at Sir Alex Ferguson.

Verdict: Entirely justifiable behaviour...


Ashley Cole - January 2006

He was found guilty of making contact with league rivals Chelsea over a possible move, without informing Arsenal. He was fined £100,000 by the Premier League on 2 June 2005 for a tapping-up meeting at a hotel in January 2005. Cole, his agent Jonathan Barnett, the Chelsea manager José Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon were present at the meeting.

Verdict: It's strange how a supposed childhood Arsenal fan could be so disloyal to their club but footballers nowadays, eh?


Jens Lehmann - 10th December 2006

Mad Jens and Didier Drogba both got booked and embarrassed themselves in the process with some pantomime shoving and diving.

Verdict: Ludicrous and hilarious but more than a little embarrassing.


Emmanuel Adebayor - Tuesday 22nd January 2008

Ignoring the fact that Adebayor is clearly twuntness personified, I've just picked out one example of him being a complete helmet in an Arsenal shirt... With Arsenal 4-0 down in the Carling Cup against Spurs of all teams, Adebayor was brought off the bench to partner Nicklas Bendtner (who had scored an own goal) up front. He contributed with a goal and by telling Bendtner: "I'm only on because you are so shit." He then was alleged to have headbutted his teammate although I'm not sure this was ever confirmed.

Verdict: It's hard to take one Adeboyor incident in isolation because he really was a total thunderc*nt.


William Gallas - 23rd February 2008

In a truly devastating game in which Eduardo had his leg broken by Martin Taylor; Gaël Clichy conceded a wrongly awarded penalty in injury time and Gallas walked into the Birmingham half, apparently in protest. He stood there as Birmingham striker James McFadden converted the penalty. After the final whistle, Gallas sat down on the pitch as the rest of the players left the field.

Verdict: His stroppy reaction was embarrassing and not at all what should be expected from the club captain. Some leniency for him though as he had seen his colleague's leg snapped in two and a crap decision cost his team two vital points.

André Santos - Saturday 3rd November 2012

After the painful departure of Arsenal's captain and star striker Robin van Persie to sworn enemies, Manchester United; Arsenal lined up against their former captain at Old Trafford. Arsenal found themselves 1-0 down at half time to a goal from their former skipper. André Santos thought half time would be a good time to publicly swap shirts with van Persie leading to outrage from Arsenal fans and a pretty poor and confused apology from the useless, chubby Brazilian.

Verdict: Pretty damn twuntish. He displayed a complete lack of understanding of sporting rivalries, loyalty and competitiveness. His Arsenal career didn't recover, which is probably just as well because he wasn't very good anyway.


Nicklas Bendtner - Tuesday 11th March 2014

A rather bizarre report came out from Copenhagen last season from a Danish taxi driver:

"He said that, if he was not so famous, he would have smacked me, and he called me a 'little fat pig'. I asked him to leave the car – I had to ask them three times, and said I'd have to call the police if they didn't." 

"He stood at the back of the car and rubbed up against the side window after unbuttoning his pants while he whipped the cab with his belt and shouted he wanted to 'fuck me'," he added. "I've had drunks and alcoholics in my cab in Copenhagen over the last 25 years, but I've never experienced anything like this."

Verdict: Big deal; we've all been there...

End Of Season Awards - 2013/14

Player of the season:

Aaron Ramsey

No doubt about this one. From much-maligned to world-class in no time flat. From goal shy to prolific. His energy levels are exceptional. His finishing, dribbling, touch and passing have all come on leaps and bounds. He has more than repaid Arsène Wenger's faith in him and leant some pretty strong evidence to the Arsène knows mantra. It's been a total shock and a tremendous joy to watch him step up into one of the best box-to-box midfielders in Europe. It was only fitting that he was the man to score the goal that won us the cup.

Runner up:
Mertescielny

I just couldn't pick between the two centre-backs. Their partnership has been sensational (with the exceptions of some heavy away defeats) and fills me with confidence for next season.

Team performance of the season:
Arsenal 2 - 0 Napoli

The first half performance was sensational. Up until this game, Arsenal has been on terrific form but detractors were lining up to suggest that we hadn't really beaten big teams; that we would struggle against tougher opposition... so we blew Napoli and then Liverpool out of the water. Özil's first goal for the club was a particular highlight.

Goals of the season:

1 Jack Wilshere vs Norwich (h) - So good that it took a replay or two to fully comprehend what had happened. The poor old Norwich back line certainly didn't have clue.

2 Aaron Ramsey vs Liverpool (h) - The best of several superb individual Ramsey goals was an unsavable, dipping and swerving volley.

3. Tomas Rosicky vs Tottenham (a) - He loves scoring against Spurs and I love watching him score against Spurs. An early thunderbolt before a solid but dull performance secured a satisfying league double over our rivals, who many had tipped to finish above us (idiotically).

4. Aaron Ramsey vs Norwich (a) - Aaron announced himself as well and truly back from injury with a volley straight out of the toppest of top drawers. Glorious.

5. Tomas Rosicky vs Sunderland (h) - Not quite as good as Jack's team goal against Norwich but not far off; beautiful, nippy, tippy-tappy triangles and a cheeky dink. What more can you ask for?

Honourable mentions to Ozil's first for the club (against Napoli), Giroud's great take-down and finish against West Ham and Cazorla and Ramsey's cup final goals.

Assist of the season:

Mesut Özil vs Sunderland (a)

Just 11 minutes into his debut he plucked a Kieran Gibbs ball out of the air, looked up and layed on a perfectly-weighted ball for Olivier Giroud to expertly sweep home at the near post. It was a scintilating start to his Arsenal career.

Moment of the season:
Lifting the FA Cup.

9 years was too long but boy did it feel good to get that monkey off our back. Nobody enjoyed it more than Arsène Wenger who visibly de-aged that weekend after winning his 5th FA Cup. The atmosphere on Saturday evening and night and during Sunday's parade was of absolute jubilation. As Cup Finals go it was pretty amazing. There were a couple of superb goals, a ton of controversy and a great comeback. Not good for the blood pressure but a game that we will remember for a very long time.

"What if?" of the season:

What if Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott had avoided injury this term? Maybe Arsène Wenger would have been celebrating a 3rd double.

Low point on the pitch:

Chelsea 6 - 0 Arsenal

At the risk of losing perspective, this was literally the worst thing that has ever happened, anywhere in the world.

And off the pitch:

Nicklas Bendtner's fateful trip to Copenhagen...

Let he who has never unbuttoned his trousers, rubbed himself against a car, and whipped it with a belt cast the first stone.
— Andrew Thomas (@andi_thomas) March 13, 2014

Villain of the season:
José "specialist in boredom, hypocrisy and twattery" Mourinho.

Runner up:
Charlie Adam

The offensively ugly midfielder was signed by Stoke two years ago after impressing the club with his ability to injure talented, young Welsh footballers (Gareth Bale). Since signing for the club he's gone on to prove that he doesn't discriminate and will happily crock anyone better than football at him (most people), regardless of their nationality. His stamp on Olivier Giroud was appalling and when he was banned retrospectively for 3 games, rather than admit fault or apologise he bitched and moaned, as did his twat of a chairman and the club's twat of a chief executive. Dear Stoke, this is why everyone hates you.

Dishonourable mention:
Lee Probert

Spud-baiter of the season:
Theo Walcott

Runner-up:
Jack Wilshere

Germanic comedic moment of the season:
Mesut Ozil's quite brilliant "Yar Gunners, Yar!"

Runner-up:
Per Mertesacker is Arsenal til he dies. Lovely.

Signing of the season:
Mesut Özil

Arsenal fans lost their collective shit when Arsène pulled a world-class playmakeresque rabbit out of his hat on deadline day and whilst Özil's first season was a bit of a mixed bag (sublime at points but disappointing at others) there is no doubt that he lifted the club and we can be very optimistic that he will build on his performances next season.

Quote of the season:

"It was an important moment in the life of this team. It was more important today than all the others. Twice we had won the double, so we had already won something and were not under the pressure we were under here." - Arsène Wenger after the FA Cup win.

Arsenal v Wigan Preview & Arsène's FA Cup Semi-Final Record

Arsène Wenger has given us some great memories in the FA Cup in his time at the club and he has a huge chance to add another one this season. It's never felt quite so important that he does.  He has lead us to FA Cup glory on four occasions, whilst no other Arsenal manager has managed the feat more than once, however the last time he got his hands on the trophy was in 2005.

Arsenal have reached the final 5 times under Arsène Wenger and won 4 of those games and frankly that 5th time (the one with the Henchoz handball) was bullshit anyway. So that's an 80% FA Cup final record - but how does his record in the semi-finals stack up? Still pretty well, with progress in 5 of the 8 years.  The 3 defeats were suffered only against Manchester United (twice) and Chelsea. As you can see from the below infographic, there haven't been an awful lot of goals in those games so if history is anything to go by (which it probably isn't) we might expect a low-scoring game. The most common scoreline in those games was 1-0 and I would certainly take another one nil to the Arsenal this weekend.

Of course on paper we are favourites and Wigan manager Uwe Rosler agrees:

"We are the massive underdog but we have presented ourselves so far in a very, very good way. We've made our supporters proud and we're going to Wembley; we can't lose, we only can win.  Everybody highlighted the fact Arsenal now really have to go for the FA Cup and win the FA Cup. Their own players said that this week and obviously that puts a little bit of extra pressure on Arsenal." - Uwe Rosler

Pressure is the real buzz word this weekend and Rosler is of course correct that there is far more of it on Arsène Wenger and his teams' shoulders than on those of Wigan's manager and players as we meet them in the FA Cup for the very first time. They certainly enjoyed their underdog role when they managed a sensational win over Manchester City away from home - the third Premier League team that they knocked out of the competition in their superb run to Wembley. They are a club full of confidence with nothing to lose who have been immensely impressive since Rosler took the helm in December.

We certainly can't afford to underestimate this Wigan side the way that Manuel Pellegrini did last month, when he rolled out of bed, pulled on a hoodie and rocked up to the stadium to watch his team be out-fought and outplayed by Championship opposition.

Whilst I can't see Arsène donning a hoodie or him and his players underestimating their opponents, our current form and injury worries means a win is very far from a certainty. The Telegraph recently published an interesting article that claims some of the Arsenal players are taking the boss to task regarding his lack of focus on the opposition. I'm not sure how much truth there is in the article but I must say that I agree strongly with the sentiment.

I think in the past Arsène's teams were much stronger mentally and ability-wise; his best teams had an all-conquering attitude that meant that he could more-or-less pick the same team week after week and sit back while they ran rings around lesser opponents. Sadly, things have changed; Arsène's current team certainly doesn't compare to his best teams from the past and I think he needs to be much cannier tactically; to be more aware of the opposition's strengths and weaknesses and adjust his game-plan accordingly.

What was an extremely promising season has petered out badly and is in serious danger of becoming a disaster. A win against Wigan followed by victory in the FA Cup Final is the minimum requirement.

The Enigma of Lukas Podolski

Lukas Podolski - lethal at one end of the pitch... a liability at the other?  The 3rd most capped, 5th top scorer for the German national team, 28 years of age, with an excellent goals per game ratio and an ability to deliver superb balls from wide on the left should surely be a key member of Arsenal's first team. So why doesn't Arsène use him more?

He certainly was a key player in his first season at the club; arriving in the same summer that the club's captain and star striker upped sticks and took his disloyal jazz hands to Old Trafford.  Along with the superb Santi Cazorla he took to English football like a fish to water and created 11 assists and scored 16 goals, including Arsenal's goal of the season; a sensational volley against Montpellier. He also seemed to settle very well into London life, proving a popular member of the squad and a hit with the fans, going hashtag mental on social media and busting out a thumbs up once every seven minutes on average.

His second season at the club has been hindered by injury as he missed around four months but despite this he has scored and assisted regularly when played. It seems clear however that since the tail end of last season, when Cazorla was moved to the left and Rosicky played centrally that he has been increasingly marginalised by his manager. Arsène first sited tactical reasons, before claiming last October that he feels Lukas only gives 80, 90 per cent, that there was more to come from him. Recently there has been a lot of talk among the press and Arsenal fans that his casual style and lack of cover for his fullback and his penchant for giving the ball or penalties away makes him a defensive liability; a high-risk player who is dangerous at both ends of the pitch.

There is some truth to this narrative; if we look at his contribution in the last two games we can clearly see that he has been in the thick of it at both ends:

• Most recently he was caught in possession against Manchester City and they broke away and scored. He also conceded a few needless free kicks in this game but assisted Matthieu Flamini's equaliser with a cross from the left. It is only fair to point out that he was just dispossessed on one occasion in this game but it proved costly.

• Against Swansea, Lukas came off the bench when his side were losing and scored the equaliser before moments later providing a superb assist for Olivier Giroud to give Arsenal the lead. He was however culpable for giving the ball away in the build up to Swansea's absurd own goal equaliser.

It is also fair to point out that he struggles defensively and does not provide much in the way of cover for his full back and a needless penalty conceded against Liverpool in the FA Cup (a game in which he also scored) suggests he can be far too rash when he is trying to defend. I do however feel that his recent run of mistakes aren't really being taken in isolation and that he's being unfairly labelled a defensive liability. He doesn't give the ball away very often, in fact his passing success rate this season of 88.4% is third amongst our midfielders and attackers only to Flamini and Arteta.  In terms of his defensive errors that have cost us goals, he is far from alone in such mistakes. Without wanting to single out players, I think its fair to say that all of our attacking midfielders have been guilty of giving the ball aways sloppily or getting caught in possession in the build up to opposition goals.

So I think his defensive shakiness is being exaggerated and isn't enough to justify leaving him out of a side that has been struggling for goals without Theo, Ramsey and Özil. That's not to say he can't or shouldn't improve defensively. Work needs to be done on the training ground to improve his defensive positioning and discipline.  But again, he is not alone in this - just look at the amount of times our fullbacks get caught miles up the field while the opposition are breaking in numbers against two or three of our players.

So what next for Lukas Podolski? It's no secret that Arsenal have been pushing hard to sign Julian Draxler and the paper talk (which has been denied) is that Lukas would be offered in part-exchange. He will be 29 in the summer and is on a high wage so it wouldn't shock me if Arsène (if he sticks around) would consider moving him on. In the past the manager has moved players on when he considers them to be past the peak of their abilities and there is also a question over Podolski's fitness. Bizarrely he has completed ninety minutes for Arsenal on just six occasions. I think it would be a great shame if he were to leave without fully showing his class; he is a player with great experience and probably our most clinical player in front of goal.

"Podolski can score goals and when you have a goal chance you want him to have it. He is a clinical finisher and he has an unbelievable short and quick backlift. He is very accurate in his finishing. He can be effective, he can score goals when he starts and when he comes on, he is always dangerous." - Arsène Wenger

Former Germany great Oliver Bierhoff accused Lukas Podolski of stagnation at national level since his move to Arsenal. Podolski reacted angrily and the national manager Joachim Loew responded by explaining that Lukas was "indispensable in his position" but a more recent "appeal and wake up call" prior to the World Cup from the manager was taken by some to be aimed at Podolski and his Arsenal colleague, Mesut Özil. With a place in the German team and a possible FA Cup winners medal up for grabs it is certainly in the best interests of both Arsenal and Lukas for him to prove his worth before the summer.


My thanks go to 7amkickoff, whoscored and squawka whose stats I used for the article and infographic.

Monthly Awards: March

"March is the month. We play Spurs, City, Chelsea, Bayern, Everton in the cup.  We have a great opportunity to show that we are strong, which is what I think... at the end of March we will know much more." - Arsène Wenger

If March was the month that was going to make or break our season, I'm afraid it broke it (in terms of our league challenge anyway.)  The month got off to a dreadful start with a painful and limp defeat to some stampy, inbred ogres and despite our third win and third clean sheet against Spurs this season and a superb 4-1 win over Everton, a disappointing draw against Swansea and a humiliating trouncing at Stamford Bridge on Arsène Wenger's 1000th game at Arsenal meant it was ultimately a month to forget..

Form:

Player of the Month: Tomas Rosicky. Unfortunately the Czech didn't have too much competition this month. I was delighted to see him put pen to paper on a new deal. For a 33 year old, he's still very nippy and excellent at pressing the opposition, "the great  accelerator" as Arsène called him. He started regularly in March and his fine month was capped off with a superb match-winner at White Hart Lane.

Top Goalscorer: Olivier Giroud (3 goals).

Goal of the Month: Tomas Rosicky vs Spurs. A leap out of your seat beauty, screamer of a worldie, thunderbastard to savour.  Against Spurs no less.

Runner-up: Olivier Giroud's second against Everton. A superb team move involving Cazorla, Rosicky and Özil set up Olivier Giroud to complete an impressive brace from the bench.

Best Result: Arsenal 4 - 1 Everton. Tough opposition and a genuine threat to our Champions League qualification threat were swept aside by a Mesut Özil masterclass. Mikel Arteta also shone as he hammered home to give us the lead after being made to retake by referee, Mark Clattenburg.

Worst Result: Chelsea 6 - 0 Arsenal. Urgh... I desperately wanted Arsène to get one over on the classless tool that is José Mourinho in his 1000th game in charge but it couldn't have gone worse.

Quote of the Month:

"I congratulate Arsène in reaching this momentous landmark. Having also reached the same milestone at one club, I cannot emphasise enough the level of dedication, resilience as well as sacrifice required and for that I have for the utmost admiration... Over the years we enjoyed some fantastic battles and you could say we had survived together and respected each other's efforts to play good football. I always enjoy watching Arsène's sides - Arsenal play the right way" - Sir Alex Ferguson

Talking points:

The FA Cup - Whilst it is disappointing that the FA Cup is now our only chance of silverware, the elimination of Manchester City by Wigan means we are heavy favourites for the competition. We all know that we've failed to win cups that we really should have in the past and this time nothing less than the trophy will do.

The Champions League and criticism of Mesut Özil - As expected, we exited the Champions League after a 1-1 draw in Munich. Mesut Özil picked up a hamstring injury in the second minute and played on ineffectively until he was subbed off at half-time. Neil Ashton of the Daily Mail didn't let the fact that the playmaker was injured get in the way of his extremely nasty post-game hatchet job, just days after his man of the match performance against Everton. It was pitiful journalism of the lowest order.

New contracts - A two-year deal for Rosicky showed a new-found willingness to hang onto more experienced players and to offer them deals longer than one year. The new and improved deal for Aaron Ramsey just 15 months after he signed his last deal reflects his sensational development and extensions for Per Mertesacker and Santi Cazorla showed a desire to hang onto our top players. A first professsional contract was also handed to extremely promising youngster Gedion Zelalem.

On the flipside of the coin Bacary Sagna looks likely to leave as his contract winds down and the prospect of signing a three-year contract with Manchester City looks far too real. And despite Ivan Gazidis' confidence that Arsène will sign on, the clock is ticking...

Arsenal's away record against the top 3 - 6-3, 5-1 and now 6-0. Appalling and an area that must be properly evaluated in preparation for next season.

Andre Marriner sent off the wrong player - Kieran Gibbs was shown red for Oxlade-Chamberlain's moment of madness. Despite neither the referee or the linesman initially thinking a penalty should be awarded, Marriner somehow changed his mind and sent off the wrong player. Whilst an apology was issued, no explanation was given and none of the officials were taken off duty for the next round of Premier League fixtures. This lack of an explanation is clearly unacceptable.

Title Challenge Over - So our title challenge lies in tatters after a disappointing couple of months but I firmly believe improvements were made this season and we gave it our best shot in six years. Essentially, injuries to key players meant that success was extremely unlikely and now our attention turns to securing a Champions League spot. A situation that will become precarious if we to take no points away from Goodison Park this coming weekend.

Injuries - Injuries to key players such as Mesut Özil, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott meant getting our title push over the line was extremely unlikely. That's not to say that these injuries in any way excuse the level of performance against Stoke or Chelsea but Arsenal do seem to have an uncommonly high amount of injuries season after season and Arsène Wenger has recently launched an internal inquiry into why this might be.

Tim Sherwood - He threw his gilet on the floor. He's a silly billy.

Arsenal 1 -1 Manchester City - Marauding Mathieu provides much-needed redemption

An ultimately satisfying and fair result as the players showed great determination, and that mental strength Arsène is so fond of, to come from behind and take what could be a valuable point in our battle to ensure we are playing Champions League football next season.

• The first half performance was a little disappointing.  Whilst we were far more solid defensively than in recent games, yet another individual error against a big side lead to a goal. Podolski first dillied then dallied before being robbed of the ball and throwing himself on the floor to try and win a free-kick. Dzeko's shot came off the post and back to an untracked David Silva for a tap-in. It was so frustrating and irritatingly familiar. The better the opposition the more likely we are to be punished and we are making far too many individual errors at the moment.

• The penalty shout was the only time we really threatened in the first half. A good ball from Santi fed Rosicky who pushed the ball past Zabaleta and went to ground. Whilst there was some contact Rosicky probably initiated it and the fullback was clearly trying not to bring him down so Mike Dean got a difficult decision correct. Rosicky was perhaps a little lucky to escape a second yellow card for a mistimed sliding tackle.

• A lazy narrative started at 1-0 that City were cruising towards an inevitable victory and I think some Arsenal fans may have feared another capitulation but the response from the players was truly excellent. They fought back to take a point with great determination and the the discipline to not allow themselves to be caught out on the break and actually looked the more likely side to win the game.

• Lukas Podolski - what an enigma! Another good assist today following a goal and assist against Swansea but his defensive "contribution" was so poor. As mentioned, he conceded the ball in the build-up to the City goal and beyond that he rarely offered any protection to Gibbs and conceded needless free kicks. He was lucky not to concede a penalty against Swansea for needlessly barging a player in our box (as he did against Liverpool in the cup.)  I don't think liability is too strong a word but when he is on the pitch, there is always a good chance that he can create something in the final third. Surely the most high risk player in the squad.

• Santi Cazorla played extremely well in the second half. His guile, flair and creativity is needed more than ever without Özil, Ramsey and Walcott and he will need to be on top form if our push for the FA Cup and a Champions League spot are to be successful.

• Matthieu Flamini personified Arsenal's redemption this week with his own individual turnaround. He was the unfortunate man to concede the costly late own goal on Tuesday night but showed great desire and a cool finish from a difficult chance to get his team back on level pegging on Saturday. Perhaps there is an advantage to not being considered an attacking threat; you can surprise the opposition defence. I had a little chuckle at Gary Neville's description of Matthieu as a marauding midfielder as he continued to push forward after his goal and created real problems for City - clearly he was desperate to drive his side on to the win.

• Olivier Giroud held the ball up much better than he had been doing lately and gave the ball away very rarely. It was a more impressive performance that in recent games but he still doesn't look much of a goal threat against the top teams. One occasion that really stood out was his complete lack of awareness to try and get on the end of an excellent Sagna cross. He must gamble more by making aggressive runs towards goal when we get the ball out to the wings and give the wide players something to work with.

• Much has (understandably) been said and written about Arsenal's atrocious form in the big games away from home this season but we can take some encouragement at least from not losing to the big teams at home with wins over Liverpool in the cup and league and draws against City and Chelsea at home. It's difficult to gage the gap in quality between ourselves and the sides above us as the league table and our early season form combined with the injury troubles we've had suggest that perhaps we aren't really too far off but of course our head-to-head record suggests otherwise.

Man of the Match: Matthieu Flamini - It could easily have gone to Santi Cazorla whose second half performance was extremely impressive but I just felt Mathieu's individual bouncebackability after the midweek own goal was enough to get him over the line.

Arsenal 2 - 2 Swansea - Gunners Swan-diving towards 5th place?

Well that was a roller-coaster of emotion... a roller-coaster that you get on, start building up some speed and then the person next to you is sick on you... all over you. But then the sick flies off you in the wind and you start to think "actually this is going to be ok" until right near the end of the ride when the roller-coaster implausibly and without sense crashes and you're horribly maimed... and then Paul Scholes starts kicking you. I've never been very good at metaphors.

We dominated possession early on and just as we were starting to build up some confidence we were hit by Swansea's first meaningful foray into our half. An excellent but unchallenged cross from deep by the Swansea left-back Neil Taylor was met high and powerfully by Wilfred Bony who rose above Thomas Vermaelen. It was the last thing we needed and potentially a damaging blow to our confidence.

The score stayed level until half-time as the players struggled to make any inroads through the Swansea back-line. Mertesacker headed into the side-netting, Oxlade-Chamerblain fired well wide after making some space for himself and Cazorla had a decent effort saved but we didn't really look like scoring.  We did work the ball out to the overlapping full-backs a few times but no players were making decent runs into the box and really giving them anything to aim at.

Wenger saw the need to make a change early in the second half and brought on Lukas Podolski for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Podolski offered very little defensively but was decisive going forwards. In the 73rd minute he equalised from close-range after Gibbs beat his man brilliantly and pulled the ball back to him. And just a minute later he delivered a sensational low cross into the pass of Olivier Giroud to fire Arsenal into the lead.

The End

What happened at the end of the game was farcical; freakishly bad fortune really. Mertesacker challenged Leon Britton in the area only for the ball to bounce off the on-rushing Szczesney's leg and then off Flamini into the open net. It was as cruel as it was ridiculous. Had it not have happened we would be savouring three crucial, hard-earned points but in the end we are left swallowing sadness and regret.

"The result is very disappointing but the spirit we put in and the effort we put in was great and we have to take it on the chin." - Arsène Wenger

It's a hard one to take on the chin to be fair. Arsène bemoaned the way we tried to shut up shop rather than keep attacking but I don't really agree; I just felt we needed to shut up shop more effectively and not concede a hideously unlucky goal.

Paul Scholes had some choice words for Arsenal following the match and while on the one hand it felt like being kicked while you're down, on the other I think he raised some fair points. He labelled this a typical week for Arsenal and there was a sense of familiarity after our thumping at Stamford Bridge and that very Arsenal-esque own goal last night.  He also said that Jack Wilshere has not developed since he was 17 because of a lack of role-models however I do think this is a little unfair as he has had serious injuries and Arsène Wenger's record of nurturing young players is still very good, taking Theo and Ramsey as recent examples.

As well as highlighting Arsenal's lack of physical strength and leaders he also criticised the discipline of Arsenal's midfield and I think this is where he speaks with real authority and reason:

"It's like they go out with no discipline. It's almost as if it's 'OK, you four, five midfielders, you go out there, do what you want, try to score us a goal, play some nice one-twos, a bit of tippy-tappy football, don't bother running back... Sometimes, as a midfield player, when you're up against it you just have to say 'look, come in beside me for five, ten minutes', try and stop the flow of attacks... And these [players at Arsenal], they go 2-0 down and they just carry on what they're doing. 'I'll have a wander up front, try a one-two, lose the ball'. Nobody bothers sprinting back. You wonder why they're in the position they're in?" - Paul Scholes on Sky Sports

That's pretty tough to argue with and is a damning indictment of how the manager sets up his team and coaches them.

Kim Kallstrom came on and did fine; played one good long ball. Given our injuries, Oxlade-Chamberlian's unreliability in a deeper position and Arteta's fatigue, he maybe needed but I doubt he can significantly improve us.  The title was of course gone on the weekend and now the only relevant section of the league table is below:

Those next two games are hugely important and we will not have any key players back for them so we will need to regroup and improve quickly or "our Champions League spot" will be there for the taking...


Man of the Match: Kieran Gibbs - This is not to say he was flawless. He needs to be more disciplined defensively. I remember Tony Adams complaining that Arsenal's fullbacks play like wingers and he has a good point but it certainly worked out well for us when Kieran made an excellent assist for Lukas Podolski.