Monthly Awards: January

Player of the month: Santi Cazorla. I've loved Santi from the first time I saw him play in an Arsenal shirt and he was excellent during his first season.  I wear his name and number on the back of my Arsenal shirt and even tried to name my kitten Santi Catzorla (vetoed by my better half.)  He struggled a bit with injury earlier this season and wasn't quite so effective, but he is back to his devastating best now with 5 goals in January and he really looks like he's enjoying his football as much as ever. Just have a look at this moment of beauty from the little man.

Best result: Arsenal 2 - 0 Tottenham - A great day to be a Gooner.  It's always a pleasure to beat that lot and this game was no exception. It was more comfortable than our 1-0 victory earlier in the season and contained two hugely enjoyable goals and some excellent spud-baiting from Theo Walcott.

Worst result: Southampton 2 - 2 Arsenal - Thankfully this was an easy decision as it was our only slip-up in January. Our first-half performance was disappointing, with the midfield struggling to get a foothold in the game and Nacho forgetting on a number of occasions how to play football. We were outplayed by an impressive Southampton side but started the second half brightly.  A needless and reckless challenge from the fiery Flam left us with ten men and unable to push for a winner. It was not a good moment from Mathieu and results in a 4-game ban. That said, this Southampton side is a very good one and I think a draw at their place is no disaster.

Quote of the month: This month's quote comes from Tim Sherwood; Arsenal fan, simpleton and current Tottenham manager, who resided over Spurs's North London defeat (in which they were outnumbered in midfield.)

Goal of the month: Santi's goal against Spurs. The fans actually voted for the other goal from this game, when Tomas Rosicky closed down Danny Rose, jacked him up real good and sped elegantly and floppy-hairedly into the Spurs box before dinking over an overrated Frenchman. It was a great moment and so well-deserved for Tomas but I'm still pipping for Santi's sweetly-hit left footed strike. It came after a fine run and well-weighted pass from the impressive Serge Gnabry and it was the start of an impressive and very important run of goalscoring form from Santi.

Moment of the Month: Nicklas Bendtner's late strike against Cardiff.  We left it late and it wasn't looking good but in the 89th minute, the Great (at this particular moment) Dane slammed home following Sagna's parried header to grab us a couple of vital extra points. Unfortunately he went off injured but come the end of the season, who knows how important that goal will be?

Top goalscorer: Santi Cazorla (5 goals)

Talking points:

Spurs Fans reacted with outrage as Arsenal decided to reduce the allocation from their 15% entitlement citing safety reasons. The Spurs fans did their best to prove Arsenal right by ripping up chairs and throwing coins at an injured Theo Walcott. Bizarrely there was more post-match talk about whether Theo should be banned for reminding the Spurs fans of the score (which was also brazenly glaring out of the scoreboard) than the behaviour of the Spurs fans. Liverpool fans will also receive a reduced allocation this month.

Puma Sponsorship Deal  - mo' money, mo' money, mo' money for Arsène to spend on more Mesut Ozils and ... Kim Kallstroms?

January transfer window - I really wasn't expecting much from the transfer window and won't dwell on our lack of activity. On deadline day, Arsène had the choice between loaning a 31-year old, crocked, Swedish midfielder or nothing and Kim Kallstrom narrowly came out on top. I like the Swedes - so much so that I'm currently preparing an article on Anders Limpar but my first choice Swede probably would have been Zlatan...

Attacking Options - The injury to Theo was a real blow. He was excellent in December and really impressed through the middle against Tottenham. Bendtner has made important contributions against Hull and Cardiff this season but there are of course question marks over whether he is someone we can rely on regularly were Giroud to miss a few games. Whilst Podolski is a terrific finisher and very well-liked by Arsenal fans there is another sizeable question mark over him and whether he can be a success in the middle. It's true that our strike-force pales in comparison to Manchester City's but that may not be decisive. We have managed to find goals from all over the pitch when we've needed them this season and although Giroud is not a clinical finisher, he brings an awful lot to the team.  That said, it would be a great help if he was as good at finishing as he is at being handsome.

Arsène's contract - I wrote last month that I was surprised more hadn't been made of Arsène's contract drawing closer to expiry but Ivan Gazidis recently moved to reassure fans that there is nothing to fear: "We are comfortable and relaxed. Arsene will be extending with us and at the right time we’ll announce it.” Lovely.  I think that a lot of people whose faith in the boss may have been waning have re-found their belief this season and will be very glad to see his contact extended.

Defensive record - Right then, lets finish on a great, big, juicy positive.  At the time of writing (one game into February) we have conceded just one goal in our last 11 home games (a bit of a worldie from Everton youngster, Gerard Deulofeu.)  Now I'm no expert but I reckon conceding so few goals makes it easier to score more goals than the opposition...think about it.  A bizarrely large amount of football fans and pundits have been underrating Per Mertesacker for quite some time but his consistency and level of performance are making them look sillier and sillier. Koscielny continues to stake his claim as one of the best defenders in Europe and the full-backs and goalkeeper have all been impressive too.  If the defence can keep it up then maybe, just maybe we can do something special this season.

Arsenal 2 - 0 Liverpool Match Report: Football in Formula 1 speed

Well that will do nicely!  After a couple of home defeats in other competitions, the visit of Liverpool promised to be an important clash for both teams. At kick-off, following Chelsea's defeat, Arsenal and Liverpool were first and second in the league respectively and there was a lot of discussion on whether either team can stay in the hunt for the title.  The result and performance thankfully suggested it looks far more likely for Arsenal and the five point lead at the top of the table certainly gives us hope.

With a late injury to Jack Wilshere the team rather picked itself.  There were some concerns given the injury to Mathieu Flamini that we would struggle to contain the on-form partnership of Suarez and Sturridge but Mikel Arteta produced his finest display of the season in front of a solid back four to help keep an invaluable and impressive clean-sheet.  Given our outstanding offensive play and the two superb goals it would be easy to ignore Mikel's performance but a glance of the stats shows you just how impressive he was.  He completed a fantastic 100 passes, 29 more that the second highest (Özil) including a vital ball to Sagna in the build up to the first goal, he had 13 ball recoveries (equal most with Skrtel) and he won more tackles than anyone else on the pitch (7).  The only negative I can remember was letting Henderson run unchallenged into the box, although perhaps that was a deliberate ploy given how shambolic Henderson is.

He wasn't the only Spanish midfielder putting in his best performance since returning from injury though, no Sir.  Santi was superb and got a much deserved and beautifully taken goal in the 19th minute.  A well-weighted ball down the right flank found Sagna who pulled his cross back behind the near-post run of Olivier Giroud to the big target man Santi Cazorla, who played a clever headed one-two with the post before showing his class with a beautiful volley past Simon Mignolet.  It sounds silly and I know its a cliché but the first goal was always going to be vital and from then on our superior quality in the middle of the park paid dividends.  As Nick predicted in his excellent preview a few days ago, Arsenal's midfield were too good for Gerrard, Lucas and Henderson and I thought this was where the game was won.

A lot has been made of this Suarez and Sturridge partnership but yesterday Koscielny did a very good job of handling Suarez, excluding one moment where Suarez turned him and left him for dead.  Thankfully Sturridge was extremely poor - his most notable contributions being missing a free-header and taking an absurd dive in the first half, which annoyingly went unpunished by the referee.  The Arsenal fans sang: "Are you Suarez in disguise?"  They also gave the bitey, diving, racist, former transfer-target some more grief with chants of "You should've signed for a big club." 

Liverpool brought Coutinho on for Cissokho at half-time but he was returning from injury and did not look sharp at all.  We looked open at the beginning of the second half and our defensive performance, although encouraging, wasn't as convincing as the clean sheet suggested.  The game was taken out of Liverpool's reach by a quite superb strike from the best Welsh footballer plying his trade in England or Spain at the moment, Aaron Ramsey - he controlled a short-ball from Özil, looked up to find he had time and space 20 yards from goal and struck the sweetest of dipping half-volleys.  There isn't much left to be said about Ramsey this season - his transformation has been extraordinary and we are lucky to have him, and for that matter, a manager who was able to bring the best out of him.

It would take too long to single out all of the players who deserved praise today but I will say what a joy the team performance was to watch. I enjoyed Özil's statement that we played at "Formula 1 speed" and certainly there was no handbrake is sight.  Now let's hope the team continues to spoil us by keeping it up in two big games against Dortmund and Manchester United in the next week

Man of the Match: Mikel Arteta