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.

Tottenham 0 - 1 Arsenal - Rosicky Rocket keeps Spurs in our shadows

A defensive performance more gritty than an HBO drama, with particularly heroic performances from the BFG and Koscielny was enough to secure all three points following Rosicky's 2nd minute thunderbastard.

It was our least convincing victory over Spurs this season but completed a clean sweep of three wins which will hurt for Spurs fans who've sat through 270 minutes against Arsenal without a single Spurs goal. They will be looking at Chadli for not changing that but I guess if you have players as bad as Chadli in your team, it serves you right. It was actually our first win in the league at White Hart Lane since 2007; far too long to go without a win there but it's great to put that one to bed.

Rosicky's early goal was a thing of beauty; as sweet a hit as you'll see and it continued his habit of scoring against Spurs - his third goal against them in the last two seasons - what a very good habit to pick up. The lovely, floppy-haired hero had this to say:

“It’s one of the best…against Tottenham for sure. I’m delighted by a goal like that. Most importantly, we won the game.” - Tomas Rosicky. Source: SkySports

We really should have gone two up but first the referee's assistant wrongly flagged Podolski offside when he and Giroud had a 2 on 1 against Lloris and then Oxlade-Chamberlain wasted an excellent chance on the break with a dink gone wrong. At this point Tim Sherwood suddenly realised how ridiculous his gillet looked and threw it on the floor. Perhaps he realised that it was most likely his last North London derby and he shouldn't make himself look like a bit of a boob. Something he remembered until a late handbaggy incident with a puzzled/unmoved Bacary Sagna.

In fairness to Tim Sherwood I think he did learn his lesson from the last North London derby and set his team up much better; not allowing them to get overrun in midfield. Spurs lacked incisiveness though and for all their possession and hard work they failed to create any good chances with the highly-rated Christian Eriksen anonymous. The vast majority of their shots were hopeful and Szczesny had no difficult saves to make. He did however drop two clangers in the second half in quick succession, the second of which, but for an excellent block from Koscielny, would have cost him his clean sheet. He was all smiles and selfies after the game but those lapses in concentration must stop.

The BFG. Is he really only 6'6''? He played
like he is at least 8 feet tall... at least

We weren't particularly adventurous in the second half and made some defensive substitutions as we looked to hang on to our lead rather than extend it. Mike Dean and his assistant somehow failed to see some Vertonghen grappling in the box and Podolski lashed a shot into the side-netting. Our best chance of the second half fell to Per Mertesacker whose spinning shot was excellently saved by Hugo Lloris. It was a shame as Per's performance meant he would have deserved that moment. The team worked extremely hard and whilst being unimpressive going forward were strong in the challenge. Santi Cazorla for example completed 4 tackles and 8 turnovers - an unexpected bonus.

The big positive from the game was the performance of the centre-back partnership. They were under quite a bit of pressure at times, particularly from Emmanuel Adebayor who was obviously desperate to make a difference but they stood tall (bloody tall in Per Mertesacker's case). Koscielny made a crucial block from Chadli, passed the ball extremely well, made 3 tackles and 15 clearances. Per made 3 blocks and 20 clearances, including a staggering 17 with his head and he also won 7/8 of his aerial duels. It's a partnership that has grown into something rather special.

"They were exceptional for the whole game... Today you needed to be top because Adebayor was sharp and up for it, like he always is against us. He had a great game and overall we needed a good defensive performance and that of course goes through our two centre backs." - Arsène Wenger on Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker. Source: Arsenal.com

Elsewhere, just one word on Manchester United: lol.


Men of the match: Per Mertesacker & Laurent Koscielny. Near perfect.

Monthly Awards: February

A fairly brutal February saw us slip up in the league, suffer our heaviest defeat of the season and lose the 1st leg of the Champions League tie against Bayern giving us a mountain to climb to stay in the competition... a really big Everest-style mountain. The big positive was an FA Cup win over Liverpool putting us through to the quarter finals of the competition, which certainly seems our best chance of silverware this season.

Form:

Player of the Month: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Although no players excelled in February, the Ox's return from injury was very welcome indeed. A brace at home to Palace on one of his few games at centre-midfield was impressive and highlighted his dynamism, showing why Arsène believes his future could be as a box-to-box midfielder. He then excelled when deployed on the right against Liverpool in the cup, first scoring after a blocked Yaya Sanogo volley and then creating a superb assist for Lukas Podolski. This was such an encouraging goal because the Ox showed his pace to get in behind the defence, something we've been lacking without Theo in the side, and giving Özil a chance to show off his ability to play a perfect through ball.

Top Goalscorer: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (3 goals).

Goal of the Month: Tomas Rosicky vs Sunderland. When it works it's oh so very nice... Intricate, one-touch passing triangles and a cheeky dinked finish from the wonderful Tomas Rosicky. What's not to love?

Best Result: Arsenal 2 - 1 Liverpool.  Some much needed redemption after a hammering at Anfield. Our defending was far more focused and resolute and our second goal was superb.  We rode are luck as Webb failed to award Liverpool a nailed-on penalty and we were also indebted to our cup goalkeeper, Lukas Fabianski, but ultimately we scraped through to the next round and it was a great relief. An honourable mention to the 4-1 win over Sunderland; we played some lovely stuff but Sunderland did not show up at all.

Worst Result: Liverpool 5 - 1 Arsenal. Our normally solid defence conceded four in the first 20 minutes. We were sloppy, slow and lacked focus; whereas Liverpool were clinical, lightning quick and got in behind us with unnerving ease... and Daniel Sturridge did that insufferable dance. Let's move on...

Quote of the Month:

"I am very pleased for Rosicky because today Bergkamp got a statue and I think Rosicky took the Bergkamp role well. Certainly Dennis will have been pleased to have seen him play" - Arsène Wenger after the Sunderland Match.

Talking points:

Mesut Özil received some pretty fierce and often overboard criticism from many quarters; fans and pundits alike seemed to be queuing up to tear pieces off of him. He was poor against Liverpool, twice making poor errors in the build-up to Liverpool goals and despite starting well against Bayern, he took a very soft penalty which was easily saved.  Arsène dropped/rested him against Sunderland and I am sure he will be looking to bounce back and show his tremendous quality in March.

Olivier Giroud apologised on twitter to his wife, family and friends, manager, team-mates (who didn't seem too bothered) and the Arsenal fans. Not for missing a sitter against United but for glamour-model romping.  That day, he was rested/dopped in favour of Yaya Sanogo for the Liverpool cup game. It was a gamble that by and large paid off but it was still surprising to see Sanogo retaining his place for the Champions League tie. It suggests that Arsène was not impressed by either or both of Giroud's extra-cuccricular activities or recent form. Hopefully it was a wake-up call to the big forward, who performed well on his return to the side against Sunderland, bagging an early brace.

Arsenal's chances of silverware took a real hit with two slip-ups in the league while our rivals seem to be improving and a 2-0 home loss to Bayern. Given Szczesny's red card and the quality of the opposition, the result was no surprise but conceding a second late-on was a killer blow to our hopes of progressing. The one shining light is of course the FA Cup. Everton in the Quarter Finals is of course a tough draw but the fac that we are playing at home should give us real hope. With Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool and United out, Everton and Manchester City are our biggest threats.

A Statue of Dennis Bergkamp was unveiled prior to the Sunderland victory and, comical placement of the pole aside, it is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest players to have graced the planet, let alone Arsenal Football Club.

Beautiful edit by @UKILFC

Golden Gunners: Tomas Rosicky - The Little Mozart

The second in our Golden Gunners series features a current player, our floppy-haired number 7, Tomas Rosicky.  My huge thanks go to Chris Light for his excellent guest contribution.  You can give him a follow here @Chrisml86.

Let me get one thing straight before we begin; Tomas Rosicky isn’t the best player Arsenal have ever had. He’s not the best midfielder we’ve ever had. To be honest, he’s probably not even in the top three Number 7’s to grace the club. It doesn’t matter though. He is by far and away my favourite player we’ve ever had. The only player that comes close is Edu. Mainly because I loved the way every single free kick he ever scored was via the back of an opponent’s head or Petit’s arse – honestly, check his stats, I’m not making this up (don’t bother - I made this up). Let’s address the obvious first; he’s made from Papier Mâché. This may have been OK if he had forged a career in Spain or Italy, but in Blighty it rains a lot. It rains kicks, tugs, hacks, late slide tackles, elbows to the abdomen and scissor tackles. He has spent a large majority of the last 2/3 seasons on the sidelines, but I don’t think many supporters could honestly tell you what injuries he’s suffered from. It’s been a series of never-ending niggles, bumps and strains. Some people use this against our moon faced hero, but they’re wrong. Tomas is just biding his time. He’s like that Nanny from that Nanny McPhee film. I forget what her name was. She was dog rough though, I remember that much. Anyway, my point was that he only appears when he is needed most. When the goin’ gets tough, Rozza gets goin’. Sagna got the plaudits for his game changing header against sp*rs, but it was Rosicky’s near post flick and open mouthed squatting celebration that really drove the team to victory. And even then, he didn’t want to score that goal. He’s better than a goal scorer, you see. He has put his name against one move and made it his own; the pre-assist. The man is king of the pre-assist. A term that didn’t really even exist 10 years ago, it’s crept into the vernacular of the average fan of the last few seasons as the need to analyse every facet of a player’s contribution to a performance has grown. His contribution to the run at the end of last season was huge. He injected drive and pace into the midfield. A rare player who chooses the pace others play at. If he wants a quick break, you best start running. The Little Mozart’s most important attribute to Arsenal is that he allows others to get into positions where they can genuinely affect the game. It’s not normally even an assist, it’s often receiving the ball just inside his own half, back to the opposition goal and then he spins. By God can he spin. The bloke has a short sprint acceleration that would embarrass players ten years younger than him. Once he’s skipped past the token Neanderthal hatchet man or the puffing utility player assigned to huff around the halfway line, he can then do what every greedy winger spends all their time screaming and gesticulating for; he releases them. A quick stab of the ball with the outside of the boot and the Czech Republic’s international captain has played them in. Cheers a lot, Rozza. The nature of his style of play is that it isn’t really backed up by bite size newspaper stats and lazy MOTD quips, put together by an underpaid and disinterested intern for a miserable and unimaginative Scotsman, pedalling the same half a dozen lines he has been for 20 odd years. Honestly, my Saturday evenings are have been like a fucking Groundhog day where all that’s changed has the kits have got tighter and I now sip a beer instead of an Ovaltine. Ovaltine’s amazing, by the way. I used to eat the powder instead of making a drink from it when I was kid, I recommend you try it. The other reason he deserves our love is the way he carries himself. He’s not overly comfortable with being in the limelight and despite the figurehead of the Czech international team for a number of years, he doesn’t pile out of clubs at 3am, run along the roof cars in Sunderland town Centre or get involved in too many spit roasts (haven’t seen one of them in the papers in a while, is that not fashionable anymore?). Super Tom’s quiet presence belies his luck with the ladies though. Unlike most Englishmen, he knows you can catch more flies with honey then vinegar (apologies for this crude analogy) and he uses his skills as a mind bending axeman to devastating effect. Check out what he did at the Czech player of the year awards. Can you imagine Steven Gerrard serenading Gareth Bale at the PFA awards? Although, given that he lamped a DJ on a night out for not playing his song, maybe he really is passionate about music? Revel in his understated talents. He may not be glamorous, he may not be cool, he won’t light up the red tops every week and Nike’ll never pick him as a front man. None of this matters though. He has amazing hair, uses the outside of his boot and listens to Metallica. It’s telling that he is so well liked by his teammates and colleagues. He’s clearly an influential role model at the club, with a lot of younger players openly stating their desire to emulate his style of playing the game. Swimming amongst a sea of money grabbing bottom feeders and parasitic fuckwits operating with little more thought going through their heads than to smash the ball in the net or nail the nearest tango’d hangaround slag, Tomas is a glorious salmon dancing his way upstream. He’s just a nice guy, yeah? And here is a sentence you should never have to read in an Arsenal blog post; I shall leave with the wise words of the sp*rs manager…