Is Laurent Koscielny the best centre back in the Premier League?

I wanted to write an article about yesterday's game, especially as I wanted to use the title '2 steps back, 3 steps forward', but I've decided to revolve my latest blog piece around our fine French centre half, Laurent Koscielny.

This time last year, he was good. Good at best, he often looked like an accident waiting to happen to me, despite having the odd really good game, such as Barcelona at home when he was outstanding and the game last season where he most showed his true potential.

This season, he has turned from a decent centre half with potential into a top class, great centre half with the potential to still get even better. His performances this season have been fantastic, especially when you bare in mind how much the defence has been changed this season, in terms of fullbacks, a new centre half coming in, and the defence changing so much from game to game around him.

His tranformation and improvement this season have been nothing short of sensational and he is a candidate for the title of 'best centre back in the Premier League' at the moment. I don't necessarily think he is THE best about, but in terms of form, and in terms of performances this season, I think he's been the best in the league this season.

I still think Thomas Vermaelen is better than him, he's exceptional, but we haven't had the fortune of seeing him at centre half this season really. But these two playing together at centre half, with Szczesny in goal, could be a big catalyst in our future. Two top class centre halves and a really good goalkeeper with the potential to be top class very soon are brilliant assets for Arsenal to have. And when was the last time this was the case?

He has decent pace, strength, he's a great tackler, he's got good positional sense and he reads the game extremely well. That's probably his best asset actually, much like Vermaelen, his anticipation and reading of the game are, again, top class.

His improvement should be acknowledged more, and I think it would be if he was English, but apart from Jamie Redknapp, I don't think I've seen or heard anyone in the media or in punditry praise him this season, and say just how good he really is.

So, the answer to the title is 'no' in terms of generally, but 'yes' in terms of form and consistency this season. I don't think there is another centre half in the league that's been better than him this season. Plus, would you swap him for any other defender in the league? He can be the best in the league, and may well prove to be in the future.

It's time he was acknowledged. A top class defender, who will only get better. Bring on the Koscielny- Vermaelen partnership!

A big change is needed

Sigh. So, another Sunday afternoon, another evening of post -match frustration and another defeat for Arsenal, which makes our chances of a top four finish this season all the more unlikely. It has also been another missed opportunity on a weekend where all our top four rivals have dropped points. And it's another weekend where there are more questions than answers at Arsenal football club.

You would have thought that the glaring faults of last Sunday's defeat at Swansea would have been eradicated against Man Utd, given the faults were mainly mentality problems. But they weren't. After a good opening ten minutes, we fell into the present routine of sitting back and letting the opposition dominate the game and we just attacked when we had to.

The defending was sloppy, the tactics were non- existent and the amount of bodies going forward was embarassing. It was a first half performance of a lack of ambition, a lack of quality and a lack of solidity.

But, to be fair, we came back in the second half and got much better, created a few chances and eventually scored (oddly at the point of the second half where we looked least likely to score up to that point). Great play from Koscielny set up Rosicky, who played a lovely pass and Chamberlain controlled it beautifully before cutting into to slot in Van Persie, who finished excellently. But apart from that goal, and the performance of the exciting Alex- Oxlade Chamberlain, there wasn't much to cheer today as we still went on to lose.

This was largely down to the most bizarre substitution I've ever witnessed, as Wenger took off our star performer on the day, in Chamberlain, for the ever- increasingly useless Arshavin, who came on and made no effort, looked dis- interested and was largely at fault for Welbeck's winning goal. Unless he was actually injured, this was the most stupid substitution I've ever seen. He was our most creative player, it was at a time we looked like we could go on and win the game, he was the player troubling Man Utd most and we took him off, for Arshavin as well!

Not only did it have attacking consequences, but it had it's defensive ones too. Arshavin's pathetic attempt at stopping Valencia on the right allowed him to come inside and set up an easy tap in for Welbeck. Two points lost, all because of this rubbish player and our manager, who looks like he has lost the plot.

For Wenger, it's either time to go or spend some money. He's got a week now in which to do so, we don't have a game in midweek so it's a great opportunity to get busy in the transfer market. We NEED players if we are going to finish in the top four. We need a striker and a centre midfielder. Wilshere might solve that, but we still need at least one attacking player and another defensive player, probably a left back or centre back. And that's just for now. We also need to keep Van Persie fit and keep playing Chamberlain.

If he isn't going to do that then he may as well go. Because I genuinely think he is costing us more than he is benefitting us. Many problems are still there, we need players and he's refusing to buy them, his defensive acquisitions are an absolute joke and they've been holding us back for 7 and a half years, and the defensive frailties will always be there as long as he's in charge because he refuses to coach his defence and use tactics to make it better, and make us a more solid unit.

So time to spend some money on bringing in new players, which we need to do, or go. If it costs a lot, then so be it. It would cost more to miss out on the Champions League.

Why Arsenal need a change

Arsenal have looked abysmal for periods of the last two league games. They've looked really good during spells of those games, like the first half against Fulham and a couple of spells against Swansea in the first half.

But the problems are mounting. I was talking to another Arsenal fan on Twitter prior to the Swansea game and he agreed that we need to switch to 4-4-2 for some games. Today might not necessarily be one due to the midfield/ possession battle but for home games against teams outside the top 6, we should be doing this. A second thing is we need a change of mentality. We just don't seem as attacking at the moment. We seem over- cautious when in the lead and seem to lack urgency and a game plan. It's like they're making it up as they go along. Players are getting draggedout of position and often don't look like they knoe whether to attack or defend, whether to close down or stand off.

We lack creativity too and our passing game isn't as good at the moment. We seem to too eager to get the ball out wide and crossed into the box, where there is usually just one player (van Persie) there. Our game plan often makes no sense, which links into the 'we seem to make it up as we go along' point. We shouldn't lack the passing ability or the ability to dominate possession seen as we still have very good technical players such as Ramsey, Song, Arteta and Benayoun to do this. It bemuses me how we seem less determined to keep possession and carve open defences like we used to.

Similar to this, in terms of our game plan problems, is how we just sat back at Fulham in the second half after playing really well in the first half. Why did we do this? We had control of the game and just seemed to invite Fulham on to create chances. We took this into the Swansea game, sitting back at 1-0 and trying less hard to attack and score. Wenger has nevstyle, but it's just another example of centre backs being a lot less comfortable when they have two strikers to worry about. Also, imagine how amazing van Persie would be if he had a partner with him.

This transpires to the fact that Wenger needs to do this, or go. He needs to sign a couple of players, or go. We need a manager who isn't afraid to spend money, and who is going to change the team's approach (i.e. 4-4-2 and play with more urgency and a game plan). Imagine if we had Demaba Ba and van Persie up front together. If we sign 2 players, we could be a very good side. But at the moment we are just 'decent'. We need a breath of fresh air and changing the approach and signing new players would do this. I know it's not easy to sign players in January bla bla bla, but come on, if you offer enough money, and go for the right players, there will be options. It's going to be more costly if we miss out on the top four.

Additonally, not signing players and bringing excitement and a breath of fresh air to the club isn't going to persuade the likes of van Persie to stay, especially if we dobecause it's two on two all the time and they have more players in the box. Demba Ba and Shola Ameobi caused Rio Ferdinand and Phil Jones havock the other week when Newcastle beat Man Utd 3-0. Not that I think we should adopt their long ball style, but it's just another example of centre backs being a lot less comfortable when they have two strikers to worry about. Also, imagine how amazing van Persie would be if he had a partner with him.

This transpires to the fact that Wenger needs to do this, or go. He needs to sign a couple of players, or go. We need a manager who isn't afraid to spend money, and who is going to change the team's approach (i.e. 4-4-2 and play with more urgency and a game plan). Imagine if we had Demaba Ba and van Persie up front together. If we sign 2 players, we could be a very good side. But at the moment we are just 'decent'. We need a breath of fresh air and changing the approach and signing new players would do this. I know it's not easy to sign players in January bla bla bla, but come on, if you offer enough money, and go for the right players, there will be options. It's going to be more costly if we miss out on the top four.

Additonally, not signing players and bringing excitement and a breath of fresh air to the club isn't going to persuade the likes of van Persie to stay, especially if we don't manage to qualify for next season's Champions League.

The club needs a boost, the fans and the players need something to be excited about.

Time to freshen up and change, or go.

Match Ratings:

Szczesny 6
Djourou 6 (+1 for the assist, brilliant pass to be fair. Abysmal for most of the game)
Mertesacker 6
Koscielny 5
Miquel 5
Ramsey 5
Song 5
Benayoun 7 (Thought he was harshly taken off)
Walcott 6 (+1 for the goal, great run and finish. We saw a lot of that last season, hardly any this season, so that's more like it. Hope he does that more often now)
van Persie 7 (Scored and looked a class above anyone else on the pitch when on the ball, generally)
Arshavin 7 (Looked a lot better going forward today, best I've seen him play in ages in that department, but is a liability defensively)

Henry 5 (Gave ball away for the winner and didn't even work back)
Rosicky 6
Chamberlain 8

Review Of The Year

Inspired by the rubbish Sky Sports one, I thought I'd compile my review of 2011, albeit just one of Arsenal rather than football in general.

1. Player Of The Year: Robin Van Persie

Is there any doubt? The man has scored 34 league goals, and 46 goals in general, this year and has equalled Thierry Henry's club record of 34 goals in a calendar year. He is also 2 short of Alan Shearer's record of 36. We've had some improved players this year, like Koscielny and Szczesny but this award has to go to Van Persie. His record is unbelievably good and consistent, scoring so religiously and performing so well during that time. The quality of his goals has been great too, he's scored quite a few belters. Also, he has become club captain and has so far done a lot better in that role that Fabregas, proving to be a real leader.

2. Goal Of The Year: Arshavin v Barcelona (16/2/11)

There are many contenders, but this was a 'worldie' as Paul Merson would say. It was a fabulous team goal and beats off other contenders such as Van Persie's half- volley v Barcelona, his volley at home to Wigan in January, his chip at Norwich and his free- kick against Sunderland. Other players have scored really good goals too, like Walcott at Chelsea, Park Ju Young against Bolton and Chamberlain against Shrewsbury but, Arshavin's brilliant goal at home to Barcelona wins it. That was a fantastic team goal, with wonderful football and an excellent composed finish. Let's not forget the magnitude of the game too, and the occasion. They add to the brilliance of the goal.

3. Celebration Of The Year: The Team v Chelsea (28/10/11).

It was something that showed us fans that the team was a truly together one. It was also brilliant for the fans to connect with the players at the end of the game and showed true appreciation of the fans from the players. Van Persie and Szczesny were probably the main leaders of this. Theo Walcott wheeling away with his finger on his lips at Sh**e Hart Lane was also a nice celebration, as were Koscielny's v Everton and Ipswich as they were both passionate team celebrations.

4. Flop Of The Year: Marouane Chamakh

Given our late season collapse after the Carling Cup Final defeat last season, there are a few contenders for this 'award'. Johan Djourou, Andrey Arshavin (despite winning goal of the year), Abou Diaby and Samir Nasri are all contenders for going off form for at least most of 2011. But the winner is Marouane Chamakh. Not only has he blessed our eyes with his poor touches, his lack of goals and his lack of skill, invention and creativity, but he has done it with such laziness this year too. Gold for the Moroccan.

5. Most Improved Player Of The Year: Wojchiech Szczesny

Alex Song has improved. As has Wojchiech Szczesny. Infact, he is a major contender for this award considering how far he has come since his debut at Old Trafford last December, he has become one of Arsenal's most key and best players, and one of the league's best goalkeepers. It's either him or Laurent Koscielny, however his dramatic improvement has been more since mid- September rather than throughout the year so, despite Koscielny's much improved maturity, positional sense, responsibility, tackling, strength and decision making, I'm going to give this award to Szczesny. His penalty save against Udinese was, not only immense, but also the main highlight and a good example of how he has become such as great goalkeeper over the last 12 months.

6. Team Performance Of The Year: vs Barcelona (16/2/11)

Is there any other contender? The team was absolutely fanatstic that night, Wilshere and Koscielny were especially marvellous, but everybody was great and it was a wonderful night. Our performance at Chelsea in October would be one of the strong contenders for 2nd place as, despite conceding three, we were really solid that day after the first 20 minutes and were fabulous going forward. After all, how many teams whack 5 past Chelsea at Stamford Bridge?

7. Signing Of The Year: Gervinho

Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta have been good signings, especially the latter but I think I'd have to say Gervinho has been Arsenal's best signing. Considering he has come from the French League, he's young and was expected to take on one of the main creater roles, he has done extremely well. He's contributed a few goals, this is maybe one area he could improve as his finishing hasn't been that convincing but you've got to be there to miss them and that's something that is under- valued in football- being there in the right place at the right time. He has contributed a lot of assists and created a lot of chances and works back well to do his defensive job. The Arsenal attack has more pace now and this is down to him. Therefore he beats the impressive Arteta, the increasingly improving Mertesacker and Andre Santos.

8. Manager Of The Year: Arsene Wenger

Without a doubt, he has been Arsenal's best manager this year. No- one else has come close. He has dealt well with setbacks and has guided the much changed team and seen it through many tough times this calendar year.

Winter Breaks Can't Happen

I’m getting sick of seeing managers and players moan about the ‘hectic Christmas/ New Year fixture schedule’ and wanting a winter break. We’re hardly into the festive fixture schedule and managers are starting to moan already, again.

Yes, I don’t know about physical conditioning and I’m just a fan and not a manager but I think there should not be a winter break, or even less fixtures over Christmas and New Year. Why?

Well:

1. It’s great for us fans. Let’s face it, without us fans football would be nowhere. There would be a LOT less money in it; hence these overpaid footballers wouldn’t get the ridiculous amount of dosh they get.

For me, a fan, it’s brilliant. I’ve just been to Everton v Norwich on Saturday, right after I’ve finished college for the holidays (what better way to start my long- awaited Christmas break?). Then on Tuesday night I’m watching Blackburn v Bolton on TV, Wednesday night I’m going to Everton v Swansea and Thursday night I’m watching Tottenham v Chelsea. Doesn’t that sound great if you’re a football fan? It’s brilliant, football almost every day. Your team is playing every 3 or 4 days, it adds even more excitement and eager anticipation to the festive period and it’s great for Christmas presents.

Plus, another great Christmas tradition in football is Boxing Day football. Most games sell out, it’s a fabulous thing to do for a lot of people the day after Christmas, and it’s great to get tickets as presents for people, especially children and people who don’t get to go that often. You can’t take this away from the massive amount of loyal supporters and the people who are most important to this sport.

(Brendan Rodgers: One of the first to moan this year)

2. The counter- argument to this would be ‘well it’s not good for the players, they need time to recover from games rather than playing every 2 or 3 days and that makes the quality of football decline’, but that’s what your 25 man squad is for. The allowance to register this amount of players and the transfer windows allow you to make sure you have a big enough squad to deal with periods like this in a season.

It’s not really like some teams have unfair advantages on others because they’re all in the same boat. They’ve all got to deal with this and change their team when they think it necessary. Man City are the anomaly because they can afford to have two world class squads, but this is why they shouldn’t be allowed to spend what they spend and why a spending cap should be introduced in terms of buying players and paying wages to players. But that’s another issue. Also, the games just after Christmas are scheduled against reasonably local clubs so the teams don’t have to travel far, so that’s another reason why it isn’t too strenuous.

Overall, it’s just brilliant for the supporters, whether you’re going to games or not, it’s fantastic to be able to go to games every few days and have loads of it to watch on telly. Even the away games are mainly not too far away so you have more chance to watch your team away as well. What a fantastic thing to do over the Christmas and New Year period, a haven for football. It shouldn’t stop. It’s one of the few things left in the soul of football, and this soul shouldn’t be ripped out any further than it already is, especially by rich, overpaid, over- privileged, selfish morons like foreign managers coming over and changing our wonderful game and it’s fabulous traditions, and leading people in the organisation of the game like Sepp Blatter and the Premier League and Football League's chiefs doing the same. Keep it as it is, it’s magnificent!

So Close

Aaaaarrrggghhhh! Doesn't it make a defeat all the more frustrating when you come so close to getting something out of the game? Joe Hart made a string of saves, we had marginal offsides, unfortunate ricochets and should have arguably had a penalty.

It was very similar to our season, last season, in that we were so close to succeeding. It makes it more frustrating when you come so close. But it's better that than playing poorly and/ or getting well beaten (ask any Everton fan!).

I'm very proud of the team, they battled hard, matched Man City pretty much everywhere, caused them trouble in defence and we showed that we are genuine challengers to them, and the title. You may look at the table and say 'Arsenal haven't got a chance of winning the title, they're 12 points behind Citeh' and you'd be right. But the reason we are so far behind is because of the dreadful start we made. Things have changed massively since then. And that's not being biased, Jamie Redknapp and Graeme Souness said the same today. So if you summed up the teams since Arsenal's cuurent team was finally formed together, you'd see they are very close.

We have genuine top class players, that we have made rather than bought. Man City have a better squad, and so they should have. They've bought a great squad, we've made one. That's the difference between Wenger and Mancini. Wenger makes players, Mancini buys them.

The point is that there's not much to seperate the teams. Today's game is evidence of that. We are much more solid than we used to be, we have a top class goalkeeper now, we have one of the world's best players in our team in Van Persie, we have Wilshere to come back, our first choice (and all) of our full backs, including Sagna, who is key to the team. So there are a lot of positives. The only significant problem for me is that we need to take some pressure of Van Persie to score the goals and get other players such as Walcott, Ramsey and Gervinho scoring more. We could really do with buying a striker in January. He doesn't have to be world class, he just needs to be really good, Podolski would be good, I'm sure there are others out there too. We don't have as many goals from midfield in us as much as we used to when Fabregas was in the team. We don't reeally have a goalscoring midfielder like him or Lampard, or Van Der Vaart for example.

I thought Szczesny was fantastic today, Arteta was also brilliant, Koscielny and Vermaelen were rock solid. I didn't think the Richards handball was a penalty. If that was given against Arsenal, I'd be very unhappy and would feel harshly done by. Also, Van Persie's goal was offside, just. It was a very good finish though.

Anyway, what we have learnt today is that Arsenal can compete with the league's best, even away from home. And we have now got Man City, Man Utd, Tottenham and Chelsea away all out of the way with and play most of our rivals at home now, so there's an advantage we have over out top 4 rivals.

Match Ratings:

Szczesny 9
Djourou 6
Mertesacker 6
Koscielny 8
Vermaelen 8
Song 7
Arteta 8
Ramsey 7+
Walcott 6
Van Persie 7+
Gervinho 6+

Miquel 6
Arshavin 6
Chamakh 6

I can't understand why Wenger took off Walcott for Arshavin, Theo was just beginning to get in the game and have an impact on it. I do think he often makes changes when they're not needed, just for change sake, it's like he gets itchy fingers and can't help but bring them on. Also, if I was going to bring anyone on out wide, it would have been Oxlade- Chamberlain, especially after he did so well against Man City in the Carling Cup the other week.

Overall, things are still positive around Arsenal and I think most of the things to come out of today were actually positive, despite the defeat, and we should collect a healthy amount of points over the Christmas and New Year period.

Back To Winning Ways

I return after a long absence from blogging to write an article about today's marvellous win and performance at Wigan. It had been over year since I went to an Arsenal game and they won. That was Everton away last November. The time before that was a 4-0 win at Newcastle, and that was also the scoreline today.

Wigan started on the front foot much to my concern as I sat suprisingly positioned in the second row back of the whole away end (odd that we were sat there given we bought the tickets a day before they sold out and on general sale,and after we were sat about 40- 50 rows back last season here), but anyway Arsenal started to take over more after Wigan had their best chance of the game and would have gone ahead but for a fabulous block from Andre Santos.

Mikel Arteta lashed a shot in from about 25 yards (I think) to cue the celebrations of the first goal from me and 4500-ish Arsenal fans in the ground. Their keeper probably should have saved it but that proved the merits of shooting from distance every now and then. Almost immediately we won a corner which Van Persie swung towards the back post for out defender/ regular goalscorer Thomas Vermaelen to powerfully head home. 2-0. Cue even bigger celebrations and a 'Yes!' from me as I threw my arms in the air and clenched my fists. Get in!

The rest of the half was comfortable and we could have gone into it 3 or 4 up. The second half started off like the first- Wigan looking threatening, but continued like the first as Arsenal found their rhythm again to take control of the game and create a few chances. I'll have to see it on Match Of The Day later on but I think we should have had a penalty when Ramsey was sent tumbling, and Van Persie had a shot fly wide.

But then it came. After much pressure the mighty Arsenal made it 3-0 and 3 points surely secure when Van Persie's cute turn was followed by a parried shot and Gervinho put in the rebound to silence his harsh critics about him not scoring in all of...wow...4 league games. The away was in bouncing, joyful, party atmosphere mood and continued it's loud noise that started even before the opening minute of the match. 'Jump up if you're 3-0 up' they sang. Then my Dad began jumping. (No he didn't really! It would have been funny if he had have!)

And what would a win be without Van the Man himself getting on the scoresheet. Theo Walcott made an intelligent run before being put through by a good through- ball and unselfishly squared for Van Persie who expertly finished to make it 4-0. Game over. And even then, Benayoun could have added a 5th.

It was a very solid, fairly comfortable (or as comfortable as it gets in this league when playing away from home) and clinical win where Arsenal showed strength, solidarity, creatvity, maturity, a killer instinct and looked a lot more intelligent than they were in the last couple of seasons at Wigan. Mind you, actually have our first choice team helped with that.

One of my favourite things about Arsenal this season is their togetherness that is evident and the closer relationship they have with each other and us fans. A good example of that is Wojchiech Szczesny singing 'We're by far the greatest team' in front of us at the end, joined in by the fans of course! They do seem a much tighter unit, not only defensively, but as a team as well in terms of togetherness and team spirit which is the first time we've been able to say that in years. A lot of our players are improving and there is a better variety of qualities in the team now, with more pace, strength, experience and aerial ability. We also have a solid, reliable keeper and a fit and in form Robin Van Persie (touch wood!)

Man of the match today goes to Mikel Arteta who was outstanding. He scored the first goal, his retention of the ball and his passing were excellent and he was solid defensively. Vermaelen, Ramsey and Van Persie were other contedners but the whole team today was brilliant so it's hard to choose and could have been almost anyone in the team.

Match Ratings:

Szczesny 7
Koscielny 8
Mertesacker 8
Vermaelen 8
Santos 7
Song 7
Ramsey 9
Arteta 9 - Man Of The Match
Walcott 8
Van Persie 8
Gervinho 8

Benayoun 7
Arshavin 6
Coquelin 6