ARSENAL: DEVELOPING THE PICTURE

I don’t really buy into the philosophy of avoiding the big teams in the Champion’s League. I feel that you have to play a good team at some point; that’s what the Champions League is all about. However, topping the group means avoiding Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich at the first knock out stage which, to be fair, is a good thing. Not in the sense of fearing coming up against such teams but, it gives an opportunity for this set of players to keep growing. Never the less there are some decent sides who have finished second (AC Milan) and look like finishing second that we could draw. The important thing is that we’ve qualified splendidly from, let’s not forget, a tough group consisting of two domestic Champions.

We can put the Champions League into hibernation until 2012, knowing that the trip to Greece on 6^th December is academic.

This means we can focus on gaining three points in our Premier account on Saturday, and getting past Man City (who may have one eye on Europe) next week to make progress in the Carling Cup.

What’s been good of late is the emergence of a real team spirit, a sense that these guys want to play for each other. Of Course our Captain is setting high standards but we’ve also seen some quiet and unsung work going on; Koscielny’s improvement has been amazing, Ramsey is gaining in consistency, Song is looking proficient and comfortable, TV5 and Arteta have bought a sense of composure to the party and Theo is shutting up some of the haters.

The squad are looking like they want to do something this season and it’s to be commended how they have all turned things around.

In a season that looked like it would be defined by events at Old Trafford we have seen defining moments at Stamford Bridge and against WBA and last night. Moments that need to be appreciated for what they are; shoots of growth of this great club of ours getting back on track.

If I paint an optimistic picture it's because there is genuine room for optimism because what we are seeing is a team again in Red & White.

Comments

Reasons to be cheerful?

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There's something rotten in the state of Denmark

A number of blogs are pointing out what was evident to me yesterday; as a season ticket holder and Silver member i like thousands of others made plans to purchase an additional ticket for the Barcelona game using the frustrating and irritating online service, but guess what? no joy, just lots of waiting finger tapping and watching the dreaded 'loading' bar (to make matters worse I had asked my missus to do this as I was doing training). But no one got these additional tickets, that is no supporters judging by the general feedback! It seems to me that the additional seats will have probably gone to customers of a corporate nature. Ultimately for such a marquee (to use an American commercialism term) game I suspect that the club where never going to sell to supporters of the club, there is clearly a undercurrent at the Emirates that the club wants to have the stadium full of customers ie; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ognvWIwjKTQ The Emirates of the future? It will be interesti...

PERSONALITY TEST

Played 23, 10 defeats, 4 draws and 9 victories; that's the factual bit out of the way. What does that tell us? I guess it is a set of statistics that reasonably reflect a mid table team. How we got here is something that countless column inches and hours of debate have gone into. How we move forward is the bigger question. Naturally, learning from past mistakes is a key element to moving forward but have Arsenal Football Club done that? Have Arsenal Football Club realised that a clear vision and plan is needed? When you look at the current squad its relatively easy to see where the strenghts are, and the weaknesses. The manager too, has strengths and weaknesses but one thing that is intangible is the personality of the club. Not so much "where are we" as "what are we?" To know what the club is is to know what the upper echelons think, what their plan and philosophy is and how the manager processes that information. We can assume that the club decision makers wa...

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