Arsenal enjoy Christmas wins, a new midfield combi and target Winston Reid

Captain’s Log, star-date post Christmas.
Chekov got me Taylor Swift’s album for Christmas as revenge for beaming his tree into space. Joke’s on him though, I FUCKING LOVE IT!!!

QPR

A moment of stupidity

I expected the win. We got the win. Even with 10 men we did well. I don’t know what Giroud was thinking but he’s made life difficult for us. I’ve said before that he’s our focal point and without him we had to work our socks off for 39 minutes. That doesn’t normally bode well when the games are coming thick and fast. It hasn’t cost us yet, but it certainly hasn’t helped.
The other issue is that it leaves us quite one dimensional in attack. Balls in behind. That’s all we’ve got right now. Defend deep and deny us space. There may be trouble ahead. 

Wenger
In other news Arsene responded to an in-game tactical change. When Zamora came on and was giving Gibbs problems on crosses the boss brought on Chambers to help. It worked. Just.

Rosicky

Rosicky celebrates

He came, he saw, he scored. He played really well. He got dropped from the starting line-up against West Ham. I don’t really understand it personally.  It’s a bit like the Podolski situation. What do they have to do to get a run in the team?
What he did well was speed up our play. He’s the kind of player who receives the ball and looks to pass it forward quickly or run forward with it. We’ve missed that. Without Özil or Wilshere we get bogged down in the middle sometimes. Still, Alexis and Santi do it too, but 3 are better than 2…

West Ham

Players celebrate DW goal with Ox the creator

A good win against a team that’s flying high. I was at Upton Park a few years ago when we were 2 up and ended up drawing 2-2. I somehow managed to exchange the following with Pat Rice immediately after the final whistle.
Me – “Decent result.”
PR (Look of disgust) – “That was fucking shit.”
That was then. This is now. It’s easy to dismiss it because it’s West Ham, but they were 4th for a reason. They’re playing well, they have a good balance between attack and defence, (partially upset by the loss of Jenkinson) and they have a manager who knows how to beat Arsenal. Also it was away from home, which makes it worth a little extra.
We may not have been great in the 1st half, but we could have buried them in the 2nd. Adrian had a good game in goal and on another day the scoreline could have flattered us. Overall 1-2 was a fair result. Like I said, West Ham are good this season.

Flamini/Coquelin

Can this work for us?

I saw a lot of tweets before the game about our defensive midfield duo. The main thing to note is the win. Whether they were good, bad or indifferent, we won the game. If they have a few games together they’ll be better as they get to know each other.
People suggested that we might have had Song and Fabregas in our side had Wenger accepted both players back. I would have loved to have seen Song and Fabregas instead of Coq/Flam, but in reality Wenger didn’t want Song and didn’t need Fabs. It’s easy to point out that we have so many injuries that we could have used Fabregas right now, but we have Özil, Wilshere, Arteta, Ramsay, Cazorla and Rosicky who all play in the middle. (Diaby doesn’t count because he’s never fit. Ever). I agree with Arsene. Fabs would have been an unnecessary luxury and nobody could have foreseen injuries to Özil, Arteta, Rambo and Jack at the same time. Song on the other hand…

Paper talk
We could have signed Song and he would have done a job for us. There’s no doubting that he’s better than Flamini. I don’t understand the decision not to resign him, unless Wenger has another player in mind.
The rumours are that he wants to sign William Carvalho in January. It’s very Wengeresque to wait 6 months for the ‘right’ player.
Why didn’t he buy him in the summer? Apparently Carvalho’s contract was co-owned by Sporting Lisbon and a 3rd party. This has been sorted now so that Sporting own the player completely, which means Arsene is happy to do the deal. If we don’t sign a domineering centre mid in January then the Song situation will remain a mystery.

The metro would have you believe that we’re in for Edison Cavani as a replacement for Podolski. I’d be delighted if this was true, but it just seems like total fiction. While Cavani can play on the flanks, he’s not about to go from playing second fiddle to Ibrahimovic to playing second fiddle to Giroud. This would mean that Giroud gets benched. I just can’t see it happening. Even if he did play on the wing, we have Alexis on one side and Theo/Ox/Özil on the other. Who gets dropped?
Then there’s the money. Cavani would cost £50 million at least and then his wages. Still, stranger things have happened. #KimKallstrom.

Winston Reid

He’d look good in red and white. He’s quick, he’s strong, he’s quality, and he’s not Nacho Monreal at centre half. Sign him up.

FYI you’ll be getting another Captain’s log this week because I was too busy stuffing my face to write one last week. You lucky bastards.

David Glicksman

I’m a lifelong Arsenal fan. I got my first kit at 3 years old and my dad put a nail in my wall and hung it there rather than in my wardrobe. Mum was furious.