Broken and Battered Gunners still fighting for Top Slot

Greetings and most sincere apologies for not updating this page for over a month's time due to some unconventional excuse. 

Nonetheless, here's a fresh, just out of the oven post about the Gunner's complete see saw month which saw them crashed down at Allianz Arena (Bayern Munich) and The Hawthorns (West Brom), picking single point results against Spurs in North London derby at home and away at Carrow Road against Norwich and most importantly, losing three of the most important players they have depended upon since last season.

,Cazorla, Sanchez & Coquelin.

The Trio lost to injuries before festive period.

However, Arsenal did pick two crucial wins at home with last week in the UEFA Champions League tie against Dynamo Zagreb and last night against Sunderland in the Premiere League to go second on the table. Positives during this time span were the return of Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey and Walcott and along with the fact that Joel Campbell has started to make his presence felt on the pitch by scoring a goal and an assist in the last three games he has started in two weeks.

The King of Assist is back.

More importantly, a new leader has emerged and is now being seen as the catalyst behind almost every other goal scored by Gunners and he is none other than Mesut Ozil who has now 12 assists in the league in 15 games with two goals as cherry on the top. Training hard to make runs, re-tracking and winning possession and finding space on his own, Ozil has become the driving force in the Arsenal's offensive unit, feeding goal scoring passes at times out of nowhere and in games that have mattered in the season.

Nonetheless, it was a nervous win last night which saw an own goal from Giroud who later cancelled it with a spectacular header to put the Gunners back in the lead and revealed clear signs of vulnerability in defense and hesitation in picking up passes in the last third. This shows how much of a difference does the presence of Coquelin, Cazorla and Sanchez make in the game.

History depicts that although Arsenal has seen many injury filled seasons over the last decade but this time just when the tide has started to favor them, these injuries have started to wear down the team in the most crucial phase of the season. The fact that Arsenal are just two points behind league leaders Leicester City with the spread among the top five of only six points proves that our chances of winning the league title this season are quite high.

Wenger needs to find the perfect DM cover for Coquelin

The only drawback is the lengthy list of injured players who can actually make up of almost the entire first team and their long term absence would prove the Gunner's boss Arsene Wenger wrong in his decision to not buy during the summer transfer window. Although very edgy whenever asked about the injuries and January transfer window, Mr. Wenger would have to admit that he would need to find decent cover for the team in the midfield to progress swiftly towards the title challenge. 

Last night's performance may have boosted a load of confidence among the players but make sure that Coquelin and Cazorla's absence at the heart of the pitch is not felt so much, at least two potential signings should be on for the upcoming January window. If not two, then at least a central defensive midfielder to enforce and release the pressure off the back four. 

For now, a still very decent unit is available for the make or break Champions League away tie at Olympiakos on Wednesday evening with an outside chance that Mr. Sanchez may be seen on the bench while completely ignoring the hamstring he picked up against Norwich unless he is locked down in the infirmary by the Boss himself.

Only the game night would reveal the rest so till then, that's all for now. Leave a comment to speak your mind and thank you so much for reading patiently. Salud & COYG!!

A True Red Week for Gunners

Well Surprise, Surprise. If you couldn't comprehend from the post's title already, the following will give you a whirlwind round up of how Gunners fared in this past week's horrendous displays of RED on the pitch.

After setting the tone from the home victory against Stoke City, the plan was to build up the pressure over our London rivals Chelsea who had been in the dumps so far. Instead, Arsenal nose dived at Dynamo Zagreb by not only losing to the hosts but also seeing the lone striker Olivier Giroud pick up a red card with his own wrong doing.

While Walcott scored first CL goal for the season in the game, it was astonishingly confusing to see Wenger trying up numerous questionable changes in the squad despite knowing the criticality of starting strong in the UEFA Champion's League.

Leaving Ramsey, Bellerin, Walcott, Coquelin, Monreal and more importantly the only but the most vital signing of the season, Petr Cech on the bench proved to be the worst idea that the Gunner's boss could come up with in a CL opener and resulted in a disappointed loss for the team which includes Giroud's ouster. This fact was later on admitted by him at the post match press conference.

And if that wasn't enough to damage the confidence, the Saturday afternoon fixture becoming the crash landing site for the North London club at Stamford Bridge. A game which started as a see-saw attacking fiesta, ended in a total fiasco for Gunners which resulted not only in a loss but seeing two players sent off in a single game with one in particular the most talked about in this past weekend.

Costa's Antics left Gunners Speechless

Referee Mike Dean was also to be blamed for his inability to see things clearly and stood quite unfair in the scheme of things, leading to a storm of criticism in the most controversial game of this season so far where the wittiness was used by Chelsea to beat Arsenal at their home.

Although many have criticized Diego Costa for his antics and devious way to have Gabriel Paulista sent off after being clearly being the one to receive it, the Arsenal defender let him get under his skin and fell pray while not controlling his emotions in the derby.

That Red card proved to be the decider as Gunners gave away the first goal from the set-piece after Gabriel's dismissal and plunged further down as Cazorla pick up his 2nd yellow in the game to become the 3rd Arsenal player to get a red card in 2 matches. That led to the 2nd goal of the match, making it the last nail in the coffin for Arsenal.

Wenger finding more plunge than rise.

All in all, the tactical failure of Arsene Wenger in Dynamo led to a disastrous weekend which has left the team with a lot of questions to be answered as they visit Tottenham Spurs on Tuesday night in their Capitol One Cup clash.

Has the transfer policy fired back? Are Gunners habitual now to repeat their performances against major sides every season? Is Arsene Wenger still the right man to manage the team as a team besides as a club? Can Arsenal bounce back to show that they are still in the race for the title glory this season?

Tuesday night may be the night to have all of these questions answered.

What's your opinion about it? Leave a comment below and thanks once again for reading patiently.

Cheers!