Arsenal: Sinking the Submarines

The Gunners against the Submarines? An interesting battle, eh? Just who would emerge victorious? Well, the overtures from last week suggest that we are in the driving seat, but only just!

Last Tuesday evening filled me with some sense of relief more than anything after escaping from Villarreal with a creditable draw at their Highbury-like fortress. It has to be said, we are currently going through a phase of abjectness through first halves of games, a la Villarreal and Wigan at the weekend, only to come back nice and strong for a rousing comeback by the end of the 90 minutes.

It is almost a case of if, on watching the first halves of matches in isolation, it would make you wonder why Arsenal are not a mediocre mid-table side in fact, and then the second halves firmly give you the answer, before posing an even bigger question of why we aren't closer to the top than we currently are!

Now this is all well and good. For now, anyway. But with us well and truly into the business end of the season and with games against Villarreal, Chelsea, and Liverpool coming up in quick succession, we cannot rely on our battling qualities and dig deep from losing positions in every match, as we will eventually tire and be found out.

Last week's match was an interesting watch in many ways. Apart from spending a zillion minutes stressing out and shouting some obscenities at the screen at the pub, close attention should be paid to our first half weaknesses.

Personally, I was of the opinion that it was not a case of us playing badly and Villarreal playing extraordinarily well; it was simply a case of us playing badly and playing into Villarreal hands. Which, for me, means that we should, in theory at least, be confident ahead of Wednesday night's clash at the Emirates, where Van Persie and (hopefully) Eduardo should be back to augment our now rejuvenated attack.

Apart from Marcos Senna's thunderbolt strike inside 10 minutes on Tuesday night, where we contrived to give him practically the whole 10 minutes before thinking of closing him down as he launched his shot, Villarreal had plenty of possession.

Villareal did not create as much as the press and their gaffer Manuel Pellegrini would have you believe, apart from another slightly weaker shot from distance by the talismanic skipper.

And, with Senna out of the return leg, the absence of the Yellow Submarines' propeller will be a massive fillip to us come Wednesday night, although our very own midfield linchpin in Fabregas performed admirably against his veteran compatriot in the second half last week.

Still, Senna's replacement should provide Cesc's partner with a significant ego boost, with all due to respect to his replacement...and to Denilson/Diaby of course!

A major problem for us is the pileup of injuries, an all-too familiar statement muttered for the umpteenth time in our recent history—with the defence now taking its turn. Watching the Wigan match on Saturday and seeing Djourou collapse in a heap unchallenged in our own box so innocuously in front of my very own eyes filled me with such rage and a deep sense of misfortune.

A young man who had improved markedly this season in terms of confidence and strength and who was only on the bench due to Gallas' and Touré's return to form, this run-in was Djourou's chance to prove his worth to a wider audience.

Instead, we are now left with the remnants of a central defence, and with the desperate need for Kolo to be firmly wrapped up in bubble wrap after matches, as he represents our single most experienced quality player on the field at the back.

With Almunia out for a while too, it is time for Fabianski to step up to the fore. Now whilst I remain unconvinced by the big Pole (for me, he is nothing more than a lookalike of Joey from Friends—most disagree, but I am adamant) he has not played enough games for a true assessment of his quality.

Some of you may remember that I am not convinced by our goalkeeping department altogether anyway, not since Lehmann had gone.

And then there is the issue at left back, with Clichy's absence truly felt at Wigan.

Granted, Kieran Gibbs is only 19, and was making his first Premier League start. And whilst I think he is a great talent for the future, he was out of his depth for most of the match at the JJB, and Clichy has been the best left back in the country for the second season running (most people will tell you Evra...total rubbish!), and so his return cannot come soon enough.

This is all unlucky stuff, so unlucky it fills me with rage about how we can never have the luxury of a full squad to choose from. And although pretty much no one does in modern football, we have definitely drawn the short straw in terms of injuries when compared to the top four or indeed most other teams.

Or so you would think, for Djourou's somewhat random injury as well as Almunia's exacerbation of his ankle flare-up has made me think the other day. Maybe the fault actually lies with us?

The medical staff and physios? The fact that we rush players back? Knackering training regimes that end up buggering knees up on a frequent basis? Food for thought indeed!

With the patched up defensive department in place for the next few weeks, it is clear that attack will have to be our best form of defence as we approach those key games, starting with the Villarreal contest.

Villarreal themselves are vulnerable at the moment, having lost their last two league games with our draw sandwiched in between. In their two defeats, they conceded five without reply and lost a key creative force in Santi Cazorla as well as their aforementioned captain.

And so, I can be excused for being excited ahead of our date with the Spaniards, though our FA Cup semi next weekend is totally another issue. But that can take care of itself after Wednesday, where we will hope to be in our second European Cup semifinal in three years.

Incredible isn't it? With all of our struggles and shortcomings, as well as our just short of diabolical luck and we have the chance to echo such a statistic by the end of the week, an opportunity we must grab hold of!

To grab hold of it we will have to be much bolder and quicker getting off the blocks than on the last two occasions, for there will be no better way to approach the club's most decisive week in five years.

And I for one hope that by next Saturday evening we can say that there will be a few more "most decisive weeks" between then and late May.