Gooners' Views: Catching Up with "Little Dutch"

Gooners' Views is a forum for Gooners to air their views about all things Arsenal.

There are a variety of community based football networks out there, but Vital Football is one with great readership and quality. Vital Arsenal is no different.

I managed to catch up with one of the leading writers at Vital Arsenal—Tim Stillman, who regularly attends all the Arsenal matches (home and away), is a passionate Gooner, and writes a column on Vital Arsenal. He is incredibly opinionated and writes some very thought-provoking pieces.

Arsenal have had an interesting season so far. From their poor start to the season, William Gallas' captaincy getting stripped, to their wins against Manchester United and Chelsea in the league—it's fair to say that it has been an action-packed season, as always.

In addition to all this, Arsenal face the prospect of another Champions League final, with rivals Manchester United standing in their way in the semifinals.

So I managed to catch up with Tim, and asked him about various issues ranging from the FA Cup semifinal against Chelsea to Arsenal's improvements over the past few months.

1. Last time I caught up with you, we were going through a rough patch. What improvements have you seen in this team?

There's certainly an improvement in the defensive area. I don't know how much of an effect taking the captaincy from Gallas has had on team spirit, but the player himself has been inspired and is now allowed to marshal the defence without this press witch hunt so rabidly focused on him. Multiply that by Kolo's return to form and we've been very solid at the back.

I can't honestly explain why that is, possibly just work on the training ground. I think Wenger took stock and realised he had a mish mash of a team and decided that most great teams are built from the back—look at United this season.

Denilson and Song have also come on in leaps and bounds and have got better at protecting the defence. Going forward, a rested Fabregas has obviously offered us more, allied with the signing of Arshavin—who has bought us something extra.

Five assists and two goals isn't bad for your first 10 games or so! His signing really seemed to give the whole club a bit of a lift. Strangely, I think the last minute manner of the saga increased the effect—kind of like winning a match in the last minute as opposed to scoring the winner in the first half.

2. After our loss to Chelsea in FA Cup semifinal, fans have been angry at Arsene Wenger yet again, for issues ranging from team selection to tactics. What are your views on this issue?

We're all chuffing geniuses in hindsight, aren't we? I totally understand the team selection bar the decision to leave out Andrei Arshavin. Chelsea are a very physical side and putting Diaby in made sense to me, even though I'm not his greatest fan.

Had we lost the game to a muscular side and Diaby been kicking his heels on the bench a lot of people would have been asking why. I sat over on Arsenal's left hand side in the first half and it looked to me as though Diaby began the game there before Van Persie moved over.

It was a very close game against the most expensively assembled side in footballing history; we made one more mistake than they did. Had Sagna been fit I'm sure Malouda would not have got a shot away for the first. Had Gallas been fit I'm sure he wouldn't have allowed Drogba in for the second.

It's a measure of how far this manager punches above his weight with his resources when our supporters get so het up about a narrow defeat to the world's most expensive side with five of our six first choice defenders. 

We weren't outplayed by any means.

3. Will the FA Cup loss have any impact on the team on the semifinal of the Champions League against Manchester United?

No I don't think so; United lost their semifinal too. I think these teams are so familiar with one another that form does not really come into it. Look at our win at Old Trafford in 2006. We had started the season without a win in our first three games and went and beat them 1-0 sans Henry.

United seem to have run out of steam of late. I think they've just done enough to win the league, but our games promise to be tight nervy affairs. I don't think the Chelsea defeat will even figure in the players' minds once they take the pitch at Old Trafford.

4. Your prediction for the Champions League? 

It's impossible to predict. All four teams could go on and win it, but as Wenger is so fond of reminding us, we are "super outsiders." I think Chelsea will beat Barcelona—Barca are a super side but they are not used to tight games at the moment and I see Chelsea squeezing them out over two legs.

As for our semifinal, I've no idea, absolutely none—flip a coin. I do, however, have a horrible feeling Chelsea are going to win it. They're getting closer every year and they will win it sooner or later.

5. Where should we finish now in the English Premier League?

Fourth looks most likely, but we should try for third if we can due to the convoluted qualifying process. I think a month ago we would all have taken fourth. But we've got hard fixtures ahead yet and should not dismiss Villa just yet either.

6. Will this be deemed as an "unsuccessful" season if we don't manage to win a trophy? This, considering that at one point, finishing in the top four of the Premier League seemed to be a stretch. 

Probably yes, I think the league season has to go down as a disappointment overall as we challenged for the title last year, but haven't come close to doing that this year. The second half of the season has been hugely encouraging and I think keeping every single player we have, plus a couple more experienced souls, should see us challenging next season.

In the end, we have been eliminated from the cup by Chelsea. If we are knocked out of Europe it will be by United, Chelsea, or Barca and we will finish the league in that company too. What is clear is that we are competing at a very high level and punching well above our weight. It's important to remember that.

We have competed for the top prizes every year during this so-called barren spell. We need to make the final jump but have to remember the sides that have knocked us out of the big trophies in the latter stages since 2005—United, Liverpool, Barca, Chelsea—massively outstrip us resource wise. As we continue to pay off the stadium debts, that resource gap will close every year.

There is a great deal to be positive about. The team needs just minor tweaking for me, not the enormous facelift everyone will have you believe.

Some interesting opinions there. I’d like to thank Tim for spending the time sharing his views and answering the questions on Gooners' Views.