Arsenal Need To Get Their Focus Right To Challenge Chelsea

After two extremely busy days in work  I'm faced with more of the same today and after cancelling yesterday's blog it means that I'm very limited in the time I have available today as well. As a result today's effort will have to be short and to the point.

With what looked like a tricky trip to Partizan Belgrade out of the way and another three Champions league points in the bag the focus us now well and truly on the trip across London to Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea on Sunday afternoon. It's a game that could have taken us to the summit of the table if our focus had been right against West Brom last Saturday but now it's become a game that we just cannot afford to lose. I know we fought back from a worse situation on at least two occasions last season but ultimately we fell short when we couldn't win our last 12 or 13 games in a row which was just too much to ask.

Unfortunately we seem to have reverted to type in so far as it would appear that we seem to have decided that whatever our opponents score we will score at least one goal more. The amount of chances Partizan created on Tuesday night can't be put down to bad goalkeeping as Fabianski had a very good game but the defence as a whole was woeful at times. They weren't helped as often as they should have been by the rest of the team at times as well and that slackness will have to be overcome if we are to stand any chance on Sunday. So far we have only two clean sheets in nine games and they both came in 6-0 victories at home.

I was concerned at the number of times against Partizan that Arsenal defenders that were under pressure decided to try to play the ball out rather than do the sensible thing and play safe. There is of course the school of thought that the defenders are more prone to mistakes because they have no trust in whatever goalkeeper happens to be playing the position for us. I know that was certainly the case at times last season and I hope it isn't this season. The defenders have to do the right thing and if it leads to trouble because the man behind them isn't up to the job that's a matter for the manager to sort out. 

We have good enough defenders to keep more clean sheets than we do but at times the concentration seems to lapse and we leak goals too easily. I'm not sure if it's that they need to train more as a defensive unit and if the midfielders need to become more involved in that training but certainly something needs to be done to get them to keep their focus in games. Surely the thought of playing the current league and cup champions should be all the players need to sharpen that focus.

Injury News:

Ahead of that game on Sunday the boss said that Cesc's chances of being involved are about 50/50 but that Vermaelen is definitely out. He also said that Diaby will be in the squad although at the moment he only has an 80% chance of playing. Almunia has not had a full training session since he picked up his elbow injury last Saturday and the boss doesn't know yet if he will figure against Chelsea or not. He also said that Bendtner should be available again after the international break and that Ramsey is progressing very well.

Interestingly enough there was no mention of how both RVP and Walcott are progressing and with our next match after the Chelsea game not until October 16th I would have thought that they should both be aiming at returning in that game or very soon after it.  The answers to that lie in the Arsenal medical centre and after the miracle of having Nasri back one week early from injury last month I think they have used up all their good fortune.

That's it for today but I'll have my usual Premier league predictions blog later tonight so don't forget to check it out and tell me where I'm going wrong.

See You Tomorrow.