Happy Christmas - It's Gunner Be Alright

Rejoice Arsenal fans, we just about made it to December! For any other club, December is just that bit in the middle of the season where managers get sacked, there seems to be football on TV every other day, and we have to decide whether this year’s surprise entry into the Christmas top four are the real deal. We Gooners know December as the light at the end of the tunnel however; a wonderful respite after our annual Woevember (TM-pending), and so whilst we all enjoy the first few days of the twenty-five set aside specifically for celebrating Christmas, let me provide a few reasons why I’m remaining positive, despite our recent problems.

Firstly – and people keep going on about him, but it is entirely justified to do so – it seems as though we are finally seeing the Mesut Özil that starred for Real Madrid, the one who truly can stake a claim to being the best number ten in the world. I never lost my faith in Mesut, even during those initial struggles, but it is fair to say that there was a consistency lacking in his game for a number of different reasons over his first eighteen months, and it didn’t help that many seemingly wanted to make him a scapegoat for some of the difficulties that the club were having on the field also. That criticism was completely over the top, and threatened to overshadow and undermine just how incredibly gifted the playmaker is, and so it is an absolute joy to see him established as the orchestrator of this Arsenal side.

Eleven assists and two goals in just fourteen Premier League appearances thus far speak for themselves, but those two stats rely on other players as well, and when taken entirely individually, Mesut’s stats are perhaps even more impressive. His passing accuracy currently stands at 89%, he’s created 58 chances, and his distance covered in matches frequently outmatches that of his teammates (yes, even Alexis). Mesut is already having one hell of a season, and I’m going to continue to enjoy it – that is, until the 37th minute against Sunderland, where he will inevitably dislocate his shoulder falling into a camera pothole now that I’ve written this. Sorry everyone.

Secondly, and this will elicit a groan from 90% of the people reading this, so sorry again, despite having a pretty dreadful November, we remain just two points off Manchester City in first. Yes, we have had the backbone ripped out of our squad over the past few weeks, but we’re somehow still just about standing, and things could certainly be bleaker in terms of the league table right now. I’m not trying to pretend that we haven’t dropped points in ridiculously winnable matches recently, or even that we are not going to find the next few weeks incredibly difficult without many key players, but no-one looks quite willing to grasp the initiative in the title race yet this season, and so with a few battling performances until we get the likes of Alexis back, we can keep ourselves in the hunt.

Let’s not forget after all, that at this exact point last season, we were already thirteen points off Chelsea, top by four points in 2013, and down in tenth place the year before that. We’ve been in better positions, and we’ve been in far worse positions; it’s not time to throw in the towel just yet.

Next, I’d like to quickly point out just how much better our fullbacks have looked this year compared to some in recent times. No, I don’t think that Bacary Sagna/Kieran Gibbs/Carl Jenkinson were the reason that we weren’t winning titles, but it is quite extraordinary to have seen such development in Nacho Monreal over the past few years. When I first started watching him live, I was genuinely fearful every time the opposition’s attack moved itself to his side of the pitch, but last week against Dynamo Zagreb, even in a fairly innocuous game, everything that he did stood out to me, and in a very good way. When a player can do that, despite not having the trickiest of times, especially at fullback, I think it’s pretty impressive, and he’s now doing it consistently.

Hector Bellerin on the other flank has obviously been a revelation since breaking into the team last season, and both now offer something that I’d argue we haven’t had in great abundance in recent times; serious attacking threat, with an ability and intelligence to perform their defensive duties more than adequately also. Add the outstanding Petr Cech to the mix, and we are seeing improvements at the back this season, even if they haven’t been as apparent in recent weeks.

Now, at Arsenal, injuries are inevitable, and there are people far better placed to comment on the technical aspects of that than I, so the best we can do is manage them. Thus far, that is not something that we have done with great success, and you can make the argument that we’ve been rushing players back before they’re completely ready, and that the supposed ‘lack of depth’ in our squad (I have my qualms with that claim) have led to overplaying of certain individuals (which I don’t think I could argue with). That being said, the injuries to Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla are desperately unlucky, and few of the others are deemed ‘long term’ at this stage, at least amongst those that we didn’t already know about.

With Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain making it back into the squad recently, we’re not looking as threadbare as we could have been considering those that we’ve lost over the past few weeks, and others are close to returns. We’re extremely fortunate that Laurent Koscielny was not out for any length of time after the knock that he picked up last week, and Theo Walcott is back to give us options up front. We just need to stop the tide, and then we can look forward to welcoming Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck back as soon as possible.

Finally, and to give this blog a nice cyclical quality, there is a certain amount of excitement to be gained from the fact that we have made it to December. Statistically, November is the month in which Arsenal struggle the most to pick up points, and now that we’ve got horrible things like travelling to the Allianz Arena and playing a Tony Pulis side out of the way, we can hopefully move on with our season. That being said, the Christmas schedule is hardly kind on already injury-depleted teams, and we may yet have to deal with the narrative of being knocked out of the Champions League.

I’m not naïve enough to think that all of our problems are behind us, and this article may look even sillier in a few hours’ time if Big Sam has his way, but I think that there are at least a few reasons to look forward with a bit of positivity (aside from the literally endless opportunities to listen to Fairytale of New York over the next few weeks). Happy December everyone!