It’s Only Half-Time

LWDWWL

Quite the sandwich of early season results, eh? For us Arsenal fans, it’s no big deal. We see this erratic form yearly. Especially that Chelsea loss. No matter how good or bad we’re playing, Mourinho’s Chelsea were never going to get beaten to us on home soil. So it was largely a surprise how the Gunners’ fans reacted after that colorful game with Costa being Costa and Gabriel being a total naïve victim of his Costa-ness. And with that, we thought, “Here we go again; Top 4 is our best shot”. In the words of Chandler Bing, “Could we BE more wrong?”

The Premier league this season seems to have decided on playing a wheel of fortune weekly. There are no top teams, there are no small teams and there are no mid-table teams anymore. All your pre-season predictions, all sorts of bets are off. Everything and anything is possible. Case in point:

So in this season of unpredictability, hope has sprung eternal for Arsenal. Among the mediocrity of their regular “Big Four/Five” peer group, the North London outfit has fatefully kept putting points on the board and against all odds ended up topping the charts at the halfway stage.

However much the league may have become hard to predict, there are some thing which never do change. Arsenal’s deal with injuries might never be explained but it sure as hell does happen year in, year out. This time, it’s the categorically slim midfield which has taken a toll, due to which even Calum Chambers has gotten a run out in defensive midfield. As mentioned in my starting articles, the following was the squad I believed would be largely employed over the course of the season.

Now, out of the 23 players listed, 21 have already been used and that is not down to squad rotation. When Arsenal began the season, Theo Walcott was deployed as the centre forward who was to provide pace on the counter and push defenses back with the threat of the over the top ball. While a lot of people were averse too the idea at first, the goals and nature of play which was shown on the pitch proved them wrong. A bad September start was followed by a bright October, where Manchester United were blow apart in 20 minutes and the mighty Bayern Munich tamed by the simplest of counter attacking football. But then, nothing lasts forever.

Sheffield Wednesday away happened to be the screeching halt Arsenal suffer yearly. Injuries to both Walcott and Chamberlain within the space of one half resulted in the change of tactics and another early exit from the Capital One Cup. The same was threatened in the Champions league with November being a bogey month again for Arsenal. A complete defensive capitulation against the aforementioned might of Bavaria was seen again at the Hawthorns with Tony Pulis being the thorn in Wenger’s chance to see the club top of the table. If that wasn’t enough, the man manning the velvet midfield of Arsenal-Francis Coquelin-was also injured in the same game. Before they could digest that loss, another one of their main commanders was taken out. Despite knowing about his twitchy hamstring, Arsene Wenger let Alexis Sanchez be the naughty child who just wants to play and aggravate his injury. Norwich used the blueprint from West Brom and suddenly Arsenal had just one win in November.

While this was going on, Joel Campbell was starting to earn a regular first team spot. The Costa Rican was seeing the fans warm up to him and his tireless running, a lesser flair version of the now injured Sanchez. A goal and an assist in the opening games of December were showing that maybe Wenger wasn’t wrong about holding on to player who has taken a lot of time to break through. Funnily enough, he remains the only outfield player in the squad not to be injured during the last calendar year. Now that’s a stat you don’t hear about an Arsenal player.

Arsenal won 4 out of their 5 league games in December, which included another big victory over their more realistic title challengers, Manchester City. (No offense meant Leicester, but your own manager agrees with me). In the game at St.Mary’s, the answer to “Why won’t Arsenal win the league?” was visible to everyone. As Leicester City were being beaten by Liverpool, every Arsenal fan was scared to dream about what being top at Christmas would mean. And as Santa Claus was busy with the world, good ol’chap Victor Wanyama made sure we didn’t need to dream.

Mesut Ozil, by far the best player for Arsenal so far this season, would have been found in his pocket at the end of the game. The beast in Soton’s midfield did not let the German playmaker make any sort of play happen. And it was there when once again every Arsenal fan groaned about the lack of our own beast in midfield.

Half time in football is when the manager is thinking if the game needs any new additions. It is the time when he is contemplating if the right player can be introduced to make sure of the victory which for now may just happen. It is lucky then that in fact, Arsenal’s half time in the season comes when they can recruit that one final piece of jigsaw and make this probable title a certainty. Names like Mohamed Elneny are music to the ears of fans that see a big hole in the midfield where even Santi Cazorla is no longer fit to play. And while Arsene Wenger is known not to shop big in January, this season is all about the unknown. We can only wish that trend follows in the transfer window and Arsenal make a very important introduction when the whistle for the second half blows.