Sturridge & Walcott swap? Just don’t lose Arsenal…

Morning all.

When Man City rocked up at The Emirates a few months ago with their star studded squad, they were sent packing with nothing. Two goals were enough that day to earn all three points against a side heavily tipped to win the league. Walcott and Giroud struck in the first half which proved enough and despite Toure pulling one back late in the second half, Arsenal held on.

Just how though I don’t know as City threw everything but the kitchen sink at Arsenal in the last ten minutes. To be honest they had a few decent chances throughout the game, as did Arsenal but thankfully, on that day, City’s shooting boots were worse than ours.

Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin were all out injured back then but today, all three are available, the only slight doubt would be the little Spaniard who has only just returned from injury. We didn’t have Elneny for the home fixture either so Arsene has decisions to make when it comes to team selection. Will he be bold and bench the out of form Ramsey and Giroud? I hope so but I doubt it.

Manuel Pellegrini has selection problems too but of a very different kind. His captain Kompany is out injured and will miss the Euro’s, David Silva, Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov are also missing today because of injury which is all good news for Arsenal, if they can take advantage.

Arsene Wenger has been talking to the official site about his plans for next season.

We had a problem at home and dropped too many points against teams that played deep. We didn’t manage to score enough goals and our deficit is there. Our defensive record is strange because we had 15 clean sheets which is good.

But when we conceded we really conceded. In the big games away from home we conceded three at Liverpool, three at Manchester United and three at West Ham. It was nearly always in positions where we were in the lead, which makes it difficult to win the league then.

We have to add something defensively as a team to be more ruthless. Once you are two up at West Ham United and you finish 3-3, you question the team defensively.

We also gave cheap goals away against Manchester United because we were not strong enough defensively and were punished for it. I don’t think we are soft but yes, we need to toughen up. In some games we were caught, but a lot of the teams have the same problem.

Well at least he’s identified the problem I guess although it’s about six years too late but the interesting thing will be what the manager does about it over the summer and pre-season because he’s failed to rectify the defensive issues for a long time now. Against West Ham in particular this season, defending a big striker like Carroll was non-existent as he blasted a hat-trick passed David Ospina and today it’s highly likely Wilfried Bony will try and do the same if he plays. Then there’s the pace and trickery of Sergio Aguero and de Bruyne, who will stop them I wonder. Then there’s Toure, Fernando and Fernadinho. I think I’ll stop there… lol

But back to the defensive thing the manager talks about and in particular his ‘Once you are two up at West Ham United and you finish 3-3, you question the team defensively’ statement. As the manager it’s his job to rectify the defence errors during training, it’s his job to ensure the players know what their job is and stick to it and all the time certain midfield players want to bomb forward at every given opportunity, nothing will ever change. He shouldn’t be allowing Ramsey to do what he likes when his playing central midfield as this leave his team-mates alongside and behind him vulnerable. If he starts today, he has to be disciplined and get stuck in, not get to the end of ninety minutes having not made a single tackle..

And the reality is, if the manager is questioning the team defending as a whole then either he’s getting the coaching wrong, or he’s got the wrong players in his squad.

So maybe he’ll put both right during the summer and finally address our need of a goal scorer and there’s plenty of stories suggesting that player could be Daniel Sturridge. Maybe he and Walcott will swap clubs?

Anyway, until then, six points from the last two games would be ideal, or four, as that’ll secure Champions League football. After all, that’s what it’s all about isn’t it?