Just Arsenal News

After the terrible disappointment in the North London derby yesterday, Arsenal are in firth place in the Premier League. Chelsea are fourth, five points ahead and Tottenham are third, seven points ahead. With 10 league games left to play, there are plenty of points available to catch both clubs, but which is more likely?

Both Chelsea and Spurs still have the distraction of the Europa League games against Steaua Bucharest and Inter Milan this week and next week. After that, if they progress, there are another five European ties including the final on May 15th. These games could have a negative effect on the league games, as the fixture pile up drains the players of sharpness and possibly leads to more injuries. .......Read the full article here

March is crunch time for Arsenal by JG

It is strange, but always the case, that there are certain parts of the season that are crucial, not only for the teams at the bottom trying to stay in the premier League, but also for teams trying to win the league.

This year it is also the case for us, trying to get third or fourth place. March is our time when we cannot drop points. We have five games in this month, home to Spurs, away to Everton, who seem to be falling away at last, and the return leg in Germany. We then have two easier games, away to Swansea and home to Reading. In my opinion we must take full points from the league games to achieve Champions League qualification. However in between the two games Swansea and Reading, is international week, and we could have had a much harder fixture than Reading at home after this midweek chaos. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal team that will most likely travel for the Pre-season friendlies by KJ

We have all missed Arsenal dearly over the last month. Soon we will finally get our needed fix with Arsenal planning to play some very interesting friendlies all over the world.

14th July: We play an interesting archetype of the game we know and love. We’ll play 45 minutes against Belgian champions Anderlecht and then will play newly promoted Southampton for the next 45 minutes. It is a really refreshing format that will make for two interesting short matches. .......Read the full article here

Analysing Arsenal’s fixture list for the 2012-2013 season (pt 3) by KJ

February

2 Stoke (H)

9 Sunderland (A)

23 Aston Villa (H)

A relatively easy month with no big clubs to play. Sunderland away will be difficult but I expect us to get a hard fought win.

March

2 Tottenham (A)

9 Everton (H)

16 Swansea (A)

30 Reading (H)

Another interesting month of football. We play Tottenham at WHL which could be difficult. However, I can see us getting a result as psychologically, the balls in our court now since that thrashing at the Emirates last season. .......Read the full article here

Analysing Arsenal’s fixture list for the 2012-2013 season (pt 1) by KJ

Hello everyone. It’s been quite some time since I last done an article for JustArsenal but I’m back now and hope to really contribute to the site.

My first article is going to be on the new fixture list that was just released a few hours ago. This may seem like a non-issue but I can assure you, fixtures at the right times can make or break a team’s season.

I’m going to go through it month by month:

August

18 Sunderland (H)

25 Stoke (A) .......Read the full article here

At first glance you would think that playing Sunderland at home in the opening game of the season is a reasonable start, but then we have the usual hard game away at Stoke City in our second match.

A week later we will be away at Anfield which could be very difficult if their new manager gets them playing as a team. The next game is at home to promoted Southampton, but that is swiftly followed by Man City away and then Chelsea at home.

We all know what happened at the beginning of last season so Wenger will need to have the whole squad in good fettle very quickly this time around! .......Read the full article here

Fixture list for the remaining top 4 contenders. by KJ

Yesterday as I mentioned in my match report was a shocking result. I honestly expected at least some sort of fight from the lads. However, I don’t want to take anything from Wigan, they were fantastic and all their players had amazing games whilst even ‘Mr Consistent’ (Sagna) was very poor.

However, let’s analyse the remaining fixtures for Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle.

Arsenal:
Chelsea (H)
Stoke (A)
Norwich (H)
WBA (A)

Chelsea:
Arsenal (A)
QPR (H)
Newcastle (H)
Liverpool (A)
Blackburn (H)

Tottenham:
QPR (A)
Blackburn (H)
Bolton (A)
Aston Villa (A)
Fulham (H) .......Read the full article here

What games are left? by KJ

Arsenal have found inspired form and have won the last six games in a row. They have finally overturned the seemingly impossible 13 point deficit between us and Tottenham. It has been truly remarkable. However, I’ve seen many already celebrating and trying to wind up the opposite fans and to be honest, it could all change in the next 9 games.

I’m not a pessimist, far from it. I was probably one of the only bloggers to stick by Arsene during his darkest hours. However, I am a realist. I take into account all possible situations and determine the most plausible outcome and that still is for me a 3rd place for Arsenal. But this is the Gunners were talking about here. The same team that has for the last 3-4 seasons now capitulated when it really mattered. .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger is preparing his Arsenal team to face Aston Villa in tomorrows FA Cup tie, but for the second time this week he has admitted that the midweek game against Bolton in the League is far more important in his eyes.

“I have always told you exactly the same, the priority is be in the top four,” Wenger said yesterday. “In recent years I felt that we produced always the consistency at the top, top level and it is not enough for some people maybe, but for me that is the brand of a top level club – consistency in the top four.’ .......Read the full article here

The Arsenal v Aston Villa FA Cup tie has been moved to Sunday 29th January to accomodate the TV schedules, which has meant that Arsenal’s game against Bolton the following midweek has also been moved back a day, and Arsene Wenger is not very happy with this at all!

At the end of last season Wenger complained that Man United got to play before Arsenal every weekend in the run in, and he thinks the same dark forces are at work to continually make things harder for the Gunners. .......Read the full article here