It's Good To Have You Back

For a variety of reasons I have only been able to take in the last several matches via Twitter feeds, match reports and the like. It's quite a feeling to be losing a match 1-0 getting into a car to go to the airport and then discovering we won in the last minute just as I emerge from security and head toward my departure gate. Nothing takes the edge off a 15 hour flight like victory stolen from the jaws of defeat [It sounds awfully weird writing that phrase 'correctly' with respect to the Gunners].

By now we're all well aware of the Premier League record the Arsenal just set for consecutive comeback wins. But this team had to make comebacks already this season, so why does it seem so surprising? We shipped two marquee players without the expected big-name replacements. We pocketed the cash and brought in a few journeyman players, missing out on the likes of Juan Mata. Then we dropped two clangers.

The mauling at Old Trafford wasn’t exactly unexpected, even if the margin was more than anticipated. The capitulation at Blackburn compounded that result. A hand-ball assisted goal by Van der Vaart was the decider in the loss to Spurs.  Afterwards we went on a run that saw us climb from the relegation zone right back up to the top five with a series of gritty performances. If the football wasn’t exactly flowing, the points were steadily accumulating. We thrashed Chelsea at the Bridge and won a Champions League group that appeared to be the toughest draw, whereas the wealthy Manchester clubs crashed out against far inferior competition.

Against City in December we pushed the then league leaders to the limit without the benefit of natural fullbacks or competent officiating, in the midst of a series of games where we were denied penalty after penalty. Our depleted squad finally gave way after a nine match unbeaten run in the league, then stuttered into the New Year with a string of three straight losses.

All told, in the first six weeks of 2012 the Arsenal have lost five matches, two fewer than we have from the beginning of the season through December. February and March in the previous few years have seen us disintegrate, with some very talented sides collapsing in the run-in. This season we looked to have hit that slump even earlier with a run of defeats and poor performances, with a squad that simply doesn't stack up to those predecessors on paper.

You know what they say though, the game isn't played on paper. In this same period we enjoyed the return of our former hero Henry [the impact deity as dubbed by the Arsenal Gentleman], and his influence in the dressing room was lauded as much as his late winner against Leeds in the FA Cup. Impact deity indeed. Sagna was restored to the line-up after a long injury absence, and with him our defensive balance and attacking width also began to return. And perhaps a little of the mentality we've been missing.

Last year in particular, but in others as well, we have struggled at this stage in the season because we have  been involved in the cups and at the top end of the table. We were dispatched from the Carling Cup by City and spared an additional two matches versus Liverpool in January when we were at our thinnest squad-wise. With City and United out of the FA Cup that looked to be an achievable trophy and Milan wasn't an impossible ask either, even if progressing beyond the quarterfinals in the Champions League still seemed unlikely.

Instead, we went into a 3 game road trip to face Sunderland in the league and the cup, and Milan at the San Siro. Henry started the comeback trail with a last-ditch score at the Stadium of Light played on a cow pasture. Milan were obviously watching and ploughed up the wings of their pitch as well, and were aided and abetted by the poorest showing from our best possible XI, and we were drubbed 4-0. The response to that performance and result didn't come as expected on the return to Sunderland, and in four days our somewhat realistic hopes of lifting the FA Cup were dashed and our rather more unrealistic hopes in the Champions League ventured into the realm of pure fantasy.

Hardly the recipe for good preparation ahead of the North London derby. Just over a half-hour into the Spurs match and it was even worse. We had shipped 8 unanswered goals across three competitions and were about to be unceremoniously dumped a further 3 points adrift of our hated rivals. The enemy as Sagna would later call them. Back to that mentality I mentioned. Six minutes after Tottenham scored from the spot Bacary did what you do to the enemy, and nutted them right in the face with an unstoppable header.

It was back on and the supporters at the Grove were giving it full voice. Just like the Grinch when the hoos sang anyway after all their Christmas gear got jacked, the Arsenal's heart grew three sizes that day [Five actually, heh]. So much for unanswered goals. Then we went to Anfield where no team has scored more than once, let alone win, this season and gave up a penalty in the first 20 minutes. A brilliant double Szczesny save spared us momentarily, only for us to gift the home side an OG. Another six minutes, another Sagna intervention. This time a brilliant cross and it was Van Persie smashing the mugsmashers in the face with a header. We rode that storm big time and plundered the full three points with naught to spare via the sandwedge of Song and the magical left peg of our captain. And what a captain he has proven to be.

Just for good measure we stuck three past Milan in the first half of the return leg [funny what a decent pitch will do] and impossibly from the brink we were staring at an historic turnaround. But for a point blank save on a Van Persie chip we were looking at extra time. It wasn't to be, however the flirtation that started between the support and the players against Spurs, and got all gropey and sweaty at Anfield, was fully consummated back at the Grove in that effort against the seven time European champions.

I look back on the recent comebacks and I see a captain with the bit well and truly between his teeth. I see a manager who has taken massive criticism on the chin and maintained a dignity you rarely see in sport these days. I see a core of players like Rosicky, Sagna, Song, and Walcott who have been around the club for a while now and appear to be rolling up their sleeves and doing work, perhaps because they're tired of the collapses we usually suffer this time of year. I see young players like Szczesny and Oxlade-Chamberlain, and sophomores like Koscielny and Vermaelen [I know it's his third year but you understand I'm sure] stepping right up. I see new players like Arteta and Mertesacker come in and give us strength and maturity. And for a refreshing change, I see a fan-base unified in support and willing the team forward. You know, that funny little word under the badge on the 125th commemorative kit? For a change it doesn't look like we're fading going into the run-in. It looks like we are surging. I see all these things and I have a feeling that we just might be getting our Arsenal back. Let's hope the comeback continues. 

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