Liverpool Match Is the Season’s Lynchpin (for Now)

By Daniel Brock

(@rockandbrock / @charsenewenger)

The largely stagnant draw with Manchester United was neither a fantastic display nor result. Our attack was tepid and most of the midfield static.

The entire affair was lukewarm. The footballing equivalent of gruel.

Please, sir, may I NOT have some more.

Arsene put the performance down to nerves.  I’d suggest running players ragged (necessitated by a lack of reinforcements) probably had something to do with it, as well.

So, it wasn't a bellowing response to the Liverpool beat down, but on the positive side, we regrouped defensively, Mesut Ozil put in a spirited shift and we got a point.

With 12 games left, the title is up for grabs between five sides, and I suspect there will be high drama and ridiculous results in the weeks ahead.

The Liverpool match on Sunday, however, has much greater feel of immediacy to it. There is unquestionably much on the line, possibly our entire season.

There for the taking are a spot in the FA Cup quarterfinals and a quick response to the evisceration at Anfield. Win and we might just kick on for some silverware. (Especially considering Chelsea or Man City will be exiting the competition shortly.)

In the cataclysmic category is the possibility that we devastatingly get put to the sword for the second time in a week by the Scousers and lose what’s likely our best shot at taking anything from the season. (And, good heavens, the bloody carnage that would take place on Twitter.)

At my most optimistic, I can barely see us getting a result from the Bayern match next week, but coming off 5-1, a home draw and being dumped out of the FA Cup, prospects would be radioactive-wasteland bleak.

It is, as they say, up for grabs now. Well, on Sunday.

Notes and Observations:
- We need to talk about Jack.
- Donde esta Podolski?
- We're one off the top.
- We're six off fifth.
- “Two Shoes” Flamini is coming back (HUGE for the Liverpool tie)
- We’ve got fewer runners than an understaffed restaurant.

Short Round

Over the last nine days we've all been beaten over the head enough with how bad international breaks suck, how the team must bounce back against Southampton at the Emirates this weekend, how much we are looking forward to the returns from injury of Theo and Poldi (among others), who we should be buying in January (does that rumor cycle ever end?). When the biggest news of the break is that Flamini cut the sleeves off his top, that tells you all you need to know.

If you're anything like me, you've just about reached your breaking point while waiting for 10am on Saturday morning. Having been awash in two weeks worth of Interlull dreck and infinitesimally detailed team analysis, how about a little distraction palate cleanser before we reassume our title campaign?

Football as Football

How clever is this? American football logos redesigned in the German, English, Spanish and Italian football logo styles.

Carolina Panthers in the German style (Credit Football as Football - footballasfootball.com)

Shrunken Footballers

Does what it says on the tin: pictures of photomanipulately-diminutive footballers.

Not So BFG (Credit Shrunken Footballers - twitter.com/shrunkenfooty)

Have fun passing some time with those two.

Up the Arsenal. Bring on the weekend!

Alliteration

A wise man once questioned why Lukas Podolski was not seeing more minutes or a regular spot in the starting XI. After the Manchester United tie, a wiser man answered in a studious French accent, "Zat's why, dummee." Lukas looked lethargic and limpy.

It's a chicken-and-the-egg sort of scenario where he won't be match fit until he gets some matches, but won't get matches if he's not fit. Feels a bit Chamakh-y or Arshavin-y. Fortunately for Lukas, the Handsome French Bloke earned that silly red card and the team is without its only out-and-out striker for the time being, so The Boss looks set to hand Poldi the central forward role again this weekend for our match at QPR. I certainly hope that Lukas is able to take better advantage of this opportunity and that the injury he so clearly is carrying will not affect him too badly.

Whither Walcott?

Why not feature Theodore down the middle against a Hoops side with feck all to play for? My money is not only in Theo's pocket, but also on the fact that he spent large swaths of time against Man U just standing around, his goal aside. About that goal: with 12 weeks between goals, at £100,000 per week, it cost us 18.15 billion Indonesian rupiahs (since the club is so interested in that region; I'm not bitter over another summer without seeing our Gunners travel Stateside or anything). Let that sink in for a bit. If you didn't do your job for 12 weeks, could you look forward to receiving a six-figure pay packet every week regardless? Madness. I certainly don't excpect any of our players to score goals every week, but I do expect a player who held the club over a barrel and crowed so loudly about wanting to score goals to find the back of the net more regularly.

Southern Hospitality

On to more positive pursuits. Many have and will write better reviews of the Man U match and previews of the matches ahead. I would like to take some time to instead turn an eye locally and praise our Charleston Gooners. The show of support on hand at Moe's Crosstown Tavern for brunch on Sunday morning was phenomenal. My recollection is that this was our biggest turn out since the first Chelsea match earlier this campaign, which itself set a recent high water mark for Charsenal. We saw many new faces mingling with the more familiar, and we hope to see everyone who attended come back out for the remaining matches of the season.

Shirts

There have been rumblings of getting t-shirts printed with the Charsenal crest on the front and the art deco badge on the back. Would you get one? Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook so we can gauge interest!