It may be unconvincing at times, forever flirting with catastrophe, but Arsenal's title pursuit remains intact. As the dust settled in the wake of Chelsea's unnerving extravagance on transfer-deadline day, Arsène Wenger's team had been craving a comfortable win, a walkover to maintain their pursuit of Manchester United and offer reassurance that their passiveness in the market last month was justifiable. Even understandable.
Arsenal, it seems, do not comply so easily. This was too tight for comfort. Once the elation provoked by another nail-biting victory has subsided, the murmurs of concern may resurface, for all the established mantra of "In Arsène we trust". The squad benefits from more depth than in recent seasons, with promising youngsters maturing into pedigree players, but it is competing on four fronts. It can still appear stretched. The troops asked to turn out most often are inevitably those in areas where the ranks appear weakest, most notably at centre-half. The sense that additions should have been made in January lingers.
The manager would consider a splurge such as that instigated by Chelsea on Fernando Torres and David Luiz as undignified, even at a club which reported record pre-tax profits of £56m for the year ending May 2010. Perhaps the reinforcements he might have acquired had not been available. Certainly he retains faith in Johan Djourou and Laurent Koscielny, a regular pairing these days in the prolonged absence of Thomas Vermaelen with Achilles troubleand now with Sébastien Squillaci suspended – others spy the partnership as a weakness.
"We are entering the run-in to the season now, and I'm really happy with the state of the squad," Wenger had written in his programme notes. "The attitude is fantastic and the togetherness is great." Yet the sense persists that this team could still be overhauled by a chasing pack boosted by fresh legs and new-found conviction over the final months, with defensive fragility still a factor in key contests. An addition at centre-half might have offered timely reassurance.
Koscielny had admittedly shown signs of improvement in recent weeks and ended this contest as the hero, his free header 15 minutes from time completing the comeback to maintain the challenge at the top. Yet his goal represented a turnaround. At the interval, he must have felt like the fall guy. Arsenal had opened sloppily, their play lethargic where the occasion demanded urgency, when Seamus Coleman's attempt to find an offside Louis Saha looped over the Frenchman's shoulder. Koscielny stretched out his left foot very deliberately, hooking the pass neatlyinto Saha's path, and Arsenal were left to decry the ludicrousness of the modern-day offside rule as the striker finished with aplomb. By half-time any sense of disquiet at the lack of signings had become one of smouldering injustice at events on the pitch.
A fourth home defeat of the season would have been unthinkable and the mood was improved by Andrey Arshavin's equaliser – Arsenal boast reinforcements aplenty in attacking areas – once urgency had infiltrated their game after the interval. Everton were awkward opponents, their concentration wavering critically in a five-minute period that turned the contest, though it was David Moyes who ended pacing his technical area in livid disappointment.
It is probably best not to mention the transfer window to him at all. Where Wenger had opted not to go into the market, the Everton manager could only dream of having such a choice. While their neighbours across Stanley Parkwere lavishing in their attemptsto banish the memory of Torres, Everton had been buying a striker of their own: Apostolos Vellios, a Greek Under-19 player from Iraklis Thessaloniki for a nominal fee to link up with Alan Stubbs' reserve squad.
Moyes had already lost two strikers in the transfer window – Ayegbeni Yakubu to Leicester and James Vaughan to Crystal Palace, both on loan – as well as Steven Pienaar to Tottenham Hotspur, but there were to be no eye-catching replacements. The Scot had said at the start of the season that this was his strongest ever squad, but his team have underachieved overall.
This was only their second defeat of the season against one of the title contenders – both were inflicted by Arsenal – but Everton, too, will feel fatigued over the run-in and without additions to ease the burden.
Source: Dominic Fifield, The Guardian on 1 Feb 11
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