Swansea Preview

Right then. With just two days to gather themselves following a deeply troubling result at Stamford Bridge, Arsène’s boys are back home and back in action against Swansea. With our title hopes now all but extinguished, the pressure is still on to finish the season with the kind of form we showed before Christmas and spare ourselves any further embarrassment.

One thing we do have going for us in this crucial comeback game is that our opponents come into the tie on the back of some poor form in a generally disappointing season by their standards of recent years. They have failed to win since the 8^th of February, and have taken just 8 points from their last 10 games. Arsenal remain undefeated at home in the league since our first game against Villa, and Swansea haven’t won on the road since beating the sinking stone that is Fulham in November. On paper then this is a game that we should be winning with ease, however if there’s one thing we can take from Saturday and other similar performances this season  it’s that this Arsenal team can be far from reliable.

With a suspension after Saturday’s game and no-one tipped to return just yet our squad  looks set to thin out even further for Tuesday’s match. In an attempt to redress Mr. Marriner’s extraordinary howler, Gibb’s red card suspension will however surely be transferred to Oxlade-Chamberlain, adding to our ever-growing list of midfield casualties.

In the reverse fixture last September the game was won through goals from Serge Gnabry and Aaron Ramsey with notable performaces from Ozil and Wilshere. It is extremely worrying then that 3 of those players are unavailable for the match this time around.

While many are rightly outraged by our limp and frankly embarassing showing at Stamford Bridge, what is only too easy to forget is that our team is absolutely ravaged by injury. Imagine facing a Chelsea side without three or four of their best/ most dangerous players. A side without Hazard, Schurle, Oscar and Lampard say, is, well, a whole lot less intimidating.

This is not to excuse the drubbing we recieved, to concede 6 goals as a professional outfit is indicative of a disastrous performance throughout, backroom staff included. However just as the defeat we saw agaisnt Chelsea in the Capital One Cup, this was not a full-strength Arsenal side, far, far from it. Although the scoreline read Chelsea 6 - 0 Arsenal this was not the same Arsenal side that was dominating the premier league for the first half of the season.

Back to this Tuesday's encounter and amidst our midfield worries, Swansea will look to the recent return of  Michu and Shelvey to give their squad a much needed boost. Michu in particular will have fond memories of his last trip to the Emirates, when he scored two late goals to hand the tie to Swansea. Alongside their top scorer for the season, Wilfied Bony, this is certainly not a strike force to be scoffed at, but provided Mertescielny haven’t been  reduced  to quivering wrecks after a haunting weekend we should be able to cope. 

So far this season our post drubbing form has been mixed. After the 6-3 result against City we came back strongly, drawing with Chelsea before going on a long winning streak. However the 5-1 against Liverpool was followed by a mixture of wins, losses and draws in a part of our season which saw us slip down to fourth place and drop out of the Champions League.

Admittedly our fixture list has lightened significantly after a period that included Liverpool, Manchetser United, Bayern and Chelsea all in the space of a month. If we are to launch one final bid at the title we now have to win at home to City as well as the remainder of our fixtures, starting with Swansea.

This game is a great opportunity to steady ourselves as we head into this season’s final straight. We can only hope that our players have managed to put Saturday’s humiliation behind them and that we can record a comfortable victory before welcoming Manchester City next Saturday. Wonderful.