Hat’s Off To Jose Mourinho, He’s The Special One

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Well there’s a result I wasn’t expecting.

It’s great for us as we stay 2 points clear at the top of the league and it’s also great because Manchester City have lost that “invincibility” that the media have gone nuts about over the last few months.

As Manchester City win game after game at The Etihad, the stronger and stronger they become. Now that the record has gone, they might start to lose a few more points at home.

Chelsea had a gameplan and carried it out perfectly. Everyone is raving about Chelsea today and you can see why. They dominated the strongest squad in the league by far and should have scored two or three more. While it’s hardly going to be the collapse of Manchester City at home, opposing teams will think twice now about “parking the bus” and might try and give it a go at The Etihad.

The problem both Manchester City and Chelsea have at this moment in time is not the performances against the top sides – they always up their game for the showcase matches – it’s their performances against the lesser sides. Only last week Chelsea drew against relegation candidates West Ham, and Manchester City have also stumbled to lower league opposition.

The Premier League table doesn’t lie and while our record against the “top sides” isn’t the best, we’re top of the league because we’ve been the best side over 24 games.

Manchester City will no doubt bounce back this weekend and score 50 goals against Norwich, and Chelsea should beat Newcastle at Stamford Bridge, so it’s vital we can go to Anfield in the days early kick off and get all 3 points. But with Suarez and Sturridge on form, that will be a tough ask.

As well as executing the perfect masterplan, Mourinho was also a bit mischievous in his post game interviews and press conferences. Despite now only being 2 points behind the league leaders, he insisted this season was about “transition” and his aim was purely a Top Four spot. We all know Mourimho isn’t fooling anyone and that he’s a born winner.

At the moment at least, it looks like this is turning into a three horse race, and there’s no small horse Jose.

Is Kim Kallstrom A Panic Signing? Most Definitely.

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In the summer, Arsenal fans were disappointed with the lack of signings. We brought in Flamini and Sanogo on free transfers, but missed out on Luis Suarez, Gonzalo Higuain, Stevan Jovetic, Lars Bender and a host of other big names.

We played Aston Villa at home on the first day of the season and lost 3-1. Things couldn’t have got any worse.

But then, on transfer deadline day, we pulled off the unthinkable – we signed a world class player at the peak of his career. We signed Real Madrid superstar Mesut Özil. The club had a massive lift and for the majority of the season so far, we’ve been at the top of the league.

Now on the last day of the January transfer window, we find ourselves in a similar position. We’ve been linked with German super-kid Julian Draxler but found out that deal was never going to happen. So instead, we’ve managed to sign 31 year old Swedish International Kim Kallstrom from Spartak Moscow on loan for the rest of the season.

The signing makes sense, with Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey and Tomas Rosicky all injured. And we also have Mathieu Flamini out for 4 games after his red card against Southampton, and the number of yellows he’s picked up previously. Mikel Arteta is really our only recognised central midfielder.

I haven’t seen much of Kim Kallstrom to form any sort of opinion of him. From the International games I’ve seen in World Cups and European Championships, he strikes me as a reliable midfielder who does the basics right. Anything special? Perhaps not. Decent cover? Probably.

How Arsene Wenger settled on Kim Kallstrom is a strange one. We all know transfer deals are complicated, drawn out and involve so many different people, representatives and officials. Was Kim Kallstrom offered to Arsenal as a midfield option? Was he our first choice or someone a lot further down the pecking order?

I guess we’ll never know. But he does strike me as a last minute panic buy, in the same mould as Andre Santos, and we know how successful he was at the club.

Draxler Link “Made Up” While Arsenal Target Kallstrom

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Arsene Wenger has come out and said the following about Julian Draxler:

“The Draxler situation has been created by the newspapers, not by me. He will stay at Schalke.”

Yesterday I posted how Julian Draxler would never join Arsenal, and how there are so many reasons why the transfer itself makes no sense.

But someone we have been linked with is 31 year old Sweden International Kim Kallstrom, who currently plays for Spartak Moscow.

The theory is that he would provide midfield cover for the injured Aaron Ramsey, Tomas Rosicky and Jack Wilshere. Also, we have Mathieu Flamini out suspended as well so in terms of proper midfielders, we are a little short.

What do you think of this signing if it comes off?

Is it the signing we need? I suppose it’s a sensible move and it would a loan deal until the end of the season.

I haven’t seen a huge amount of him to make a judgement, but he seems to perform well when playing for Sweden.

Will it happen? I guess only time will tell.

Why Julian Draxler Won’t Be Joining Arsenal

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There has been a lot of speculation recently over German star Julian Draxler. We’ve all seen the YouTube videos of him, and he is undoubtedly talented, but there’s no way he’s coming to Arsenal. In fact, I stated this on Twitter yesterday:

I’d love for him to come, but nothing about this transfer makes sense.

First of all, the “inside expert” who came up with this story (I won’t mention his name) also said we were “guaranteed” to sign Gonzalo Higuain in the summer.

And I don’t need to tell you how that turned out.

Also, he’s apparently injured, and that’s not exactly going to help us when Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Tomas Rosicky and a few others are unavailable.

Another problem is with the price. Just because we spent £42.3 million on Mesut Özil, suddenly every journalist is linking us with big money buys to sell newspapers.

Be clear on this, a signing like Mesut Özil is a rarity – Arsene still likes to sniff out a bargain and get value for money. The club and managers whole ethos and vision hasn’t changed over night.

£37 million is a hell of a lot of money for a 20 year old who has yet to fulfil their potential. Juan Mata for me was over-priced at £37 million and he’s an established and successful Premier League and Spanish International.

Jose Mourinho’s Criticism of West Ham is Laughable

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After the disappointing result against Southampton on Tuesday, Manchester City and Chelsea had the chance to make up ground on us last night. Manchester City absolutely obliterated Tottenham Hotspur (not for the first time this season) to go top but surprisingly, Chelsea couldn’t over come West Ham United at home.

The Chelsea manager said:

“This is not the best league in the world, this is football from the 19th Century.

“The only [other] thing I could bring was a Black and Decker [tool] to destroy the wall.”

“It’s very difficult to play a football match where only one team wants to play. It’s very difficult.

“A football match is about two teams playing and this match was only one team playing and another team not playing.”

Remember, this is the man who “parked the bus” at Old Trafford against Manchester United and “parked the bus” against us at The Emirates earlier on in the season.

Hypocritical doesn’t even begin to describe the idiocy of Mourinho.

But as ridiculous as Mourinho’s criticism of West Ham was, Big Sam managed to make the situation even more hilarious with his post game comments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH53mTdjvbc

I’m not his biggest fan, but fair play to Sam Allardyce on this occasion!