Fabregas scored both goals and had to have been the man of the match. In all fairness, the first goal could have been ruled out for offsides–Bendter was offsides, and even though he didn’t touch or play the ball, the keeper did have an argument that he affected the play by screening his vision. But it wasn’t called, and Fabregas sealed the deal with a second-half goal. Really, aside from one effort by Aliadiere, Boro never really threatened Almunia.

Frankly, I couldn’t believe Boro played with as little passion as they did. For a team facing relegation, they were surprisingly complacent and ineffective, and now look nearly certain to go down next season.

The good news was that it was a pretty easy win, and the 3 points basically seals a top 4 finish, our 13th season of finishing 4th or higher. It was also nice to see Cesc get on the scoresheet–he’s not a goal-scorer, and doesn’t need to score to still be a very effective offensive player, but if he can pop up with a goal every now and then it adds an extra dimension to the attack. Our backline, troubled as of late, throw up a clean sheet, which will hopefully give them confidence going into Wednesday. Finally, it was good that the game was wrapped up early, which allowed Cesc and Walcott to come off early, ensuring they will be rested for Wednesday’s match-up.

But there was some bad news as well. Silvestre had to go off injured at half-time. We definitely need all hands on deck on the backline at the moment, but given how dreadful Silvestre has been lately, maybe this news isn’t even all that bad in light of the fact that Djourou is back and played the second-half. He didn’t look great, but hopefully getting some match experience will help him get ready for Wednesday.

For me, though, the main bad news may be that the team looked a little too good yesterday. Let me explain. Fabregas played forward yesterday, behind Bendtner. Since he played well and popped up and scored two goals, Wenger is apparently thinking about sticking with him in this position for Wednesday’s game. With the usual caveats about Wenger knowing way more than I’ll ever know, I’ll just say that I really think Cesc functions much better in a deep-lying playmaker role than playing behind the striker, and would have a lot of problems finding space to make plays if he’s called upon to go too far forward and deal with Giggs, Carrick, and/or Scholes.

Yesterday was also interesting because Wenger played Arshavin on the left and moved Nasri back to a holding/supporting center midfield role. He’s also gone on record as considering keeping Nasri there on Wednesday. Not that I don’t think Nasri could function in that role, but I think he’s shown himself to be an effective left winger all year and is best suited to stay there for the time being. He played well against Boro, but dealing with Ronaldo and Rooney would be an altogether different proposition.

The real question here is that is now, coming up on our most important match of the season, the ideal time to be experimenting with the lineup? You’d think by this point we had a pretty good idea of each players’ strengths and weaknesses and wouldn’t be messing around. Which brings up the next question, which is whether Wenger is considering these or not, or is just being coy. By playing guys in different positions/roles and then coming out in the press and saying he’s considering leaving them there for Wednesday, he may plant a seed of confusion in the mind of Alex Ferguson in trying to plan his own lineup for Wednesday. Look, I love Wenger and wouldn’t swap for 10 Fergies, but it has to be admitted that Ferguson is the superior tactician of the two, and giving him pause about who we’re going to play where has to be considered a smart move. I hope and believe this is what’s going on–if for no other reason than I can’t figure out who else would play on the left. Arshavin’s ineligible and van Persie’s out injured. If Nasri doesn’t play there, then we’re talking about starting Vela, who’s very promising but untested and hasn’t seen action in quite some time, or Denilson, who would be playing out of position and is in very poor form at the moment. But for what it’s worth (which isn’t much), I think all this talk of changing things around dramatically Wednesday is probably just a smokescreen.

United preview coming tomorrow.

Middlesbrough:

Jones

McMahon-Wheater-Huth-Taylor

O’Neil-Bates-Tuncay-Downing

Aliadiere-King

Bench: Turnbull, Hoyte, Digard, Emnes, Alves, Johnson, Grounds

As for us, it’s close to what I predicted yesterday, with Almunia coming into the squad and Eboue spelling Sagna:

Almunia

Eboue-Toure-Silvestre-Gibbs

Walcott-Fabregas-Denilson-Nasri

Bendtner-Arshavin

Bench: Fabianski, Diaby, Sagna, Vela, Song, Djourou, Adebayor

Good news about Almunia, as this will give him a chance to get game sharp again before Wednesday’s game. Worrying about Sagna, though, who has been fighting some sort of virus and has not looked like himself when he has played–hopefully this is nothing more than a precaution to give him some extra rest.

Come on Arsenal.

Current Position: 18th, 7-10-16 (31 points, -22 goal differential)

Away Form: 2-2-12

Recent Form: DLLWD

Last Meeting: Boro 1-Arsenal 1 (12/13/08)

Boro visit the Emirates tomorrow. Anything less than 3 points will be a disappointment, and there are certainly plenty of reasons to think that’s what we’ll get. Boro are serious relegation candidates, and have really struggled to score goals this year. They’ve only scored 25 goals in 33 games, six fewer than any other team. They’ve been especially woeful away from the Riverside–they’ve only managed 9 goals in their 16 away matches.

But I get the feeling it won’t be as easy as all that. Boro have been playing reasonably well lately, and are fighting for their Premier League survival, and seem to be rallying behind popular manager Gareth Southgate. There’s no one more dangerous than a team with their backs up against the wall. They’re also capable of getting a result against one of the big boys–they’ve beaten Liverpool and Aston Villa, and tied us and Spurs.

Despite their scoring woes, Boro do have a fair amount of skill, and can pose some danger. Alfonso Alves, Tuncay Sanli, Stewart Downing, and ex-Gunner Jeremie Aliadiere are all capable of popping up and scoring a goal, and they’re reasonable solid in back as well. And they’ve still got Manchester United, Aston Villa, and West Ham coming up in their last four games, so I don’t think they’ll come in looking to shut up shop for a 0-0 draw–if they’re going to stay up, they need wins, so they’ll come out and give us our best shot.

There was good news and bad news from today’s results. The bad news was that Chelsea won when Peter Cech saved a penalty kick to preserve the 1-0 victory. So even a win by us tomorrow will leave us 6 points behind with 4 games to play. Even if you assume we beat Chelsea, it would take something pretty dramatic for us to finish in 3rd. Looks like we’ll be hoping to get a favorable qualifying draw to get into the Champions League next year.

On the other hand, 4th place looks pretty much locked up. Bolton held Aston Villa to a draw, and Everton lost at home to Manchester City. A win tomorrow would put us 10 points ahead of Villa with 4 to play, which would be over and done with. Remember, less than 2 months ago Villa was up 2 goals late to Stoke, a win which would have put them 8 points ahead of us. Stoke grabbed 2 late goals, we stayed within 6, and Villa folded up like a cheap cot.

There are still a lot of questions about who is and isn’t in the team tomorrow. Djourou and Almunia have late tests to see if they’ll be included in the squad; Adebayor will be in the squad but has a late test to determine whether or not he’ll start. Frankly, this isn’t that meaningful a game for us at this point, so it would be foolish to risk anyone’s health here. Assuming none of the questionable players play, the lineup will look like:

Fabianski

Sagna-Silvestre-Toure-Gibbs

Walcott-Denilson-Fabregas-Nasri

Arshavin-Bendtner

There’s a plethora of options in midfield, as Song, Diaby, or Eboue could also feature; we haven’t seen Vela in a while, either, it wouldn’t stun me if he got a start. A loss or draw wouldn’t kill us, but we really could use a win. It would keep pressure on Chelsea for what that’s worth, and sew up 4th place. Mainly, though, our defense and Fabianski could badly use the confidence boost of a good performance, and the team overall could really use the momentum going into Wednesday’s showdown at Old Trafford.

Let’s get out there and win. Come on Arsenal.

The sights were all-too-familiar on Saturday. An away trip to a lesser opponent, and while trips to the Riverside have been difficult in the past few years, it’s still a fixture that needs to be won. We opened up showing strong intent, although I was concerned with the starting midfield featuring Abou Diaby, Denilson, and Alex Song. No offense to the three of them, but they are hardly the supporting cast that a player like Cesc Fabregas needs around him to thrive in one of the world’s best leagues. Not that I would want him to move elsewhere, but imagine if he had the sort of teammates at a place like at Camp Nou. I know it’s sacrilege as a Gunners fan to bring it up, but my point is there needs to be more quality in order around him to keep him here. That’s pretty easy to see.

Back to the game. As could be expected, Middlesbrough were not about to roll over and let us dominate, but still found them behind thanks to Adebayor. His goal came off a corner that ‘Boro decided not to defend on. I can’t remember seeing an easier goal off a set piece like that. They simply forgot that he was back there, and he made them pay. From there, it looked like maybe things would pan out differently today – but it was once again the work of former Gunner Jeremie Aliadiere who would nab the equalizer.

After that, a draw seemed inevitable. Van Persie and his chocolate leg were unable to find the net once again – he needs to recapture the venom displayed at Stamford Bridge a few weeks ago. I find myself frustrated at the stubbornness of Wenger and his inability to see some of the problems in his side:

“Today was a game we would have lost at the start of the season. But now we have a better defensive balance and we are more of a team.

“We just lacked a little bit of that extra little thing that comes with confidence but we are a young team and that is why it is important we just keep belief and keep going.”

I’m not sure I understand why he would expect his team to lose a game to Middlesbrough. They’re hardly world beaters – no offense to ‘Boro supporters – but that sort of attitude is not one you want to see from your head coach. And in reference to the lack of confidence, this reflects the side Wenger sends out there and reflects on his opinion and ability as a coach. He is the one who has claimed to believe in these players to go out there and win a title. By saying they are young and lack confidence, isn’t he contradicting himself? Please, please, Arsene, go out there and pick up a Veloso or a Mexes. Somebody to put out there to open things up for Cesc. They need it.

There is reason for concern tomorrow, as our form away at Boro the past couple of seasons has not been good. I remember watching last seasons loss, and wondering how a squad that should be dominating lost, I believe on a goal by former Gunner Jérémie Aliadière. They’ve been in decent form this season, and sit at 12th on the table currently. Far from unbeatable at home, this game is the sort of result that will end up counting a lot more at the end of the season when determining a title.

A number of players who were given a rest mid-week should be back. Van Persie, Fabregas, Sagna, Clichy, and Adebayor will hopefully all make a return. Considering that they make up nearly half of our first team side, it would be pretty crucial to see them come back. Van Persie had a couple of blundering misses last week against Wigan and he must be in top form.

There’s plenty of non-Middlesbrough chatter, with talk of Philippe Senderos returning early from his loan to Milan. While I don’t know how possibility of that – he’s on a year loan – I am a fan of giving Senderos another shot as a Gunner. He can’t be much worse than what we have right now.

Struggling striker Nicklas Bendtner has received backing from the boss that he will come good. It’s nice to see that from Arsene, but there’s concern from a lot of people that Bendtner doesn’t have what it takes to cut it in the Premier League. He’s only grabbed one goal in 11 hours of football this season, and with Eduardo set to come back the Dane will have to work even harder to get first team time. That’s if Eduardo returns in form and free from complications after his horrific injury. On the one hand, Bendtner is still only 20 years old and perhaps shouldn’t face such expectations, but on the other, a lot of players were contributing significantly at his age.

In non-related football matters, Johan Djourou talks about his habits off the pitch, including his skin products, jewelry habits, and an addiction to Football Manager. Link courtesy of commenter evaldo. Cheers for the link.