Is There a November Jinx? Plus Other Notes.

I’m really not an expert on Arsenal trivia. Some fans seem to be. In fact, I could pose the following question: “What happened when we hosted Birmingham in league play two seasons ago?” And some fans could answer, “Oh yes, that’s the game that we won 3-1, on goals by RvP, Diaby (remember him), and Arshavin. Bowyer scored for Birmingham.” Of course, I only know this information because I just looked it up as an example. Anyway, suffice it to say, I don’t have a rock-solid memory of all things Arsenal. But I do seem to recall November being a bad month for us in recent history, so I decided to look it up and see what the facts show.

Last season, our form was terrific until November hit. We were rampant in the CL group phase, taking full points from our first three matches. In the Carling Cup, were had just crushed Newcastle and Spurs in our previous two, with both away from home. In league play, we did have two defeats and two draws, but we also had six wins and a very good goal differential. Then things came undone in November. We suffered two straight CL defeats, and lost twice at home in league play as well. We finished the month with four wins and four defeats.

Two seasons ago, we ended October with consecutive wins over Liverpool (Carling Cup) and Spurs. We had seven points from our first three matches in CL group stage play. In league play, we had seven wins, two losses, and one draw. That November, our good form continued in the Champions League with two more wins. However, in league play, we won one and lost two.

Three seasons ago, we had seven points from our first three CL group stage matches. We were still alive in the Carling Cup. In league play, we ended October with six wins, two defeats, and two draws. (Keep in mind that this was the season we started so poorly, and had to come on late to overtake Villa for a Champions League spot.) Anyway, once November hit, we lost three league matches, although we did manage to beat both Man Utd and Chelsea that month as well.

Anyway, as you can see, the overall trend has been that November has been a poor month for Arsenal. It once again began that way on Tuesday, as we had to settle for a 0-0 draw with Marseille. Hopefully that wasn’t an omen of some sort. So should we have reason to worry? Off the top of my head, I can think of two reasons why things might have gone a little wrong in previous Novembers. First, injuries began to pile up by that point in the season, and the squad wasn’t deep enough to withstand it. I’m not going to spend all day researching the various injury history of all our key players over the last few years. But a quick search shows us that RvP was just coming back into action in November of last year, while he sustained a serious injury in mid-November the year before that. Fabregas sustained a late-November injury last year, while Walcott sustained a November injury the year before.

Anyway, I think injuries have been part of the problem. The other answer, as it pertains to Champions League play, has been more obvious. And that is, we’ve gotten ahead in the early part of group play, and then rotated more liberally in the month of November. This time was no different. I’m sure that if we hadn’t secured a strong place in the group already, RvP would have started on Tuesday. But with a little cushion heading into November, Wenger felt at liberty to give him a bit of a rest.

Hopefully, we won’t see such troubles this November, because the squad is a bit deeper now. And on the injury front, by our unlucky standards, it’s not all that bad. In addition to all that, the schedule for this month is one of the easier ones out there. We have five home matches out of six total. In league play, we have West Brom, Norwich, and Fulham. We also host Dortmund in the CL, and then close the month with Man City at home in the Carling Cup. I’d like to think there are four wins coming this month, of the five remaining matches on the schedule.

In other news, although this will doubtless have no impact on the club whatsoever, I feel it’s my duty to report that Brek Shea will be training with the club for a month during the MLS offseason. The reason why it’s my duty to report this news is that Shea is from Texas, plays for FC Dallas, and is one of the few players I’ve actually seen in person. At 21, he may still have a future in Europe, but I highly doubt it will be with Arsenal. Still, I thought that was a neat story.

And finally, I think Wenger has put to bed the various rumors that we’re targeting various central defenders in January. I always thought that was silly talk, given the numbers we have at the moment. So while I still need to be sold on the wisdom of the Mertesacker purchase (when compared to other possibilities we had in August), I fully agree with Wenger that we don’t need to be looking at yet another player there in January. Actually, I’m starting to feel better about our options there than I’ve felt in several years. Wenger recently spoke of the dilemma he now has in picking a central pairing, but at least there seem to only be three players in the running for those two spots right now. So we’ll see how all that shakes out, but I’m personally rooting for Koscielny and Vermaelen to be the preferred pairing.

OK, well that’s about all I have for now. We’ll be by for a preview of West Brom at some point, and then we’ll probably be up for a live blog and recap. I still have no idea who’s going to handle all those duties though. So stay tuned and find out. Until then…

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For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Matthew 16:26a.

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Category: Arsenal News, Transfer News and Player Movement