Defining Moments and Welcome to the Blog!

This is a defining moment in our season. A defining week in our season. It's not the first one, and it certainly won't be the last...

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But first - welcome to the brand new Arsenal obsessed blog - The Marble Hall Diaries. Here you will find a selection of only the finest musings, opinions, thoughts and occasional (though hopefully very rare) meltdowns regarding by far the greatest team the world has ever seen (totally a fact, 60,000+ people say so every week) - Arsenal F.C. 

Off the bat I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to read through this post, and any others you may hopefully encounter in the future. It truly means a lot to know you would choose to spend some of that precious commodity we call time to read what I have to say. You don't have to, yet you've chosen to, and I don't take that for granted. 

I don't know how this is going to go or where it might end up (hopefully not in a courtroom or evidence file of some description), but for now this is my attempt at creating a new community to chat all things Arsenal, because let's face it there definitely isn't a completely oversaturated market for that is there? 

But enough about this 'yet another Arsenal blog' page, let's get right into the thick of it. 

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I know I got all dramatic (and then a little soppy) at the start of this post when introducing my thoughts on the current lay of the land this week, but I really do genuinely feel it cannot be understated how important this next week or so is for us when it comes to what we might/might not achieve this season.

We sit here having completely dismantled a Wigan team who made a somewhat respectable attempt to catch us like the wounded post-Brentford animal that we were, with certain players showing some bright sparks that we've been crying out to see from them for a long time now. For example, when Eze played that sensational pass to put Madueke in position to score our first goal, my screeching entered the realms of breaching the sound barrier, and probably made my neighbours question whether they should just sell up and move to the Bahamas already. 

I've been under no illusions, despite his mainly lacklustre performances of late, that Eze is a player of immense quality and possesses an X Factor that would get him through the judges houses phase all the way through to the live shows without so much as a frown from Mr Cowell himself. When we first signed him back in the summer, along with the likes of Gyökeres, Madueke etc, I truly took this as a sign that the manager was going to mix up the system a bit. Make us more direct maybe? Adopt some more "traditional" roles in the starting XI's we put out to complement the inverted half-space auxiliary LB/ST/GK hybrid ball-playing left footed 6ft 11" dual winning players we usually have deployed on the pitch (we love you Kai). 

However, it seems that in reality the manager has sought to try and mould these players to fit our existing systems, much more than he has tried to tweak our systems to suit their playing styles ('you like horseshoes of death, right?'). This doesn't seem to have worked to much effect so far for the likes of Eze in particular, leading some to question if he really is "Arsenal quality" after all. 

I am not one of those people. I see him as someone who has struggled to adapt to everything that comes with the big move he finally achieved after manifesting it for so long (see the tweet he made a few years ago that we all know about by now). By that I mean adapting to the new training methods, players around him, manager and coaching staff, the expectations that come from playing at the highest level - and especially at a club like Arsenal who are so desperate for a league title that it would certainly reject them if they tried to chat it up in a bar. 

Seeing him flourish in a role and system that was much more suited to him, albeit against vastly inferior opposition in Wigan Athletic (up the Tics), really gave me hope that this player, as well as the likes of Madueke and co., can really contribute in this aforementioned crucial period in our season. I hope we learn what lessons we can from this latest confidence boosting win and apply them when the real crunch times are upon us. This will be essential when you consider who may not be quite fit enough to start or see through the entire 90+ minutes of games we have coming up in this next week or so. 

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Next up we face a Wolves side who are struggling in the league this season to say the least. Despite this, they will be buoyed from their own FA Cup victory over the weekend and we know from the reverse fixture that they will not just lay down and accept defeat against the league leaders, despite it having no real baring on their fate this season. Sorry to any Wolves fans that might be reading this (why on earth would you?) but I think you might need to start preparing yourselves for those cold, rainy nights in Stoke next season. On the bright side, at least you might be able to car share some of the journeys with those lot from N17! 

Assuming we can do what we absolutely must do at Wolves, or else we don't deserve to be Champions let's face it, we will be 7 points clear, if only for a few days. This could provide an important psychological edge as it will pile a bit more pressure on Man City as they face a Newcastle side who are having a very up and down season so far. Being truthful, I think City will see them off, especially given it is being played at the Emptyihad. I do agree with the notion some fans have expressed that we need to just focus on doing our job, rather than focussing too much on what City are up to, but as an Arsenal fan there will always be that glimmer of hope within me that Bernardo Silva attempts his best 2013/14 Gerrard slip to send Anthony Elanga through to slot past the helpless Donnarumma. 

Then comes the away leg North London Derby. I will make my thoughts on this very clear: I don't care about Igor Tudor, any new manager bounce he might give them, or the fact that it is away from home, or that 'form goes out the window' - this is a game I think we absolutely have to win. Not just because I expect that of every NLD, but because this is one of our most difficult fixtures left this season, and if you thought the psychological boost from going 7 points clear if we beat Wolves this week was impactful, wait till you get a load of the boost that a victory over Sp*rs would bring us. It would be like drinking a can of Boost, Prime Energy, Monster and Lucozade all together in a stein of some kind. We would be on cloud 9 as we would after any NLD victory, but it's also a team City have failed to beat this season, and they will know that we'd have just swerved one of the biggest possible banana skins that they could have pinned their hopes on - unlike my Mario Kart character who for some reason likes to slip on every banana skin they encounter like they get a kick out of crushing my hopes and dreams. 

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So Arsenal, in my first attempt to document my message to you I say this - don't be like my Dry Bones (yes he's my favourite character, and what?). Instead, overcome what is likely to be the almightiest of low blocks at Wolves, grab the cockerel of despair by its feathers and help our insufferable neighbours on their way down to the Championship. Do this, and we go into that Chelsea game with the Emirates absolutely rocking knowing that we are slowly chalking off some of the biggest hurdles left for us to overcome in the league this season. 

In simple terms, if we win our next three games I think we could be in a really strong position again. 

Until next time, COYG!