ARTETA, SÓLO MARQUE POR FAVOR

HE WORKS himself into the best attacking positions with breath-taking skills and poise.
He leaves full-backs in tangles and glides past centre-halves like a matador.
But will he shoot? Will he sh*te?

Everyone sat round me last night urged stubborn little Mikky to put his boot through one. Just one.
But we might as well have been shouting at the moon. It wasn’t going to happen.
Instead he spent the evening cutting it back inside to Neville (?), teeing up players like Carsley or even chip-crossing it from 25 yards to the head of our smallest player AJ.
It had me more frustrated than driving on the Strand at rush-hour.
Goals from midfield are going to be essential for us to continue this fight for fourth place, but net-bulgers from our best player are increasingly rare.
Is it a confidence thing? I don’t know why...Arteta has finished with aplomb in the past and he can strike it sweetly when he chooses.
If he wants to step-up to the level of the Premier League’s best midfielders; Ronaldo, Fabregas, and that miserable get from across the park, he needs to add goals to the skills.
That aside, I’m mildly satisfied with a point from last night - even if AJ could have got us all three with a simple finish.
The decision to replace Anichebe instead of Johnson in the later stages had me baffled. It just wasn’t happening for AJ last night (not that I’m having a pop. I think he’s still a top player).
Anyway, Moysie must have had his reasons and let’s face it, probably knows more about the squad than me.
I wasn’t really looking forward to going to Blackburn on Saturday, but I am now.
It has the hallmarks of a crucial weekend in the top 4 jigsaw and I think we can beat them with Hibbert and Cahill back.

And finally. A big 'Todd from Scrubs-style' High Five to Daniel Judge from the Echo who tried to show Arteta how to do it with three decent efforts during Hit the Cross Bar at half-time against Spurs.

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