Late this afternoon Dad and I went out on base and had ourselves a few games of racquetball. I have to say, I am always impressed with my Father going out there to try and give me a run at this sport but even he admitted today that the time may have come that this is no longer a sport we may get to enjoy together anymore (had to end early in the third game after a tenacious calf cramp took hold of him-he did seem a bit more winded than usual too). It looks like golf is going to be our only competitive sport anymore and the man can still kick my ass even if I out-drive him by 2o-30 yards these days.

Why, do you ask, did I share this story? Because today, as I saw my Dad a bit winded, I wondered if he had much more in him to keep playing and as I reflected on that moment I instantly thought  of Arsenal (I know, I’m messed up right?); oh shit, we still have some games to go and I am not sure we figured much out against Everton on Tuesday…

We are getting down to crunch time with our trip to Fulham looming and it seems like the last game gave us more questions than answers. Why oh why does this question keep repeating itself? It’s like we hit the damn repeat button on our iPod and didn’t realize it! Come on Arsenal! Come on Arsenal! Come on Arsenal! And so it goes…

For Saturday (thank you ESPN for televising!), Fabianski is pretty much a definite no (what with all the repeating ESPN articles on the subject). The tall Pole slots in again; not too many worries for me there. But oh what the Fuc-ancy to do about that front line and midfield… Last week I suggested Podolski start… Again, I suggest Podolski start. His link up play with Giroud in the box really seems to be coming together and for the first time this season (Everton) I think I started to get what Arsene envisoned when he bought these two players (I’ll say again, that chest lay off was oh so manly!). However, the problem with the couple is that ol’AW never seems to play the newlyweds together!

Here is what we know (and in theory have learned) from these last few games: Arsene likes putting Santi “up top” with Giroud and some winger (Theo/AOC/Gervin-NO) to start games. He then deploys a midfield of Jack, Ramsey or Rosicky, and Arteta. Then we get our back four and it appears settled that right now it is going to be Bacary at RB, Kols and the BFG in center, with the only real decision coming down to either Gibbs or Monreal (who should probably start even though Gibbs, IMHO has been playing fantastic). I keep banging this drum that I want Santi just slotted in the mid so that someone else who can shoot the damn ball *cough* PODOLSKI *cough* is allowed to link up with Giroud (no that’s not Theo because I think his gift right now is injecting speed into the game). And, as others have pointed out elsewhere, Theo has not seemed to gel his game with Giroud along the link up side of things. But I digress as we need his speed (or someone like that) to run at the defense and keep them honest. However, if Santi is now being pushed into being our “CF” to play behind Giroud because no one else is there then it doesn’t seem to be working when it comes to, you know, scoring goals. We need an actual CF to link up and shoot at goal; to me  that would appear to be Lukas. But we don’t play him there. Or anywhere. Or rarely at all.

And so, where does that leave us? Well, after a bit of touch and go, and maybe a lucky cross we start to get panicky (admittedly, more aggressive thank God), make the subs that could have been our starting lineup from the get go, and next thing you know we look much more threatening and I keep scracthing my head as to why we didn’t do this from the start. Look, I want Santi in. His hold up play, distribution, and vision is excellent. But he ALWAYS slots in behind after being “placed up top”. SO HE ISN’T OUR F’ING CF ANSWER. Theo, for right now, is our speed. Love it. Great. Good. NOT OUR CF (yet, hopefully one day?). That means we have to rely on crossing, set pieces OR a really creative and attacking MF (only Barca seems to really pull this off) to score our goals but that isn’t happening either. And don’t tell me that our RBs/LBs do a good job at getting forward. They do fine at that but I would be a bit worried if someone argues with me that they want to see Gibbs and Sagna putting more SOG. If that is our game plan then 4th isn’t just our best hope it will continue to be our only hope.

But, wait just a second. Knocks could give us a bit of hope that we might actually see a CF in the starting lineup. We may get to see something like this from the get go. Rosickly may still be out dealing with his moons over my hammy. Some argue that Jack still hasn’t regained his WILL-shere and may not be worthy of the start right now. And so, we could possibly see a front line that involves Podolski/Giroud/Winga’ and a MF with Cazorla/Ramsey/Arteta (with Jack possibly coming off the bench?). That would be fantastic, IMHO, and should be enough to win the game and get us the 3 points we have to have.

As an aside, more Arsenal baby bibs and an Arsenal teddy bear arrived today. Hmm… how did we get those? What honey? You think I ordered more Arsenal stuff? No… who would do such a thing???