I get inundated with offers from companies and publishers to run competitions on We Are The North Bank, but I usually decline for one of two reasons. Firstly because the prize may be a bit cack and secondly because I can’t be arsed. So this is a first.

Digital Magazine publishers Zinio are offering 40% discounts on all online Football magazine subscriptions; from Four Four Two (not to be mistaken with that Twitter Twat); Champions and World Soccer.

And being the lovely folk they are, they’ve given me eight subscriptions to give away to my lovely readers. N.B. they’re actually giving me 10 but I’m having one and so is the wife.

Simply download the Zinio app, then you can view magazines on desktop, tablet, mobile and those annoying Kindle things.

So if you want to be in with a chance of winning a year’s supply of your favourite non-Arsenal online football magazine, answer the following question:

Who scored more goals for The Arsenal?

a) Davor Suker
b) Julio Baptista
c) Nigel Winterburn

Email your answers, along with full name and email address
here or if you can’t be arsed to do that, tweet to @northbanklower.

Arsenal are set to hit the summer transfer market for a goalkeeper.

Arsene Wenger has a shortlist of keepers that he will look to sign, in order to push Wojciech Szczesny – and possibly Luckasz Fabianski (who the club are considering offering a new contract) – for the number one jersey.

Despite dropping Szczesny, he is still part of Arsenal’s long-term plans but Wenger wants an accomplished goalkeeper to provide a challenge to the two Poles, and for them to learn from.

Arsenal require a keeper that not only has experience of winning silverware, but Premier League know how also and has turned his attention to Petr Cech.

With Thibaut Courtois set to push as Chelsea’s first choice next season, Arsenal feel they have the chance to sign Cech – although Roman Abramovich will likely be unwilling to sell to the Gunners.

Wenger has had Cech watched extensively of late as he aims to strengthen a position that has not been solid since Jens Lehmann departed in 2008.

There were similarities with the two legs against AC Milan last year: we spent the first leg both being outdone and outdoing ourselves, but conceded one goal too many and could not overcome the semi-self-inflicted deficit. When the time came to really push in the second leg, both Milan and Bayern played the less literal game – and the referee – a lot better than we did. Although that did not lose us the tie, it did not help with trying to get back into it.

It’s tough to come to any great conclusions off the strength of some games but the match itself did not tell us anything that we didn’t already know; if anything all it did is remind us of things we may have forgotten, or go some way to confirming certain suspicions that have been held for some time.

First, there are the goalkeepers: Wojciech Szczesny’s dip has not exactly been a short term phenomena. He had a few good games but has struggled greatly with consistency since around January 2012. He is clearly exceptionally talented and inconsistency is to be expected from a 22-year-old, but he has progressed worryingly little over the last year or so, and has given many an error over that time. Arsène Wenger has said in the past that Lukasz Fabianski is the most talented keeper at the club, but he is not as mentally strong as his compatriot.

Trusting him to the extent of giving him a start away against Europe’s second best side should be very good for his confidence, as should his strong display – and public support from vice captain, Mikel Arteta. There is no reason to drop Fabianski for Swansea, and less reason to reinstate Szczesny. Should Fabianski keep his place, it will be his first run of games in the side since September-December in 2010, in which the short of memory appear to have forgotten he was excellent. He will have to impress greatly to present himself as any sort of long-term solution, but if he does well enough to reclaim his place, the club will have an interesting call to make as to whether to renew his contract.

It was one of Arsenal’s best, if not the best, defensive performance of the season, battling the away game against Manchester City for the title. The identical personnel in the backline for the two games is no coincidence. Carl Jenkinson was another who performed well, and has done in the majority of games he has played, the red card at Sunderland excepted. It would seem Bacary Sagna will be on his way this summer and whoever comes in will have good competition for a place with Jenkinson behind them, just as the two left backs do.

It was Kieran Gibbs’ first game back in six weeks and with that in mind he did very well, although did leave space behind him at points and allowed Philipp Lahm and Thomas Müller space infield to create. He highly understandably looked a little rusty, as is to be expected, and with no concerns over Nacho Monreal, Wenger is right not to rush Gibbs back this weekend.

Both Per Mertesacker and especially Laurent Koscielny, were excellent. The Frenchman has had a patchy year, but is deserving of a place in the side, both on this performance and on Thomas Vermaelen’s poor form. Had the Belgian not been named club captain, he might have been easier to drop earlier on, but now he has been and the two who took his place did so well. Like Szczesny, there is no reason to give Vermaelen his place back.

In the absence of Jack Wilshere, the midfield looked more stable and balanced, but we struggled to create clear chances all game. This can be attributed more to Tomáš Rosický’s relatively poor performance in just his fourth start of the season and Santi Cazorla being crowded out so effectively for most of it.

It does not need saying what an excellent player Wilshere is but he still has a lot to learn, and at this point he does not have a position: in the deeper midfield role, he pushes too high up and leaves too much space behind him, which leaves the defensive midfielder open to being attacked – and Arteta was never the best at covering ground. His end product is still lacking and in more closed-off games he has struggled to have any great influence on proceedings when being further away from the play. But at the same time he is far too good to drop, so until he develops further as a creator, Arsenal and he are stuck. His injury could go its way to seeing them become more solid defensively, but we may miss the influence he has in attacks.

The game did confirm that this side certainly does have the ability and spirit to climb back to the Champions League places, even if Bayern were below-par and without their best player. Some credit must go to the manager for the more than welcome return of his ruthlessness with the underperformers, as well as how well we were set-up as a unit. Concerns, however, do remain as to the minimal – yet easily accounted for – creativity and chances made.

It should act as a lift for the team after the results that have been. Now what was left of the perennial Champions League dream has died, the focus must unfortunately be turned to getting a way back into it. Five points from Chelsea and seven from Sp*rs (on whom we have a game in hand) with 10 games remaining are certainly possible to overcome and both will drop at least that many points in the games ahead, and it will be on Arsenal to take advantage. Then again, we have never been ones to make life easy for themselves…

Follow @RoamingLibero

As the big ticket price debate continues – this one won’t go away, and nor should it as it’s high time the Premier League looked at ticketing prices – perhaps the overall fan experience needs looking at, I mean whilst all Gooners are having a moan up, I may as well wade in with my two pennies. I’m entitled after all.

The matchday experience is getting worse at the Ems – it doesn’t help when you have a team that continues to choke – but, for a start perhaps more Gooners would drink at the stadium if there was more choice? And don’t get me started on our “official gaming partner.”

For those that do not know what an official gaming partners is, that means that Betsson is essentially in charge of anything related to Arsenal and gambling. For example, Betsson setup Gunnersgaming.com which is a site that players can gamble with other Arsenal fans and even win their way to the WSOP. This is where the plus points end, as they also are in charge of the betting terminals at the stadium during matches.

Most Gooners that bet online would also enjoy a flutter at the ground, and although there isn’t much wrong with the service received on matchdays, there is on huge flaw: the kiosks don’t open after the game! This was never a problem before as you can find a Ladbrokes on most street corners, but there aren’t any Betsson shops on the high street – or if there are I’ve never seen one…

I also discovered that Betsson was part of the Ongame network, which is home to popular poker sites such as  PokerRoom.com. Then I remembered somewhere reading that PokerRoom had been bought out by Bwin, a sponsor of Manchester United.

This is where things get interesting. They didn’t just buy PokerRoom, they bought the network and in turn were in charge of running the sites on the network. Simply put, the same guys that sponsor one of our fiercest rivals were also sponsoring Arsenal. In a twisted, albeit minor way, Arsenal and Manchester United were connected. Like Frank Stapleton, but less stab-in-the-back.

However, that connection between the teams was somewhat short lived. While bwin did own the Ongame network, they decided that Ongame was an “excess asset” and decided to sell off the network. After a failed attempt to sell it to an American group, the Amaya Group eventually bought the network.

Ironically, the Ongame network is now viewed as an underdog to bwin in much the same way that some view Arsenal as underdogs to the Red Devils. Hopefully Ongame goes on to prove people wrong just like the Gunners will in April at Old Trafford! We can but dream.

There are many trendy Arsenal frustrations at the moment and for most it is our reluctance to strengthen the squad during the current transfer window. The silence from our American owner, perceived as him not giving a shit about the fans and rinsing the club for a return on his investment, is also a frustration to Gooners. As is now the fitness of Keiran Gibbs. Or that our Arsenal has disappeared and we want it back (what does that even mean in today’s climate?). Or zonal marking. Or Gervinho. Or Aaron Ramsey. Or Arsene Wenger. But there’s something that irks me about the current Arsenal more than anything: the inability to compete to their utmost from the first whistle is frustrating beyond belief.

That lackadaisical start to a match where it looks as though we feel we’re Garry Kasporov and it’s only a matter of time before we pass through the opposition and win the game. Then it all becomes one-paced, and we play with fear (Wenger’s code word for ‘fear’ is ‘handbrake’ ), mistakes – often rudimentary ones – happen and we concede. The pressure mounts. And so one, like a repetitive nightmare – we’ve seen it all before.

Occasionally we roll our sleeves up and actually play to our strengths: quicker movement, incisive passing, confident finishing, closing down quickly and in packs. It happened in the second halves against City, Chelsea (by that time it was all too late), West Ham and it happened having gone two down last night.

We and – more importantly – the players know they can do it (we’ve seen them do it, albeit sporadically and inconsistently), but the fear…Sorry, handbrake, comes on and inhibits their instincts. Wenger may not be the most astute tactical coach, but one of his strengths is instilling belief into players by uninhibiting them.

Essentially, football can be viewed as a game of mistakes, and the team that make the less mistakes invariably win. The problem is that fear – built up by the pressure of seven trophyless seasons and being constantly compared to the Invincibles – sets in and mistakes happen more frequently and at more crucial points in a game – see Koscielny and Szczesny’s Laurel and Hardy act in the dying minutes of the Carling Cup final.

It also helps nobody when frustration is shown by us Gooners during the game. Football is emotive and we have all done our nut at a player during a game, but it doesn’t help anyone. It really doesn’t. Least of all the team. Protests against the Board are absolutely fine by me, as long as they’re done outside the ground and away from the focus of the players.

Can any Gooner tell me they didn’t enjoy that spell where we equalised last night? Or that 10 minute goal flurry against West Ham? Or against Newcastle? Or Reading away? Or 5pur2? We want more of that. The team needs to be more consistent, but they can’t find consistency when playing with fear… I mean the handbrake on.

Post-match, Wenger answered why his defenders are nervous with: ‘Because they want to do well and they want to win games’, which may be a bizarre thing to say, but it is a true assessment. Often when you want something so much you don’t perform at your best and that fucking handbrake is pulled up. This isn’t an excuse, it’s an assessment from Wenger. How can he – or us as paying fans with a huge emotional investment in the club – legislate for rudimentary individual errors? That isn’t a coaching flaw, it’s individual flaws that I believe stem from fear. Is Vermalen now all of a sudden not a good defender? Or Sagna? Or our best defender last season, Koscielny, or the holder of 85 Germany caps and veteran of four major international tournaments, Mertesacker?

One player that I would say is just about the bravest player in our squad (along with Jack) is Aaron Ramsey, who was impressive again last night, and that is testament to his temperament. He has become the latest boo boy target of late, but credit to him: a young lad still learning the game having come back from a career threatening injury. And signs of Santi and Jack starting to click together were also promising.

Last word on a subject that the ‘if me auntie had bollocks she’d be me uncle’ types continue to go on about is ‘replacing’ RVP. How exactly do you do that? And don’t say ‘sign Falcao’ as this isn’t Football Manager, this is the real world. Podolski and Giroud now have 25 goals and 20 assists between them; impressive return in my opinion for their first half a season in the hustle and bustle of the Premier League.

Arsenal have two clear targets that they’re looking to sign before the transfer window slams shut on Friday.

wearethenorthbank.com understands that Arsenal are continuing their pursuit of David Villa, as Barcelona look to play hardball in order to get the best price they can and recoup as much of the £34m they paid for the striker in 2010.

Villa is certainly interested in the move, having been limited to just 12 starts this season – four of which have been in the Copa del Rey. The Spanish international would become Arsenal’s highest earner as he currently earns around £110/week.

He is the man Wenger wants, but Arsenal may have to wait until the summer to get him as Barca believe that selling him now leaves them short for the run-in.

The other player that Arsenal have turned their attention to is Mohamed Diame. The West Ham midfielder is set on a move having been dropped to the bench for the recent 5-1 defeat at the hands of his suitors.

The return of Diaby and Tomas Rosicky and the impressive recent form of Aaron Ramsey has bolstered an Arteta-less midfield but Arsenal are still looking at Diame to add strength to the squad, although West Ham are doing all they can in order to keep the player.

Diame has a £3.5m release clause but West Ham are looking to offer the Senegalese a new deal to eliminate the clause.

We’re back!

Alright, maybe it’s a bit soon to get carried away but, given all the recent doom and gloom, I’ll take what I can get. It may have been a particularly accommodating Reading side that we put to the sword but it was still a relief to win with a modicum of control.

The main thing that’s been missing in our more dismal spells this season is urgency and desire to drive the game on. The runners from midfield, the crisp incisive passing and the concerted pressing have been absent without leave on too many occasions so to see that back last night was encouraging. If nothing else, it shows that we are capable of better.

Le Boss switched things up for this game and put Theo through the middle. It’s tempting to say that Walcott got his wish to play up front although one suspects that there a one hundred thousand other things on his wish list. The contract situation rumbles on and it has to be said that it’s hard to see a conclusion until January has been used to sound out all potential suitors; if of course his representatives haven’t done so already.

His performance here was good but nothing extraordinary. His back to goal work, one of the big question marks over his ability to lead the line, was reasonably tidy although you have to say that coping with Reading’s central defence is a slightly different proposition to mixing it with Vidic, Terry, Kompany etc. Theo offers a decent option up there and in truth it’s options we lack. Giroud is looking a decent player but if his style doesn’t work where do we go? There’s no doubt that having that other choice makes us stronger.

Elsewhere, Cazorla was terrific. The irritatingly wise Gary Neville noted before the game that Santi likes to get on the ball and pull the strings when what we were missing were people getting beyond the ball and into decisive areas. Maybe Santi was watching or maybe, just maybe, that old duffer in the outsize coat who doesn’t know what he’s doing had spoken to his players and advised something similar. I know, Wenger issuing instructions to his players, who’d have thought it?

It wouldn’t be a match review if we didn’t have a section devoted to defensive frailty so here goes: The first was what it was. Gibbs played a sloppy pass inside and Le Fondre capitalised. At that point we were 4-0 up and you could see that his options were less enthusiastic about showing for him. The one thing you can say in mitigation is that at least we were comfortably in the lead at that point however taking our foot off the gas really isn’t something we can afford to do at any stage. The second was another error as Podolski, who actually earned some credit by tracking his man all the way back, cashed all that in by tracking him too far and playing him onside.

Our defence is a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, we have the fourth fewest goals conceded. That’s not a bad record by anyone’s reckoning. It lends weight to the theory that our frailty is really at the other end. If the attacking players created and converted more, the goals that go in at the other end would be less important. Take Swansea and Norwich for example. Plenty of the ball but nothing to show for it leaving us vulnerable to the odd goal here and there.

On the other hand, we concede more goals than anyone as a result of individual errors. Many of them are unacceptable for professionals to be making and you would like to think could be coached out, yet I still think there is something to my theory above, that profligacy at one end builds pressure at the other, resulting in more mistakes. I’ve not done any proper research on this so feel free to shoot me down if you like. Something to think about nonetheless.

Anyway, a win is a win and as I said at the top, it was nice to do that with a bit of a flourish. One swallow doesn’t make a summer so they say and it would be just like the Arsenal of recent times to labour in another winnable match on Saturday. The key thing for this team is to get that belief back. We are short of a bit of quality but that said, there is still some very talented players in there. What’s needed now is to take this as a starting point and make the best of a decent schedule until the New Year.

Keep The Faith

@limparhalfway

It’s that time again, the period of the season where Gooners crave for an injection of quality into the squad – and if ever Arsenal needed that, now is the time.

The scouting network has certainly been busy. Here are the players that are on the list*

*Disclaimer: whether Arsenal actually sign their targets is another matter. A lot hinges on the following terms: must have ‘super quality’, must be had for a bargain price, must be the right age for resale value, or failing that must have history of injury or be in final year of contract (or both) and thus be available at a bargain price.

Wilfried Zaha

It’s no secret that Wenger is an admirer of the Crystal Palace forward. Has received rave reviews and with only four Championship goals this season (ask Matt Law how over rated he is), Arsenal will see the potential for bargaining with the Eagles. Zaha is a Gooner which means we have further bargaining power. He also has ‘super quality’ and at 20 years old is young, which means he has resale value.

Klass-Jan Huntelaar

Has been watched extensively of late, and with a heavy reliance on Giroud to lead the line, Wenger is keen on bringing in a proven goalscorer. Goal record cannot be sniffed at. Has history of injury? Check. In last year of contract? Check. Will he want to leave Schalke in January when he can command a princely signing on fee elsewhere next season? Hmm.

Luke Shaw

Arsenal have watched Shaw’s development from youth level and his recent competent Premier League appearances have convinced them further about this youngster’s ‘super quality’. Would be surprised if they go for Shaw in January but he is certainly on the radar.

Nani

The Portuguese enigma has fallen out with SAF and would be interested in a move away from Old Trafford for more consistent game time. Arsenal certainly rate him highly, especially with Walcott’s days looking numbered, but with two years left on a lucrative contract, could he be had for a bargain?

A Defensive Midfielder

Wenger is keen to bring in a more defence minded midfielder to provide options and also to deploy Arteta further forward in certain games. Many have been scouted over the past year: M’Vila, Wanyama, Javi Martinez (who signed for big bucks at Bayern), Tiote and most recently Kevin Strootman.

Wildcards

Wenger rates Yanga Mbiwa highly, and despite the France international recently signing a contract extension at Montpellier, if Djourou was to move on (and if we can find a knackers yard for Squillaci) they could go in for the versatile centre half (who can also play left back, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Wenger transformed him to a defensive midfielder/pivot a la Petit and Song).
If Arsenal ever spent big, Mario Götze would be the one they go for. Whether Dortmund would ever sell, or more importantly the player would wan to leave Dortmund for us is another question.
Stevan Jovetic is another that has been watched extensively but he has a long contract so it would take a substantial bid to prise him away from Florence.

Done deal

The worst kept secret in football. The King will return. Again.

It’s all gone quiet on the Theo Walcott contract issue – the latest in contract sagas that dominates the Arsenal agenda; it’s par for the course for your average Gooner. And it’s fucking soul destroying.

Many of the Press pack won’t go near the latest developments (or non-developments) as they don’t want to burn any bridges, but as football journalism is no longer my living – and there’s so many shit-strewed column inches written about Arsenal – I’m willing to provide the latest.

First and foremost, Theo Walcott is a fine professional. He doesn’t cause trouble behind the scenes like many of our recent contract rebels. In fact, throughout this entire episode he’s got his head down and concentrated on his game – and staying as fit as he can without breaking down. There’s been no skulking about, no refusing media obligations and no threats to go on strike.

In fact, I hear that Walcott would like to sign an extension at Arsenal and kick-on (a career that has been hampered by injury and hype-induced-pressure) at a time when his game is maturing and coming to fruition.

Of course, there is one obstacle: money. Walcott’s people believe he is worth £100k a week. Arsenal don’t. They value him at £75k a week. This much you all know.

What hasn’t been reported is this: The company line from the club is that Walcott’s agent says they do not want to meet to discuss matters further; yet Walcott’s agent is saying the opposite. And it has also been mooted from Walcott’s agent that Arsenal did make an increase on their £75k a week offer to £77k a week – which is as much as a flicking of the v’s as it would be to refuse to budge on £75k a week. The Walcott camp want closer to £100k as they know they can get that elsewhere, with Liverpool desperate to sign the boyhood Red – and even rumoured to have agreed a financial package (not with Arsenal). City are also interested.

So, as with many a deal, one party is feeding bum info to the Press. And while this carries on with no resolve it will only end one way.

As with Bacary Sagna, Arsenal are drawing a line in the sand. They will not be dictated to by agents and players. They’re fed up of strike threats, being told which players to sign and being shown absolutely no loyalty. They won’t be held to ransom. Whether that is right or wrong in the minds of season ticket holders paying some of the highest prices in football is open to interpretation. One thing is certain: Arsenal need to stop losing their best players.

I understand both parties are confident of reaching an agreement at around the £80k a week mark. Most Gooners would see that as a big positive having endured so many of these soul destroying contract sagas.

But as we stand there is an impasse. And if an agreement can’t be reached Walcott will be sold in January – even if Wenger would prefer to keep hold of him. The Board vetoed Wenger’s request to keep hold of Samir Nasri in favour of cashing in on an asset, and they will do the same. And people say Wenger has too much control at Arsenal Football Club…

The benefit of writing these things on a Monday is that you get to approach the game with a clear head. On Saturday evening I was deflated, it felt like we’d been beaten. Come Monday morning and reflecting on an away draw that topped off a week in which we beat our hated rivals and qualified for the latter stages of the Champions League isn’t all that bad. If you’d offered me that return ten days ago, I’d have accepted it gratefully.

Now, before I get accused of accepting mediocrity, I’m not saying for one second that I enjoyed that performance or I thought it didn’t deserve criticism. There was much to scratch your head about and serious questions need to be asked, however whingeing about a point away from home seems slightly odd to me. Yes, all three were there for the taking and we ended up with one. Not exactly inspiring but hardly a disaster either.

The game itself was dire. We looked unable to pass the ball to each other or find any rhythm with which to build a sustained attack on Villa’s goal. We were sloppy and leaden footed; just as we were when we capitulated at Carrow Road. The conditions won’t have helped. As the game ebbed away I became increasing frustrated at the lack of quick interplay and purposeful passing; on reflection the conditions explain that to a degree. Heavy rain and a heavy pitch can be a great leveller.

It was disappointing that we stuck to our usual template when the circumstances would have much better suited spreading the play and looking to feed Giroud in the box. The Frenchman has proved that he’s pretty handy when given decent service yet only 3 of our 523 completed passes were crossed into the box.

It was clear that we needed some drive to drag us out of the doldrums. Whilst many around him laboured I thought Aaron Ramsey worked tirelessly to make something happen. He had a couple of efforts at goal, one which he did well to get off and the other he should have done better with, yet his industry went largely unrewarded. Ramsey himself didn’t achieve a match defining contribution yet he appeared to be at least trying to drag us out of the mire. So much of the game was played at walking pace so it was encouraging to see someone trying to raise the intensity.

Another player who got a bit of stick was Gervinho. His performance on Saturday was clumsy yet, in a game in which we needed someone who might provide a bit of energy would it not have been more strange to leave him on the bench? The game was flat, we had Arshavin and Gervinho warming up, why not sling them on and try to make something different happen? As it happened, the best chance we had to break the deadlock in the second half came from an Arshavin cross that Gervinho couldn’t quite meet.

This is where the frenzied reaction from the media and our own fans begins to grate. The manager has to try to do something to influence the game, we don’t. We just have to sit there and agree that it’s great when it works or say that it’s shit when it doesn’t. We have the luxury of saying who we would have put on or that we would have played a different formation safe in the knowledge that we’ll never actually have to be tested on that.

Much of the game is about opinions and it would be much more dull if we didn’t express those and question the manager on his decisions, yet there are ways of doing that constructively. Accusations flung at Wenger, reportedly from a small band of travelling support and scavenging sections of the media, seem to me to be wide of the mark. There is no doubt that Wenger has a responsibility to the fans but to accuse him of not knowing what he’s doing, in my opinion, just appears silly.

I’m not going to go on a long rant about how much respect I have for Wenger and I’m not going to recite his achievements as a coach, but it would strike me as the rational thing to assume that a man who spends every waking hour watching, coaching, and analysing Football and is armed with first hand experience of his players, might be a touch better qualified to decide which substitutions to make than most of us. There are often things that the coaching staff know that we don’t. It’s also fair to say that there is more than one way to get a result.

The popular opinion says that if you need a goal you put a striker on, there is a logic to that and when that obvious step isn’t taken I think it pays to think a little bit more about why that didn’t happen than to rush to judge that Le Boss has lost it. I don’t doubt that the Giroud for Coquelin sub seemed slightly odd, but the fact that it came shortly after Giroud had had his ankle stamped on and that it afforded us the opportunity to re-jig a clearly stagnant formation was completely lost in the rush to paint Wenger as an eccentric old fool who’s finally lost it.

There is an issue with the depth of quality in our squad, no doubt, and whether or not it would have made an awful lot of difference on Saturday, it is perplexing that we don’t have another out and out striker deemed worthy of a spot on the bench. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to wait until January to fix that, and whilst I sincerely hope we do invest in a proper long term option, I don’t quite buy into the claims of negligence levelled at those who take these decisions. None of us are completely satisfied with our options up front but let’s not forget that earlier in the week many of us were revelling in the fact that our strike force appeared to be hitting their stride. This was a forward line that had collectively notched 12 goals in its previous four games; a drab 90 minutes doesn’t change all that.

As I feel duty bound to state every time I aim to keep a level head, I’m not satisfied with where we are currently but I also don’t think things are all that bad. It’s a big ask to go to Goodison Park and get three points but it’s not out of the question. Should we go there an achieve that feat it will continue what is, on paper at least, a decent upturn in form since our wobble a few weeks back. It’s obvious that we will all have axes to grind should the result not go our way but it would probably also be beneficial to take it in our stride should we return with three more points. Whilst the rush to judgement when things go badly is unseemly, it looks all the more pathetic when we’ve been patting ourselves on the back just days before.

Keep The Faith.

@LimparHalfway