Cod Almighty | Diary

Victory Through Harmony

16 February 2017

Open Diary writes: "Victory Through Harmony" evidently used to be the motto on the Arsenal badge before they went all modern and adopted the logo that they now wear at the start of the new millennium.

Last Saturday we shipped five against Crewe and last night Arsenal shipped five against rather more exalted opposition, but there you are, you see – it can happen to anyone, not just us. Motherwell, incidentally – including our former friends Richard Tait and Craig Clay – went two worse, shipping seven against Aberdeen. I'm not sure if it makes it any better but at least Tuesday night showed that we know how to shut up shop, keep a clean sheet and get back to accumulating points.

Bob Wilson was on Radio 5 Live this morning reflecting on Arsenal's demise and observing that there had been little harmony on display among their players. This got me thinking about the need for harmony and seeds of discord in the Town camp.

One bit of potential harmony on Tuesday was the re-emergence of most of the spine of last year's side, with McKeown, Pearson and Disley all together in the starting eleven. At least that's three players in the side who were well acquainted before Christmas, whereas in recent weeks it looked like it was the first time most of the team had ever met up. Apparently it was always planned that there would be lots of changes following the Crewe game, or at least according to Town's website. So, you see – it was all part of the masterplan, not some kneejerk reaction to a one-off defeat. The idea of rotating the squad is presumably filtering down to the fourth division.

Call me old-fashioned if you like, but isn't there also something worthwhile in playing a settled team, preferably with your best players in positions which play to their strengths? That way, doesn't everyone know where they are supposed to be and what the other guys around them are likely to be going to do next? Maybe we could do with less of a wholesale change-around on Saturday and build a bit of confidence and camaraderie. Even if we have to stick to this new formation.

Talking of Saturday, I see it's Mansfield with ex-Town loanee Patrick Hoban up front. As always, you fear that the inevitable will happen when a centre forward who couldn't buy a goal for you returns playing for another side.

Anyway – let's hope for nothing too radical in terms of how we set out our stall. Now is the time to build a little harmony all round. Meanwhile, people are saying Arsène Wenger isn't looking forward to going to Sutton on Monday night...