Monday Night Football - Royals facing the Firing Squad

We haven't been making picks for every Monday night but we like the look of the Premier League game this week as there may have been a slight overreaction by the layers to Arsenal's recent poor form - Kevin Pullein recently stated again, in his excellent Racing Post column, how poor runs of form tend to be worse indicators of the quality of a team than good runs (it's easier to lose than win!) & this may well be the case with the Gunners.

Reading vs Arsenal

All the talk in recent weeks has been of how terrible Arsenal are & that it may be time for the side to part ways with their French managerial maestro Arsene Wenger yet if they beat bottom placed Reading this Monday night they'll go to 5th place in the Premier League & be set to be challenging for one of those lucrative Champions League spots.

(Arsene Wenger is under intense media pressure & has demanded his players improve)

It's quite correct for Arsenal to have been derided for going out of the League Cup to League Two Bradford last week, they can't claim to have not been taking it seriously because we all saw the 11 players who lined up & proceeded to play so poorly with a listless display. The criticism will however have genuinely hurt Wenger & the vast majority of his players (Three-O Walcott may not care so much though....) & this game against the porous Reading defence could be just the tonic for the Gunners. The League Cup game here earlier in the season was maybe the most remarkable in the competition ever with the scoreline ending up 7-5 after Reading led by 4 just before half time with Walcott (a slight doubt here with injury) inspiring the Arsenal comeback.

(Not everyone's favourite but Per Mertesacker has helped organise the Arsenal defence)

That 7-5 game will mean that both sides will want to be tighter at the back here but Reading don't have the players to do that, they've kept just one clean sheet in the league & Arsenal are much more resilient in general, they've had 6 clean sheets (over 1/3 of their games) & have only conceded 16 in total. Some Reading defenders really aren't up to this level & that includes mediocre keeper Adam Federici & Shaun Cummings & Adrian Mariappa have struggled with the step up to the top league. Arsenal still need to strengthen at the keeper position but their back 4 are actually developing into a coherent group & although Per Mertesacker is always vulnerable to balls in behind he's well complemented by pacy fullbacks Gibbs & Jenkinson. Arsenal's big problem in recent weeks has been that record signing Santi Cazorla's form has dropped off, he had become their most important attacking player by far & the talented but unarguably overrated Jack Wilshere has not stepped up on his return from injury.

Reading have won just once this year, they've lost their last 5 & they conceded 3 to toothless Sunderland last week, as lacklustre as Arsenal have been we think the value lies with them to win & do it comfortably too - back them at 4/6 to pick up the win. Arsenal should be really fired up & will be aiming to salvage a bit of respect from their short journey to the suburbs, their attack should be much improved when Gervinho drops to the bench so have samll bets on scorelines of 2-0 & 3-0 at 9/1 & 16/1 for potential big pickups.

Selections:
Arsenal to beat Reading at 4/6 (General)
Arsenal to win 2-0 at 9/1 (BetVictor, Stan James & Coral)
Arsenal to win 3-0 at 16/1 (BetVictor & Stan James)